Thank you! I'll be watching for more from you. 🙂

I'm so glad you found it helpful, Jenny. Thank you.

Thank you, Denise.

The fun part for the reader is knowing nothing at the beginning but the conclusion - and how much of the New Yorker article is dead wrong - by the time they finish reading LIMBO (which I'm still working on).

To keep it interesting, a reader knows the overarching article is wrong in many ways, after reading the prologue for the book they're currently reading.

I feel there are a lot of things outsiders will never know for sure, especially in that world, and in this case, READERS will know more than the New Yorker writer who's so sure they've figured it out.

Part of the fun - and essential to the story, because if the 'truth' came out, three people's reputations might suffer irreparable harm, and children would find out.

I haven't written one.

Love your tips.

Alicia, Fascinating way to create a prologue that links all three books. You make a good point about how your story should hold together if your readers skip the prologue. Thanks for sharing.

The first short (145-word) prologue should make the reader want to know what happened, when the resolution to that question is 500K words away at the end of the third volume. To give a reader a reason to dig in to the story, and stay with it, because it's going to get complicated.

It puts a LONG perspective on the story which starts with the very SHORT perspective of the night two people met on a New York City late night talk show.

I think of it as a meta-story, giving a view of the whole to come, to be used as a yardstick measuring where we are as the pieces come out. You can skip these little pieces of TNY article - but will lose a whole layer siting the story in the real world of writers, actors, and the TV commenters in talk shows that is the core of the entertainment world. I hope there is another layer of enjoyment to be had from watching how this whole elaborate story progresses from seed to Giant Sequoia.

Long-winded way of saying: if your prologue has a solid purpose, keep it - some of your readers will get it. And also that you should think whether the story holds together if the prologue-haters skip it.

Chrissie, I'm am delighted you found the answer for your book and am grateful you found some help in my post. Best of luck in your writing journey!

Pamela, your readers are yours because they like your books. That means they like your prologues, too. Perhaps some of them read straight historical and are accustom to prologues in those books, but they are definitely accustom to the prologues in _your_ books. Good job!