An Open Letter to Barbara Kingsolver

Dear Barbara Kingsolver,

I think you are, without a doubt, one of the best living American writers. I am super-excited about your new novel, The Lacuna, which I plan to buy as a present to myself as soon as my grad school applications are finished later this month. Also, we share the same alma mater, which is cool. But I have a request - nay, a suggestion! - to make.

Bring back Taylor and Turtle and Jax and the gang. The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven are two of my favorite novels, and I miss your versions of the American West and nontraditional families. More importantly, the characters from these books are truly fantastic. I asked Taylor Greer to fight zombies with me. And Jax Thibodeaux? I'm in love with the man. These books and these characters have felt like a part of my life since I first read them in high school. Every couple years, I return to them so I can be part of the universe again. But you know what? Two is nice, but THREE IS BETTER!

That's right. For years, I have been secretly wishing and hoping and praying that maybe, just maybe, you'd be interested in writing a third book about these people. I would love to see how Jax and Taylor are adjusting to the possible married life, or how Turtle is handling the shift between her real family and her adopted family. Or maybe we could see what LuAnn is up to, or Alice? I know you've gotten away from these early family-centered novels to explore more political work. You are very interested in the environment, which is great, but is there anyway you could maybe mix that interest in with a plotline involving Jax? Also, you could get some politics into such a book if you make it take place in Jax's hometown of New Orleans. Imagine a book where Jax returns there after the hurricane and sees his estranged family. That is a book I would seriously sit in line for days to buy, a book I'd read over and over again.

This is all just a possibility. As a writer, it would get really old to have to keep returning to old creations. But I never felt like Taylor, Jax, and Turtle's story was really finished. Sure, I have my own ideas about what happens to them after Pigs in Heaven ends. I lay in bed at night and fall asleep to the plotlines I create for these kick-ass characters. So maybe, just maybe, you might think about a Taylor Greer trilogy....

Because you know what? For some reason, no one is writing Bean Trees/Pigs in Heaven fanfiction.

Love, Beth