Sequel Mania

SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK

 

            I was deluged with requests to write a sequel to my first novel. I’m not even exaggerating: There were a few dozen requests. For me, that’s as much a deluge as what used to come through my kitchen ceiling. People like the characters, and want to hang around them for awhile longer, an idea that’s launched many good story continuations.

            Sequels aren’t a new idea. I’ve often mentioned The Wizard of Oz, which started out as a book 39 years before Judy Garland slipped on her ruby slippers (don’t get me started on the color changes in the movie). L. Frank Baum’s American fantasy was so popular that he wrote 13 sequels, and when he died others took up the magical torch – there were some 40 official Oz books in all. Take that, J. K. Rowling.

            But Oz suffered the same fate many book, movie, and TV series do: Some of the Oz books were wonderful, and some were … not.           

( Sequels have launched more bad story continuations than good ones. Here are some movie sequels which were, shall we say, smelly: )