Moonsong discussion

L.J. Smith

Wikipedia claims "The trilogy after The Return trilogy, The Hunters, will be written by a ghostwriter. L. J. signed a "work for hire" contract, which means Alloy owns the copyrights. Alloy fired Smith for unknown reasons and replaced her with a ghostwriter."

Am I the only one outraged by this? How on earth could they fire the original creator of the stories?! For good or bad, we have loved L.J. Smith's writing, and for better or worse, I, at the least, want her to finish what she started. Not some ghostwriter who has just been hired to somehow bring the series to a 'satisfying' conclusion.

It's her world, her fantasy and she deserves to end it as she pleases!

HOW COULD THEY FIRE L.J. SMITH!!!!??? SHES LIKE MY FAVORITE AUTHOR!!!!!!!!

My thoughts exactly!!

That is so horrible! She is such an amazing author!

OK, I know that this may not make some of you happy, but I have quite enjoyed the last one which she did not write. After the first series, that she wrote in the 90's, they seemed to go downhill for me. Kind of out there. Felt like was reading a tome. But I do agree this is the worst cover that they have ever made. And L.J. has written some great things.

I'v decided to end my reading with "The Hunters: Phantom" as that seems to be the last book that L. J. Smith had a hand on whether it was indirectly or not. After reading some reviews on "Moonsong" that did it for me. If a writter, even a ghost writter, is only writing what's being dictated to them and it isn't even their original idea, the story line is being directed over into left field. True fans of this series should boycott these newer books in protest! Perhaps books sells will plummet and therefore no profits for the Publisher.

I hope that some other company snatches her up because she's soo well known that the company that fired her is going to get a ton of backlash. I love L. J. Smith and I hope she writes other books. Also, if they put ghost wtiter of L. J. Smith as the author I wouldn't even read the book!

I still can't believe that the Publisher got away with this and it was done to both series, "Vampire Diaries" and "Secret Circle". Just bullshit!

I thought it was dumb how she didn't get to finish it. I think the new writer is worse and I wish I knew who it was so they could take credit for the bad books. I personally didn't buy the last two, but got them in the library to see what the new writer(It) did with the story.

I could cry, I really could. Fans campaigned for a decade or more to get her back on the shelves, after her books stopped getting published around 1999 (some problems with contracts, don't know what exactly - business stuff goes over my head). I DID cry (with happiness) the first time I walked into a bookstore and saw that her books were back in print. And now this. :(

I continue to read and buy (second-hand) copies of the Vampire Diaries books, because I enjoy the characters and want to find out what happens with them. Taken by themselves, I don't think that the ghostwriter's books are bad. Phantom and Moonsong have been perfectly decent, plot-driven fantasy books for teens that I quite enjoyed. But there has been no emotion. Nothing that tears at your heart. No real depth, particularly to the supporting characters - it's gone from a story series about a bunch of people who all have their own loves and lives to being All About Elena. The rest of the characters just feel like background now.

L.J. Smith never wrote the greatest, most specific plots, IMO. Girl falls in love with a vampire and then with his brother. Girl moves to a new town and finds out she's a witch. Girl has psychic powers and has to fight off a man who wants to take advantage of them. They've been done, and if the plot was all there was to her writing she'd be one average writer in a sea of average writers. But her strengths are in other areas: they're the characters who you meet and who feel like friends after one chapter. They're the irreverent but affectionate dialogue that makes you laugh out loud. They're the lavish descriptions of anything from clothing to angel wings to gardens to a girl's hair or a boy's eyes, descriptions that almost create a sensory overload just with written words. They're the emotions that can rip your heart to shreds.

That's why I'm mad, I guess. Not because the ghostwritten books are bad, but because they took something extraordinary and made it ordinary.

Hmm, maybe I need to send this in a letter to the book company. :)

The books just won't be the same!

SO that's why the end of the series sucked! Please bring back L.J. Smith to add on, which she could totally do cus the ghost writer ended it basically open ended! SPOILER: Elena ends up with Stefan, but is eternally bound to Damon. I mean really!!!

Liv wrote: "The books just won't be the same!"

They aren't, the newest one out i don't think i am going to read because they are really different. You can tell that she didn't write the books, they are way easier to predict what will happen and they just aren't as good. Plain and simple

The new write also kind of made Stefan a wimp. Elena has him totally whipped.He does whatever she wants whether he knows it wrong or not. It's stupid and wrong. It terrible. I just hate that I read to of the other books before I found out she didn't write them and now that I know she didn't I can tell. The writing style was different and so where the characters.