Author Spotlight - Michelle Levigne - Teasers vs Spoilers

Don't you hate it when someone does a book review, and they basically give you the whole plot of the story? They tell you the names of all the characters, the history between the hero/heroine and their nemeses, the "black moment," and the names of all their children from the epilogue.

What's the use of reading the book, when you already know how it's going to end, and you know the most important points in the journey to get there?
Some may argue that romance guarantees a happy ending, so you know how it's going to end, so what does it matter if someone tells you all the gory or glory details?
It's the JOURNEY that matters in romance -- and yes, in a lot of other genres, too. And I hate it when the whole journey is revealed.

When my Dad was alive, I hated watching movies with him, because at some point he would turn to me or Mom or someone else in the room and say, "So, what's going to happen next?" He wanted to know -- which is fine, but don't ruin it for the rest of us when you find out, okay? And he would ask when he knew it was a movie we hadn't seen before, or a new episode of a TV show.

That's what we call spoilers, and it doesn't "make things better" when someone posts in all-caps SPOILER ALERT and then spaces down ten or twenty lines to create a blank space before discussing a movie they just saw or a book they just read. Because try as you might to not read it, you'll end up reading it. And then all the fun of "the first time" goes out of the movie or book or whatever.

So, that being said ... why in the world did I go ahead and talk about events in other books in the year-long correspondence between Stacy and Drake in "Invitation to a Wedding"?

To tease you and tempt you and make you wonder how a problem was going to be resolved -- or even more irritating, how the heck that situation got started in the first place.

Because Stacy only mentions the aftermath of something, or an odd event, and because she's on the outside, or she's living in her "now," there's no way for her to give away important details that will ruin it for the reader.

At least, that's the plan!

Because hopefully -- she says, with fingers and toes crossed, which makes it really hard to write and walk -- you'll have no idea whatsoever what event belongs in what upcoming book of Year Two. And yet, when you read the book someday in the future (please, you will read the other books, won't you?), when you get to the event Stacy mentioned in her email, you'll hae one of those "Oh, yeah, now I remember" moments. And you'll feel connected, included in the story, someone with an inside pass and inside knowledge.

At least, that's the plan. Please do contact me through my web site or one of my blogs, and let me know if it works, okay?

FIND MICHELLE AT:

www.Mlevigne.com
www.Tabor-Heights-Today.blogspot.com
www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com

buy:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-383/Tabor-Heights-Year-Two-cln-/Detail.bok