Shannon Messenger Interviews - Keeper of the Lost Cities

I decided to watch as many Shannon Messenger interviews as I could find so that I could hear certain comments for myself.  This post is spoiler free, so it's safe to read if you haven't read through the entire set.

Shannon mentions that the Keeper series is "X-Men meets Lord of the Rings."  Legalos was the inspiration for Sophie.  She wanted a girl to be the protagonist, and she also wanted a large cast of characters so that the protagonist is not the only one saving the day.

Shannon originally planned to be a screenwriter, and her training in movies shaped how she writes.  This is why the Keeper books are so dialogue heavy.  In the later books, I feel that the conversations are way too long, but I concede that children likely really enjoy the endless teasing and banter.  For adult readers, it's a bit much, but the series is aimed at children.  

Shannon Messenger Interview with James Ponti

Shannon had an initial three-book deal, and the series was not a runaway success.  As Shannon finished book 3, she asked whether she needed to wrap it up or whether she could get a fourth book.  She was granted a fourth book but was told that was it.  She said that the same thing happened with book 5, and then the series began to gain momentum, reaching the New York Times bestsellers list.  After that, it became her decision on how many books to write.

Shannon Messenger 2017 Book Signing

At the beginning of the above video, Shannon says that she had trouble selling the first Keeper book.  She was unknown, and middle-grade fantasy is hard to break into.  The protagonist is almost always a boy.  Also, Shannon was told that her book was too long.

Interview with Adrian Beck

Once I had an agent and we went to shop the series, I ... told her that I now could see this being 8, 9, 10 books.  She was just like, "Okay, so we need to talk about the realities of publishing.  You're a debut author.  No one's going to buy 10 books from you."  It would have been nice, but I got very lucky that they were even willing to buy 3 and ... we had to wait and see from there how the series would do. 

First, I was a little bit like ... how am I going to do that.  And then I realized that I had a lot of villains and so the easiest way ... was to just hold back on the villains until I knew how many books I was going to get to have.  So that’s why the first three ... only have a couple of villains and then we get a couple more in the next, [books] 4 and 5, and then definitely get some more in [books] 6, 7, and 8.  And so, everyone sort of wondered like had I just been making up new villains to stretch out the series?  And it's like, no, I was planning those all along...  

Publishing's a business, you know, and so we had to kind of wait and then when they bought Book 5, [I was told that] many series are 5 books [total].  And I just got very lucky that Book 5 was the one that hit the New York Times list and the series had really started to get legs under it and so they said, "You can keep going."  And so then we had ... book 6 and 7, ... then they were just like however many you want.  And so now I’m in this really nice position where I’m getting to let the story sort of dictate how many books there will be instead of having to arbitrarily say, "There will be this many."  

This explains we have no inkling about certain villains and plot points during the first few books.  Shannon didn't know if she would be able to tell the complete story.  By necessity, the plot had to be rolled out gradually.

In this next video, it's fun to witness the audience's reaction when Shannon says that she knows who Sophie's biological parents are.  Of course she does!

Shannon Messenger Tour

Just like I know who Sophie's biological parents are.  You guys think I could be this many books into the series and not know that and just... pick randomly?!  I have to know these things...  I just don't have to tell them to you guys.

This last quote is about the ending of #9 Stellarlune.  The quote is vague and doesn't spoil anything, but if you're like me, then you don't want to see even vague commentary about a book that you haven't read yet.  If this describes you, then stop reading this post now.

Stellarlune Interview

The ... reveal that happens at the end of this is something that is integral to the series.  It's one of the darkest secrets of the Lost Cities, and it’s something that I always knew existed and I always wanted to address but I just wasn’t sure if I was going to get there.  And so now that the series has become as successful as it is, I get to have the number of books that the series needs to really tell the full story.  It was like, okay, we're doing this then ...  It’s just this moment that you know in many ways, the journey getting there has been full of surprises ...  I also, I fully knew that if I could—if I had my way—that this is where we were going to and so it was really cool to finally write that moment where ... the veils drop and we get this reveal and ... I hope they like this! 

I am so intrigued by this!  This development will undoubtedly change everything.  It's neat that it was planned all along and kept from us until Shannon knew that she would have enough books to tell the full story.