Why I write series

• Notes from Kathryn

There are some lives of characters that cannot be contained in a single book. There are some stories that cannot come to an end in a single book.

Why write a series?

The arc of certain characters’ lives seem to extend beyond the usual boundaries. We want to see these characters in a longer span of time, to see how they grow, change, and gather strength as they become older. Such has been the situation for me with The Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Wolves of The Beyond, Horses of the Dawn, and Daughters of the Sea. It’s very exciting for me as an author to dig deeper into a character. There are always surprises. For example, one of the biggest surprises for me happened with Otulissa in the Guardians of Ga’Hoole. Otulissa was a smart, but bossy, kind of know-it-all owl but over time she really matured into a truly wise owl with profound empathy and genuine emotions. She became a leader in the best sense of the word. For an author this an amazingly happy turn in the arc of a character that could only happen when given the space of a series.

But perhaps the best example of why I write series books is book The Rise of A Legend. Three, maybe four years after I had finished the series I started to feel that it was somehow incomplete. There was something missing. It was a young kid who pointed the way for me. Evan Weaver, who had stated reading the series when he was in middle school. He had written me often over the years. By this time he was in high school and asked if I had ever thought of writing a book about Ezylryb, the crusty old warrior scholar who readers met early on in the series. What was he like as a kid? Would I write a book about this he asked. Why had I never thought of this? I stayed up most the night working out a plan for the book. Again as I said above, this kind of character development could only happen in a series.