Neil Gaiman's "Entitlement Issues" post

Seeing some of the posts on Diana Gabaldon's Facebook page lately ("When is the next book coming out?" "Write faster!"), I can't help thinking that some of these people would benefit from reading Neil Gaiman's blog post from May 12, 2009, called "Entitlement Issues".

Gaiman is talking about George R. R. Martin's fans, but many of the same things could be said about Diana Gabaldon's. For example:

People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines.

You're complaining about George doing other things than writing the books you want to read as if your buying the first book in the series was a contract with him: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and George for his part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the books for you.

Yes, the waiting is very hard, but we can't make Diana write any faster than she already does. And she's entitled to have a life (including the occasional trip to Disneyland with her husband <g>), every bit as much as the rest of us are!

Here's Neil Gaiman again:

And if you are waiting for a new book in a long ongoing series, whether from George or from Pat Rothfuss or from someone else...

Wait. Read the original book again. Read something else. Get on with your life. Hope that the author is writing the book you want to read, and not dying, or something equally as dramatic. And if he paints the house, that's fine.

Think about this, the next time you wonder why it's taking Diana so long to finish WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD -- or the next time a day or two goes by without the usual #DailyLines on Facebook and Twitter. Diana has said that the book will be out in Fall 2013, and I'm sure it will be worth the wait!