she needs to know that the main/key characters are safe--that nothing too bad will happen to them during the book and she wants my friend to write her and let her know if she's going to continue down this path.

Wow.

And here I've been pondering putting pen to paper (since I'm not seeing any obvious email addresses) to write to Diana Wynne Jones and tell her how utterly her kids' books rock, even rereading them 25 years later. Just finished rereading Witch Week, and feeling like going on a mad binge. I'd like to reread Spellcoats and Power of Three in particular, and The Homeward Bounders, and I understand that Fire and Hemlock is jam-packed with The Four Quartets references! Which I totally missed at the time...but which may explain why I instantly loved that particular poem(s), and why it felt like coming home upon first reading.

The reader whose letter you describe, however, is clearly a freaking Martian. Ack. I sort of want to bludgeon her to death (or at least pain) with a couple of Iain (M) Banks books.

...I'm trying to be reasonable, and accept that some (many?) people want their fiction to be pure comfortfood - some kind of narrative equivalent of Twinkies. And there is no reason why they should HAVE to enjoy green Thai curry, or creme brulle, or bitter chocolate, or a shot of cinnamon-flavoured stolli. They want Twinkies, and heaven forbid that they should find a burrito or a chocolate-coated banana hiding inside the Twinkie wrapper.

...er, perhaps it would be wise to abandon my metaphor at this point, since it has been pretty much beaten to death. Ahem. Still - I'm TRYING to allow them to want saccharine rubbish that never inspires any emotion more complex than a warm little glow of satisfaction.

But mostly, I'm still wanting to bludgeon them with a copy of Othello or something.

This is an excuse to bring out my Carmen story again. Opera critic at a new Carmen premiere, meets a young couple at intermission. They tell her they are new to opera and just in love the music and scenery and everything.

Critic runs into them again after the show ends and asks how the like it now tha they've seen the whole show. The couple turn to her, eyes wide with horror and choke out: "he killed her!".

Yeah-- she really goes some dark places with her books and it's not going to be getting any better with the next one. I love that about her.

I'm dying for a book about Alaric, and Riley's sister (can't remember her name).

There is a midpoint between preferring pablum or pain and angst. Some of us don't revel in suffering and unrelenting hopelessness. I can cope with "real" just fine, thanks. But if there's not an inkling that there's not going to be some sort of victory at the end--it may just be moral--then I won't be going on that trip.

This same friend also got shit for her series from paranormal romance fans because she had the utter crust and temerity to make the vampires, for the most part, eeeeeeeeeeee-vil.

Excuse, has anyone seen my eyes? They seemed to have rolled out of my head.

Critic runs into them again after the show ends and asks how the like it now tha they've seen the whole show. The couple turn to her, eyes wide with horror and choke out: "he killed her!".

Typo, I think this is more or less what happened to me with the book that just got canceled (it was loosely based on Carmen). My primary editor knew the story and loved it, but I don't think the other people in the publishing house did-- so there were aspects of my lead character that in the words of the publisher, made her "unlikable." (She's very independent to the point of being a loner and is somewhat acerbic.) But as I said to my agent, "Um,, hello, Carmen? At least my lead (Soledad) isn't an amoral slut who steals and breaks men's hearts for sport."

But if there's not an inkling that there's not going to be some sort of victory at the end--it may just be moral--then I won't be going on that trip.

That's the thing, though, Connie-- Alyssa doesn't go down the dark and twisty road just for the sake of it and because it's romance, the main characters do get their happy at the end. She's not deviated from this in two books and two novellas-- the emotional payoff is there. So I'm willing to go along for the ride with her. I was just so struck by the fact that this reader said she loved so much about the series, yet was unwilling to trust that Alyssa would ultimately give the characters the HEA. I mean, for me, as a reader, the payoff is generally so much better the higher the stakes and odds overcome.

I'm dying for a book about Alaric, and Riley's sister (can't remember her name).

Quinn. Everyone wants that book. And IIRC, that story is about three books off, maybe four. Justice comes out next, then Alexios, then Brennan, then I think Alaric and Quinn will get their story. Unless she decides to change up Brennan and Alaric.

Slightly spoiler speculation below for anyone who might have interest in reading the series but hasn't yet.

Me, I'm just perverse enough that I'd give Alaric and Quinn a brief, fleeting moment of happiness, then have something happen to one of them. Story-wise, I have a hard time seeing how they could have a happy ending, they're both such damaged individuals.

But this is probably why I haven't yet succeeded in being published in adult romance and why I will most likely never write a series.

Oh, I agree -- Alaric can't have a happy ending with anyone, and especially not Quinn. It doesn't have to be a *traumatic* ending, a violent ripping them apart, but they can't be together for long; it just wouldn't work and still be true to the character(s).

Everything Will Be Fine For My Woobie And His Heroine, So Please Don't Write Anything That Might Make Me Worry, Even If You Resolve It In The End, Because I Don't Like That Scary Feeling For Even A Few Chapters.

I admit, I do enjoy this sort of thing now and then, in certain moods. Usually when reality is Not Going Well, and I need to believe that someone, somewhere is actually happy.

Wouldn't want it on a regular basis, though. And would only get upset if something was marketed as a comfy literary blankie and turned out to be very otherwise. And even then, I'd beef at the marketing department, not the author.

and accept that some (many?) people want their fiction to be pure comfortfood - some kind of narrative equivalent of Twinkies.

Hence the popularity of the Twilight series.