Why, yes, this is more about The Rifter Series by Ginn Hale. Get used to hearing about it. I’m a little obsessed.
I haven’t read anything about how long it too Ginn Hale to write the series, but it had to be long time because it was definitely a behemoth. I can’t say anything bad at all about the series or how it ended, but I will say that the last 25% of the final book seemed to evidence a bit of writer’s fatigue. Just a smidgen. Not enough to make the series less than the masterpiece it is, but I felt it. Ginn Hale had been so incredibly thorough through the rest of the series. Every scene was paced perfectly and in the very last of the final book, I can’t say the scenes were quite as thorough.
But, here’s the thing, I couldn’t blame her. As a writer, I definitely experience fatigue. In fact, I’m in the middle of it right now. I’m so fatigued and feeling a lot of internal pressure to really press myself forward at a rate that isn’t right or fair to the story, mainly because I feel like it will never end. Reading through The Rifter books, I kept thinking to myself, “I bet right about now, she started to think, ‘WTF was I thinking writing this thing? I’m not even close to the end. It’s going to take the rest of my life and everyone will hate it, no one will read it, and what am I even doing?'”
Maybe the reality is that she never had those thoughts at all. If that’s the case, don’t tell me. Because I’ve taken a lot of heart from her slow and steady thoroughness, and the fact that she didn’t give up during my imagined moments of exhaustion, fear, and frustration. Thank you, Ginn Hale, for not giving up, by the way. Just in case you did have those moments.
Enough rambling. Go buy The Rifter Series. It’s worth every penny and she earned them.
Leta Blake 