Duane

I just finished writing Repercussions, which is book 18 of the series. This book took me well over three times longer to write than the others for several reasons. First, I cover a LOT of ground in this book, both with new discoveries and with checking in on the results of their involvement with various things and people over the past two and a half centuries. Between covering that much ground, and some personal distractions I had going on in my life, it just ended up taking as long as it took.

How many more books will there be in the series?  I honestly have no idea.  To be honest, I could have ended it with this one since it sort of wraps up the details on a whole variety of different things, but it ends in a cliffhanger that I kinda want to explore.  I’ve never been big on ending things with cliffhangers.  It leaves the reader, or in the case of television and film, the viewer unsatisfied.  I read a book or see a film to be told a story, not to come up with my own, so I don’t really want to end the series leaving a situation unresolved.  That said, did I have to end this book the way I did?  Actually yeah, I think I did.  I’ve had the ending rolling around in my head for a while now, and I think it’s really sort of cool and intense.  Is it causing me to have to write a whole other book to explore it?  Yeah, but it’s worth it in my opinion.  I always said I’d continue the series as long as I still had some story to tell.  Well, I still have some story left in me, so there’s at least one more coming.  As for any more beyond that, I guess it just depends on how the next one ends.  If it leads to something else, great.  If not, that’s fine too.

I have another book I want to write that could turn into a series of its own, but I don’t want to write that one until I’m done with the Unseen Things series.  I know some authors can write multiple series at the same time, but I’m not a big fan of working that way.  You lose touch with the characters and what’s going on with them if you do that, and this series means far too much to me to ever lower the quality by working on other books in between.

All I can say right now is that the next book will probably be the last book of the Unseen Things series, because I do want to move on to other things, and I really think I’ve kind of hit a wall as far as coming up with new stories for them.  However, last book doesn’t necessarily mean last book.  It may mean the last book until I come up with a new story, but I’ve written this series one book after another with very little down time in between each one.  After the next one, I may take a fair amount of down time to work on other stories for a while until something new hits me for this series.

Ok, I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop.  As of right now, two things need to happen.  First, I need some copious amounts of sleep, because I was awake all night finishing the current book.  Second, I need to get Repercussions edited, which is where the copious amounts of sleep come in.  Trying to edit a book on very little or no sleep whatever is just begging for a crappy end result.  So sleep now, edit later.  That’s the winning formula.

Book 18, Repercussions has taken me a long time to get through.  In fact, it’s taken far longer than any of the other books in the series for a variety of reasons relating to the story as well as some issues I’m dealing with in my personal life.  Currently I’m working on chapter 15.  I’ve got about two-thirds of that chapter still to write and then one more after that.

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be the final book, or at least the last one for now, but there’s something that they come across in this book that gave me an idea for the next one, which will be called Reapers, which will take the characters to the very core of life in the multi-verse.  At least, that’s probably what’ll happen.  I haven’t written it yet, so we’ll just have to see how things play out.  I do have a few ideas though.

Now, I have been asked on many occasions about print copies of my books.  The reason I haven’t done print copies up to this point is because the program I use to write my books, Sigil, writes natively in Epub format, and I also write in a very specific e-book style to make it easier on the reader’s eyes.  Combine that with the fact that I wasn’t familiar with Create Space formatting, and it all just made it easier to keep the series strictly in ebook format.  However, recently I found a Create Space template for Word that completely simplified the process and will allow me to keep the books looking essentially the way they do in ebook form, with a space between each paragraph and line of dialog.  Yes it’ll add to the page count considerably, and the cost of production, but it is far easier on the reader, and considering that my books are probably each about 90% dialog, it’ll make it considerably easier to follow.  I’m not sure when I’ll start working on that, but I do have plans to create print copies of the books at some point here in the future.

That’s it for now.  Back to work…

It’s been a while since I gave a progress update on Repercussions, so I thought I’d throw one out there for anyone who’s interested.

I just finished chapter 13 this morning, which means I have three more chapters to go.  Progress on this book has been slow for several reasons.  First and foremost, I’ve had a lot of personal issues going on in my private life that I’ve been dealing with.  Second, this book is really all over the place, but in a workable way that makes sense.  What do I mean by that?  Well…

The series is coming to an end.  Will this be the final book?  I’m not sure yet.  I do have a few other ideas floating around up there in that gray matter of mine, but I’m not sure yet if I’m going to do anything with any of it.  For instance, I have an idea for a book that would be a prequel of sorts to book 17 that would follow the adventures of Jake and Lana from before they first meet until the beginning of book 17.  There’s also something the characters came across in Repercussions that I could turn into a story line if I wanted to.  I gave up on the idea of writing Jack Wilson’s story, because I don’t think I could fill a whole book with it and even if I could, the story wouldn’t hold up.  I’ve also considered writing a companion book to the series that details out the different races they’ve encountered, as well as the dimensions they live in.  In any case, I wanted to write this book in a way that would make sense if it were to end up being the final book, which means I’ve checked in with some characters who haven’t been in it much lately and revisited a lot of things that happened in the past in order to take a look at the consequences of those events.

