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I just finished the 3rd book, Smells like Finn Spirit…I have loved the entire series. Are there plans for a 4th book? Please say there is.
Wow, thanks! Unfortunately, at this time there is not any official plan for a 4th book, mostly due to my decision but also due to publishing realities. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be one eventually.
I certainly have some very high-level thoughts about future books, involving the gods, an escalating rebellion by the feybloods/brightbloods, a bit of time travel, the evolution of Dawn and Finn and their dynamic together, and the possible handoff to Finn’s offspring, with titles like Finn Fancy Fey Fighter, Phinaeus Fancius Godslayer, and Finn Fancy Forever.
But alas, while the series sold well enough that I earned back my advance on all three books and then some (a pleasant surprise for a humorous urban fantasy by an unknown author released in expensive hardcover), and my editor was incredibly supportive, the series was not a runaway hit, and so the publisher was not eagerly asking for further books. This is just the norm for the majority of series from big publishers, sadly.
And, frankly, I did not ask or push for an answer from them on whether they wanted more books.
I’d just finished writing books 2 and 3 from conception to finish on deadlines, which I felt strained my ability to write the quality of story and level of humor I wanted. I’m proud of the results, don’t get me wrong, but Finn Fancy was a happy accident. I wrote book 1 for fun, with no thoughts on future books and with no experience writing books to deadline, so I did not enter the book deadline treadmill as well-prepared as I hope to do on future series. So when I delivered book 3, the idea of not having to jump immediately into trying to create book 4 out of thin air was a bit of a relief.
It was an incredibly hard decision not to fight for the series or seek an alternate publisher. I truly do love writing them, and continue to get lots of feedback like yours asking for more of them. And after spending more than 5 years with Finn and family they are alive to me, whispering in my ear to tell their further adventures. But between the writing and promotion, with the last two books on deadline, my creative soul wanted to stretch a bit, refill the creative well, and to write something new.
So while I definitely miss spending time with my Finn Fancy family, it will likely be a couple of years at least before I revisit them. But revisit them I hope to do at some point, even if I have to self-publish their further adventures just for myself and the other Finn Fancy fans.