Dear Ellen,
First of all, sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to your email – life got away from me for a while! Thank you so much for taking the time to e-mail me.
Here’s the story on the ending: it was the only possible honest ending for In the Woods. Rob is the kind of person who, whenever he comes close to taking some irrevocable leap, runs as fast as he can in the other direction. He’s so badly damaged that he can’t risk taking that leap, in case it smashes him into a million pieces. So when I got towards the end of In the Woods, I had three choices: turn my narrator into a totally different person in the last chapter, in order to force in a solution (cheap and cheesy); do a deus ex machina and have someone else pop up with the solution (cheap and cheesy); or stay true to the character and just write the best book I could, even if it didn’t fit the genre conventions.
I do know that endings are very much a matter of personal taste. Some people would be absolutely furious at an ending that betrayed the character in order to stick to the formula, while other people prefer endings that follow the conventions and provide closure. There was no way in the world I could write something that would suit both of those tastes. I figured the only thing I could do was make the book as good as I possibly could...and then duck!
About the mystery of what happened to Rob, Peter and Jamie... I’m genuinely not sure if it’ll end up getting resolved at some stage. I’m hoping to keep writing about the same general bunch of main characters for a while, though – I’ve got interested in them! I don’t have a concrete plan, or anything, but who knows what loose ends might get tied up along the way...
All the best,
Tana
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This email was received from your DynaForm located at
name:
Ellen Jennings
email:
e.jennings@comcast.net
query:
My book club discussed In the Woods last night and we had a great discussion. The ONE problem we couldn\'t get past was the lack of resolution about what happened to Peter and Jamie in the woods in 1984. I promised the group I would contact you to see if you were planning to write a book wrapping up the Adam/Rob Ryan 1984 mystery. Some of our group were convinced that Adam was somehow involved in their disappearance, but most of us couldn\'t imagine that he, with all his faults, would be capable of hurting his little friends.
I really hope to hear back from you.
Thanks,
A HUGE Fan
Ellen Jennings
Readers\' Advisor
Cook Memorial Public Library District
Libertyville IL
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