Skulduggery pleasant fan book

Derek landy massive interview

This interview was between laura jordan and the golden god. She posted it on her blog.

Me: Derek. How does it feel now that Skulduggery is over?

Derek: I've been back from touring for about two weeks now and acclimatising to normal life, such as it is, and for the first time I'm looking at a life without Skulduggery. It's weird and unsettling. I feel glad that I managed to do what I wanted to do. I feel happy that I didn't fumble the ball at the last moment. You write a nine book series and unless the final book is up to par, then what's the point of the other eight? I've read plenty of series where it starts off brilliantly and then it flatlines. I don't think Skulduggery did that. I think we went out on a high note. I'm proud of the books.

Me: What are some of your favourite reactions to the end of Dying Of The Light?

Derek: I've gotten used to releasing a book and then watching the anguish, heartache and the heartbreak when I do horrible things to people's favourite characters, and now it's just standard. It's never less than enjoyable, but it's standard. With Dying Of The Light my favourite reaction is the reaction to the twist at the end. You think it's going one way and then it spins. The reaction to that, the screams and the wails, is brilliant. Readers have taken selfies of themselves in tears, and then once they realise what I've actually done... I can hear their curses from here. It's lovely. The amount of stories I've been told about readers getting to a certain chapter near the end and slamming the book closed, throwing it across the room, not picking it up again for a few hours or even a day or two, because they're so distraught and tormented by feels. But then eventually they do pick it up again, because they have to finish it, and then they realise what I've done, and then they hate me even more. I love it.

Me: And how do you compare those reactions to the ones you got after Death Bringer when the big secret was revealed?

Derek: The reaction to that revelation was uniform. It was shock and it was dismay. It was disbelief. It was as if each reader got to that point and they got a punch in the chest. They had to sit down and absorb it, and go "what just happened?" They had to revaluate everything they thought they knew. That kind of twist is very effective, but it's deadly serious. There was no one reading the twist in Death Bringer and laughing about it.

Whereas the reactions to some of the things in The Dying Of The Light, absolutely some of it was shock, some of it was "I can't believe he did that" and heartbreak, trauma, all very fine and expected. And then there are some twists that make you laugh, and make you grin, and make you curse me in a nice way. The twist in Dying Of The Light is me playing with the reader because I know the reader. The online presence, the online community of Skulduggery readers is extraordinarily vibrant as everyone knows, so I keep tabs on the forums, and the comments, and the blogs, and Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

I saw theories, and people guessing and projecting what they thought was going to happen in the final book, and it becomes a very tricky tightrope to walk to give them what they need, but not to give it to them in a way they'd expect. Book nine was all about me navigating that tightrope, and I think I pulled it off.

Me: Did Dying Of The Light have any other possible endings?

Derek: Yes.

Me: Can you tell us?

Derek: I can't really. I didn't know until I wrote it what the ending was. I knew what the last scenes were, and what the last chapter was, but I didn't know exactly how it ended. My options were: happy ending, sad ending, tragic ending, traumatic ending, funny ending. I chose the ending I chose because that's where the story and the characters were going. The readers expect certain things, because they know how bloodthirsty I am, and they know how merciless I am. I know they know that. They know that I know they know that. It's a massive loop that never ends, and so you just try your best to give them a totally natural and organic ending. Not to change it to spite them. It has to be natural. It has to be the only ending you could possibly imagine, and the only way you will know that as a writer is when you finish it and you go "ah, so this is how it ends."