Timewaster's Guide Archive

Miss Rowling, 40, who is putting the finishing touches on the final book, said she could understand why authors kill off their main characters to stop imitators from writing sequels without their permission.

"I've never been tempted to kill him off before the end of the book because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books," she said in a rare interview with Richard and Judy on Channel 4.

"I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, 'well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels' as they call them.'

"So it will end with me and after I'd dead and gone they won't be able to bring back the character.

"Agatha Christie did that with Poirot didn't she? She wanted to finish him off herself."

Asked why she would not commit herself to saying exactly whether or not she was going to kill him, she added: 'I'm not going to commit myself because I don't want the hate mail!'

While one character will now get a reprieve, "two die that I didn't intend to die". Asked by Judy if it will be any of the much loved characters, she said: "A price has to be paid, we are dealing with pure evil here. They don't target extras do they? They go for the main characters...well I do. This is a world where some pretty nasty things can happen."

REVIEW
 Title:  Rules of Engagement
 Written by:   Stephanie Fowers
 Publisher:  Covenant
 Genre: LDS Fiction
 Year Published: 2005
 Number of Pages: 266
 Binding: Softcover
 ISBN:  1-59156-809-9
 Price: $14.95

 Reviewed by Cathryn Lane

 This story revolves around the difficulties inherent in the BYU mating game.  Everyone wants that perfect someone to bond with forever but the guys and girls of this fictional ward seem to never speak the same language.  

 Samantha, our heroine, is a BYU student living in an off campus coed apartment complex with three roommates and surrounded by a cast of characters that I suspect only exist at BYU.  Samantha admits "I'm a flibbertigibbet. . . A daydreamer, a visionary sort.  I can't keep my feet on the ground. . ."  She also feels that at 25 she is "firmly on the shelf; not just by Mormon standards, but by the world's too."  She's not graduated nor does she have any firm career goal and not only is she single, but the book opens with the end of a brief but promising relationship with Marcus, her Family Home Evening leader.  Enter the mysterious Harrison Bean, a fellow student with an English accent who suggests he can her entire apartment how to be irresistible to the opposite sex.  He promises, "With the proper training, I would chance to say you fine, upstanding ladies could become the hottest commodity in the ward.  Not only would you have a date every night, but you would have multiple dates every night."   The girls are intrigued or desperate enough to listen to his ideas.  Does he really know the secret to attracting males?  Why is Harrison willing to coach this group of ladies?  Not to spoil the outcome, but Samantha and roommates and Harrison find at least the beginning of love, because of or in spite of Harrison's advice.  

 I must confess to having been a BYU coed more than a few years ago and I couldn't decide if I was charmed and amused or appalled and dismayed at this account of BYU social life that seems to be drawn from Stephanie Fowers own experiences.  The girls of C6 were way too much like my once upon a time Provo home, King Henry Apt. 93.  The specific traditions and pranks seem to have changed but not the spirit or the nature of the high jinks or the overwhelming concern with dating and marriage.  I've started to wonder why our culture, both Western and LDS, frowns on cultures that prefer arranged marriages.  

 This seems to be Ms. Fowers first published novel and she has a wonderful voice.  The story could have benefited from some fine tuning.  We don't hear of Harrison's plot to reform the girls until chapter 14 out of 30.  The cover indicates that great plot twist comes when the men of the ward hear about the "manhunt plot" but this development seems to be anticlimactic and not make much difference in the outcome.   The charm of this novel comes from the characters and their antics but a more experienced author might have tightened the plot.  I'm still wondering what the secret information is that will get you a great guy that loves you.  I have a single daughter who's a senior at BYU.  Maybe she would like to know -  maybe not.  I look forward to hearing more from Stephanie Fowers.    

Speculative fiction author Brandon Sanderson (like Hale and Meyer a recent BYU grad) also made a national splash with his first novel, Elantris.  The fantasy tells the complex story of a godlike race whose powers have degenerated.  A reviewer at Publisher's Weekly said the novel was "outstanding . . . free of the usual genre clichés, offering something for everyone: mystery, magic, romance, political wrangling, religious conflict, fights for equality, sharp writing and wonderful, robust characters. Orson Scott Card positively gushed, calling it, "the finest novel of fantasy to be written in many
years  . . . a truly original world of magic and intrigue, and with the rigor of the best science fiction writers he has made it real at every level.  What makes this novel
unforgettable, however, is the magnificent characters he has created. True heroes who, in the face of adversity, find strength they did not know they had, make mistakes from whose consequences they do not shrink, and sacrifice to save what is worth loving in
their world."