Back in the mid to late 90's a book series called "Night World" was released by young adult paranormal author L.J. Smith.  The basic premise of the books was this: a separate supernatural society exists beside our own mundane one called Night World.  They're governed by fairly strict laws, populated by every supernatural creature you can think (shapeshifters, werewolves, vampires, witches...) and have some strict rules about letting humans know about the Night World.  Or falling in love with one.  Especially being soul mates with one.

A recurring theme throughout the 9 published novels is a Nightworlder falling in love with a human.  The only exception I can think of, would be the last published book Witchlight when its two Nightworlders falling in love, but by doing so its breaking a potentially strong alliance.  The other central arc was that a huge Apocalyptic battle was on its way at the turn of the new century (2000) and the fact so many Nightworlders were finding human soul mates was kind of a precursor to that event.  Check out the Wikipedia Article for some detailed breakdowns of the books (its actually a fairly decent resource).

This big climatic battle is foreshadowed, discussed, and prepared for all throughout the series as the 'Four Wild Powers' (of the Blind Maiden's vision...) are sought out and recruited by one side or the other.  Fans of the series eagerly await the last book, Strange Fate, which is due out in 1998.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And then we took to the internets.  Though not updated since 2002 here's a brief publication journey of the book from Nightworld.net.

Fans of the series eagerly anticipated the publication of this book.  We encouraged people to buy the out of print books and then get more attention to the series.  We understood and were sympathetic when L.J. told us about the death in her family and her own illness.  When the re-prints of the novels (as 3 book omnibuses) began coming out, and the Ultimate Fan Guide was announced we got very very encouraged.  Then a release date, coverart and a trailer were put out for Strange Fate and we excitedly pre-ordered the book, began feverish discussions with new fans of the series and talked endlessly about what we hoped would be in this anticipated final book of a beloved series.  With an excerpt in the back of the reprint omnibuses, hopes only soared higher.

And then the unthinkable happens.  Many of us went to Amazon to check on when Strange Fate would be shipped (or whatever reason) and found it no longer able to purchase.  The page had a 'sign up to be notified' button and it was virtually impossible to find it unless you had a direct link (this is still more or less true).  Speculation began again.  Worried murmurs sprang up as we tried to find info of some sort.  Nothing from Simon and Schuster (the publisher) and then a short blurb on LJ's blog on April 5th popped up:

"This is just a test of my blog, which I've never been able to get to so easily before...an obvious herald of disaster. If anyone wants to know what I've been doing I'll put it in a new blog posting . . . if this works . . . if I can get back. In case not: Forbidden Game comes out in June. After that, a new Vampire Diaries trilogy . . . And finally, finally then Strange Fate. I'm doing triffic, except that I have to write too much every day. A little less would be perfect. But who has perfect?"

Fans....recoiled.  Strongly.  Check out the ongoing .  The Twilight Tales article here.  The Goodreads Discussion Here.  Thread from 2005 to now on SFFWorld.  Some discussions on S&S's official page for Night World  or here in the Forums proper. Some fun over at LJ Smith's . Even more fun is the official Status thread on the LJSmith forum site Devil's Playground.  I'd actually suggested checking out the entire forum for fun.

The Facts, as far as I can tell are these:

• The book was originally pushed back due to her mother's death (causing writer's block and emotional pain) and LJ's own illness.
• A dispute occurred either between Smith and her editor, or Smith and her publisher, or some weird triangle of the three, pre-empting the book from being published even longer.
• Until as late as early March a pre-order link was avail on Amazon (as well as other online sites) indicating you could still pre-order the book (for release April 26th, 2010).  It disappeared somewhere in Mid-March, but the audiobook link remained.  A new release date was discussed (winter 2010) briefly, before it was put out there (also on Amazon) the book wouldn't be released until April 2011.
• Smith is producing a new prequel trilogy for The Vampire Diaries called 'Stefan's Diaries' before focusing on Strange Fate.  Also a new reprint of the (almost 2 decades old) Forbidden Game books is being released.
• Fans have been waiting over a decade now for this book.

Rumors, I can't substantiate yet:

• An amazon poster went to ALA last year and approached S&S about Strange Fate and was told that Smith hadn't turned in the manuscript.  This would correspond with other accountings that Smith hasn't finished the book (or possibly even started it?) and keeps pushing it farther and farther back.
• Smith wants more money
• Smith won't make changes to the book her (maybe new) editor is requesting
• Smith is being pressured by Harper (the published of the Vampire Diaries books) to produce more VD books, so she wants to focus on that cashcow stream of thought while its still popular

I e-mailed S&S myself, but haven't heard back yet.  If nothing comes of it, I plan on asking during BookExpo.

Anyone have any other insights I might have missed?  I haven't seen any blog posts about the topic, so I'm honestly not sure how big a deal this is...

((all cover images taken from The LJ Smith Cover Resource.  Copyright belongs to the publishers))