Reply #3: speaking as a reader, not a writer,

[SheilaT]

and given my own personal spiritual beliefs, I find it a little odd when a character dies and there's absolutely no hint of a hereafter. Even when told from the dying characters POV, all too often there's simply blackness. I don't know if it's because the writers themselves have no belief in an afterlife, or if they're afraid to go out on a limb and show something, anything.

I really, really would much rather read something that hints of what's coming, even though the rest of the story/novel/whatever takes place here on planet Earth.

Just my two cents.