Novellas

I have read many. What exactly are they? Are they ideas that fizzle out? Are they the “Stay tuned, the rest of the story coming soon?” I wonder.

This week, I downloaded a book that I had in my library for a very long time. I was extremely disappointed when my nooK opened the book it was only 130 pages. “Ugh,” I thought. “I’ll be done with this in an hour, and then what am I going to read?”

However, this one was quite good (where a lot of them are not). My only complaint is that it left me wanting more, as lots of novellas often do. The story moved way too fast, and me being an author myself, I felt that there was way more story to be told. I was compelled to “fill in” the missing parts. The couple in the story went from wanting each other, to having mad crazy relations, to planning a life together all within an hour. Frustration set in and I wonder why people do this.

Personally, I try to give my readers the whole story. Ups, downs and everything between. Giving them time to get to know and love (or hate) my characters.

Needing Nita by Norah Wilson was a fantastic read. She pulled me in from the first page, and like I said, I finished it within an hour or so. And I wanted to know more about Craig and Nita. I would have loved to read about the courtroom flirting. The chase. So, maybe Norah’s novella was to introduce herself to new readers.

Laurel K. Hamilton has a couple of novellas in her Anita Blake series. In Micah, she fills us in on the back story of one of her already well known characters. I appreciated that. After I read it, I had a better understanding of why Micah was the way he was. Yay!

But I still would love to know why people tease us with novellas. Help me out.

Until next time,
Kayresia