1. The first was The Golden Rule of Sequels as described by the famed 1990s drive-in movie reviewer Joe Bob Briggs – “If you’re going to make a sequel, do it right and make the same damn movie all over again.”

2. I heard author Nancy Peacock (“Life Without Water” and “Home Across the Road”) say once that after spending so much time with her characters it was difficult to let them go. She had never planned on writing sequels but she understood the desire to do so.

(having spent some time with characters in my own book i can understand Peacock’s statement)

in general, the writing biz is just that, a business. it’s not the best writing that gets published, it’s the writing that conglomerates think they can make the most money from. (this makes me feel only slightly better about my pile of rejection notices)

my understanding of the Star Wars saga was that Lucas had the entire 9 movie series mapped out in his mind before he started the first (4th) film. that having been said, 4 was a great, complete (beginning, middle and end) film, 5 was all middle (no beginning, no end) and 6 was a huge sell-out let down.

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