Chapter Sixty-Three

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WEDDING

Well, Sarene finally gets her wedding. I hope the women don’t kill me for showing it from Raoden’s bored viewpoint rather than Sarene’s excited one. However, there were a lot of things I needed to go over in a relatively short period of time here.

When I was younger, I always got mad at authors for having denouements that were too short. Perhaps I’d be angry at myself, if I were to read the book. (I’ve always wondered what Brandon the teenage reader would have to say about my current works.) Regardless, I’ve since become a fan of terse endings. I try to wrap things up thematically while still pointing out all the different ways the plot could go, if more were to happen.

Stories never really end. Any author will tell you this–we’ve always got more to say. That doesn’t mean that there will certainly be a sequel to this book. (See below) It just means that the characters live on in my mind, and that I want to give a sense that the world continues.

LOOSE THREADS

You’ll notice, therefore, that I pile on the lose threads here. The most important one, of course, is the concept that Fjorden has gained access to the Dor (presumably recently.) The Dakhor are a newer development–Wyrn was just getting ready to use them against Elantris when the city fell on its own. (Dilaf wasn’t the only Dakhor plant inside Arelon. But, those are stories for another time.) Anyway, I think I gave myself plenty of sequel room here. There are the questions about the Dor, about Fjorden, and about the Seons.

That said, I can’t honestly promise that I’ll do an ELANTRIS sequel. When I was writing during this period of my life (some seven years ago now), I was trying to create as many first books as possible. I was sending them all off to publishers, trying to get someone to bite on one of them so I could start a series. However, since I was a nobody, I had to write each book as a stand-alone as well. Publishers, I was told, like to get books from new authors that could stand alone or launch into a series. That way, they’re not committing to anything drastic, but can monopolize on popularity if it comes.

ELANTRIS turned out to be one of the best stand-alones I did. I kind of like how it doesn’t really need anything more to make it feel complete. And, I’ve got so many stories that I want to tell, I don’t know that I’ll be able to get back to this one. I guess it will depend upon how well ELANTRIS sells, and whether or not Tor pushes me toward writing more books in this world.

Anyway, I’ve got plenty of things I could talk about if I do come back.

END

Oh, and I apologize for the cheesy last lines of the chapter. The felt right. I keep trying to cut them, but a piece of myself knows that there’s a place for cheese–and this it. So, they remain.