Today (well, tonight) a fan wrote to me.  She said, more or less, "Is Elena going to become a vampire again?  I'd really like that.  Could you tell the ghostwriter to put it into her books?"

I may seriously lose my mind.  I can't tell the ghostwriter anything.  First, I'm not allowed to.  Second, if I were allowed to speak to her, what would I say?  I know who she is.  I knew her before I chose her as the person to carry the series on after I had written either three or six more books, whatever it took to get to the endgame.  When I first started writing the new Vampire Diaries trilogy that most people have read by now: Nightfall, Shadow Souls, and Midnight, she was my editor at Harper. Now, Alloy and whoever is making the decisions at HarperTeen have decided that not only may I not make suggestions to the ghostwriter, but that I may not see the manuscript until it is finished and I may not comment on it (except to empty air) at that point.

From them, I understand it.  But this woman had been my editor. We used to write cheery little notes to each other each week The Vampire Diaries was on the bestseller list. I used to call her my little bird caroling good news.   And I picked her--I offered to make her a Bible of how the characters should be when I'd finished writing the books.  But when the books were taken from me and given to her, she never emailed or called me to say, "Lisa, I'm sorry things turned out this way."  Had our positions been reversed . . . well, as she knows better than anyone, I would have done more than email or call.

Do you know that The Vampire Diaries has been published in thirty-six (36) languages?  And published in many more countries, because of course some countries share languages or publish in English, like India, because they have many dialects.  I got a spreadsheet showing how the new trilogy, The Hunters, was already bought in so many places . . . 

I want so badly to have input in the new books.  And I'm completely shut out.  Except for my name.  My name will be on the covers, with a small "Created By" above it.  And it will not be any part of my creation.  After Phantom, which I did write, has been made unrecognizable.