Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

Folks, this is the thread where those of you who've read all of Never Ceese (or enough of it to know the outcome of particular plot lines) can post comments that might otherwise ruin the suspense for those who aren't that far into the book yet. So, post away!

To get the ball rolling, how do you feel about the ending, and cliffhanger endings in general? I'm hooked (or harpooned!) for the sequel; but are there any readers out there who'd prefer nice, neat endings that tie everything up with a pretty bow? :-)

I loved the vampire bats. Like several other pieces of the myths surrounding vampires & werewolves, this set legend on its ear.

I so wanted to work vampire bats into my story. I wasn't sure how to when I realized that they were as small as they were (no bigger than your thumb) and didn't really bite at all but merely nibbled their prey and then stayed around to "lick" the blood out. Hardly sounds ferocious at all! But multiply anything remotely uncomfortable by hundreds and well . . . that could make them seem a bit more disturbing. LOL

Werner, I think it depends on how the cliffhanger is presented. I read a book by James Patterson awhile back that ended in a cliff hanger that was obviously a ploy to get the reader to buy the next book. I hated it. It really pi**ed me off. However, if the story is pretty much wrapped up but there are some teasers of things to come that works for me especially I enjoyed the book.

Twoina, Never Ceese isn't wrapped up at the end. The sequel, Forever Richard, would be very much part of a continuing storyline, though in this case I didn't think that was a ploy as such. (It does effectively lock you in for the sequel, though!)

The vampire bats were actually an element that didn't work so well for me --they're native to South America, so I couldn't see how they got to England and New York? And besides, it seemed odd that they're attracted to vampires who needed to feed; wouldn't they more logically be attracted to vampires who've just fed, and reek of all that tasty warm blood? :-) Vampires and bats do go together in some strands of the old folklore, but there they're associated with the regular-sized bats native to the Old World. The Undead were sometimes thought to be able to shapeshift into bat form --though I suppose that could be a challenge to credibility to use in a book. Like changing a human into a frog, as Cassie Nightingale observes in The Good Witch, it might be difficult because of the size difference. :-)

Yep. That was the trick for me, Warner. And that's why I didn't worry so much about making it entirely believable. All the things that crossed your mind, like not being native in certain areas where they are showing up, I thought about. ;) That's what I love about writing fantasy though. For most readers, you only have to make it believable enough. Like vampires changing forms into bats.

And no, my cliffhangers (yes, sadly for some Forever Richard is an even bigger jar than Never Ceese) isn't a ploy. Initially Never Ceese was going to be a stand alone book. When I sent it off to my editor though, there were quite a few more chapters beyond where she felt the story should end. She said leaving the extra chapters would be like starting another story. She told me to either work the chapters in or perhaps save them for a sequel. I couldn't tie them in without being over the word count most traditional publishers would look at and so I decided to have a sequel. How many will there be. Depends on how each book goes I suppose.

And vampire bats hone in on the vampire's lure, Werner and that pulls them out of their native environment. Must I explain everything. LOL

Okay, Sue, now that you've explained it, it's perfectly reasonable. :-) In my novel, my vampire heroine can take bat form, and does on one occasion, but that also has an implicit, perfectly reasonable and logical explanation --it's magic, for heaven's sake! :-) You're right that vampire fans as a group aren't too picky about rational believability. That's why we don't obsess over things like Isaac Asimov's question as to why vampires' diet of red blood doesn't produce an overdose of iron....

Hey, you're right. Did you know that's why iron pills are so ginormous? It isn't because it needs to be that big, it's because too much can kill you and making the pills sooooo large keeps kids from swallowing them, or so the assumption goes. I always thought they HAD to be that big until I learned otherwise.

And that's right, your vampire woman did turn into a bat!!! Givin' me a hard time-hmph. I've got mine levitating though and I'm still wondering how far I should go to explain that, or if I should worry about doing so. But levitating vampires have always been a given for me. As you say, some things they just do!!! LOL

Yes, I wouldn't worry about "explaining" the ability to levitate. In a lot of vampire lore and fiction, the power to levitate just goes with the vampiric territory. :-)