I’m also considering just taking a break from the series, so I can come back to it with a fresh perspective later on.  In the interim, I would write and publish the first book of another potential series about a girl who goes to work for a private investigator and ends up helping him with a paranormal case that comes creeping through his door.  That one may end up being a stand alone, because I really do need to get some stand alone books out there in addition to the regular series, so we’ll see how that one ends up.  If the ending feels like I can turn it into a series, then that’s what I’ll do.  If not, then it’ll just be a standalone.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on.  Repercussions is going to be…I don’t want to say disjointed, but there are some very distinct sections to it where various things happen that involve different characters.  There’s also some really deep, conceptual stuff in this one, so that’s slowing me down as well.  It’s far more involved writing stuff like that than it is to just write normal story elements.

As for when it’ll be done, I’m not sure.  Like I said, I still have three more chapters to write, and then I have to edit it, so it’s at least a few weeks out yet I suppose.  It’ll be done when it’s done.  That’s the best answer I can give you at this point.

You know, it’s funny how things evolve when you write organically.  I had no intention of doing this, but as I was writing the current book, Repercussions, I came up with a great idea for a way to being back an old villain from the series.  The title is quite representative of a lot of things that happen in this particular book, as things they’ve done in the past are presenting unforeseen issues in the present.  The writing on this one has been going far slower than usual, as I’ve said in previous posts, because of things going on in my personal life, and a distinct lack of sleep.  I’m really happy with how it’s coming out though.  I just wanted to make a quick update so no one would think I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth. 🙂

I’m currently getting close to finishing chapter seven of Repercussions.  This book has been slow going because so much has changed.  It takes place a few years after Travelers and Jake and Lana make a special guest appearance in this one.  Not just any special guest appearance though.  They’re staying for a week or so, and while they’re there, Logan takes them on a booze run to the reptilian dimension.  As you can imagine, things have changed and evolved on that dimension as well in the past nearly two hundred and fifty years, and Jake gets up to his old tricks again in what turned out to be an extremely fun scene.

Also, people are getting extremely bored with their day to day lives in the Nathalis dimension, so Beth organizes a new series of exploration runs for them, which means a few chapters probably of having to create entirely new dimensions for them to explore.  Also, because the series is winding down, I’m trying to give a lot of the characters that haven’t had much focus of late some exposure, which is why Beth and the team that was formerly in Scotland are going to be doing these runs.

As for what’s coming after, I’m not really sure yet.  I may take a break from the series to write that other book I had an idea for, but I also had an idea for a book that would start at some point before the Echnid invasion and then follow Jake and Lana through their experiences between then and the time where Travelers begins.  I also had that idea to do a book about Jack Wilson’s experiences, but I’m not sure that would be enough to fill an entire book, so I don’t think I’ll be doing that one.  I may just focus on that new book and leave the series open ended for now.  That way I can come back to it later whenever I have a new story idea.

That’s it for now.  I’m still plugging away at it, albeit slowly.  I’ve had some stuff going on in my personal life as well that’s been distracting me from writing, but I’m doing my best to make sure I get at least some stuff written every day.

Hey guys, just checking in.  Today I finished chapter four of Repercussions, so I’m 25% of the way through it now.  Jake and Lana from Travelers are included in this one, and there’s more focus on Martin and Dylan as well.  The main crux of the story however will revolve around Billy, Sarah, Giles and Sav.  I haven’t gotten to that part yet, though I’ve had one little tease leading up to it.  There’s also a surprise appearance by an old enemy they vanquished over two-hundred years ago that has them all incredibly worried.

Now, about the new story idea…

There’s this absolutely wonderful girl named Amber who’s become very special to me in the time since I first met her.  She’s currently reading the series, and I’ve been talking to her a lot on Facebook.  Her job is kind of annoying sometimes, so to entertain her I’ll talk as the characters now and then just to put a smile on her face.  However, one day I decided to do something a little bit different.  I had her pick a gender and a specific age range as the basis for a character, and then I proceeded to create a story based around that character.  Now, not to blow my own horn or anything, but I’m really good at doing stuff like that, and what came out of it was the foundation for an entirely new story that could potentially turn into a series that’s completely unrelated to the Unseen Things series.  This new story would revolve around a girl who ends up working as an assistant to a private investigator, and that would eventually lead them into a case that had paranormal aspects to it.  I don’t know where it’ll take me since I let the writing go wherever it feels like it should, but I’m really excited about turning that into something.  I may do that after I finish Repercussions, just so I can have a little break from the series to recharge my batteries a bit.  I’ll see what mood I’m in when I finish writing Repercussions.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’ll post another update when I have more to report.