I agree with you and that is certainly an option I have with
Harry Bosch. I have planted many seeds about Harry in
Vietnam, about Harry as a street cop during the Patty Hearst
and SLA period, etc. I have gathered string on these times
and events. I've done the research so that I could write the
book. Its just a matter of getting to them. But having said
all of that, I think the idea of writing in read time is such
a gift. It gives me the power to reflect on what is happening
in Los Angeles or our society at large almost as it is
happening. I remember that my book City of Bones was
published 7 months after 9/11 and it had many references to
it and its impact on the other side of the country and on the
country as a whole. To me it made the book more than a
mystery and an entertainment. It made it a little tiny mirror
reflecting a little bit about what was going on in the world.
And that is one of the reasons I have never stopped the
forward progression of the series to go back in time. As I
said in one of the other answers, the forward progression
will hit its limits shortly and then there will be time to go
back.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "cptpipes2000"
<cptpipes@...> wrote:
>
> John Lau said:
> > in The Black Ice however, you peg Bosch's year
of birth as 1950, making him
> > 58 this year. I don't know if LAPD has
mandatory retirement at a certain age.
> > you've had Bosch retire from the police force
and continue his personal
> > mission once already
> >
> > so I guess what my question is, do you now have
an actual end of the series
> > in mind? and if so, are you working toward that
end?
>
> I am a fan of series books. It is the reader's
favorite dream: a story that never ends.
>
> That said, there is beauty in a cycle that has a
specific destination and reaches it. The
Lew
> Griffin series is my favorite example.
>
> I wish more series authors would do like Block did
with WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL
> CLOSES and tell a story about a series character
that took place earlier. Pelecanos
(among
> others) has made me a bit of a fetishist for books
set in a specific year. Instead of
setting
> their stories in the generic present, I wish more
authors would tell go back to earlier
years
> with their characters.
>
> I just remembered: Reed Farrell Coleman has done
this so far with his Moe Prager series.
>
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