Knowing When To Stop

     As I've mentioned before, I have many favorite authors whose new books I wait for anxiously and buy and read immediately.  There have been a few over the years whom I have stopped reading, simply because I moved on to other books and authors.  Most of these are series writers and books, because I'm a huge fan of series. There have been a few I stopped reading simply because I got tired of the characters or the storylines deteriorated and the books just weren't as good.
     This has recently happened to one of my favorite writers. Her last release was a huge disappointment and the very latest one is even more so. And it shouldn't be that she's run out of plot ideas or storylines. Her characters and their world are so well developed and multifaceted that she could take them in dozens of facinating directions. But she hasn't and isn't. I'm curious as to why.
     I have one favorite author, and know of another, who is quite popular (although I am not a fan), whose series books are fabulous. This author's stand-alone books are simply cookie cutter stories with slightly different settings, but essentially the same plot. Even the main and secondary characters have all the same traits; only the names and physical descriptions are different.
      This tells me that no one is immune. Even great writers run out of new ideas or have series with great potential that simply run down.   Some of my favorite authors have discontinued (after nicely wrapping up the storylines) certain series that I would love to read more of.  Presumably the latter knew what was happening and decided to quit while they were ahead.
     I write two seperate series; one a series of books and one is a series of short stories. I hope that when one begins to -or is even in danger of -deteriorating, that I will know and have the sense to wind it up. But will I?
     Maybe I won't need to. I take heart from my other favorites whose series are still going strong even after almost 20 books. I would love to think mine could be the same, but if not, I want to be aware of it and move on to something new before I disappoint my readers.

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