This is a strange moment. I should be excited, and I am, but I’m also quite sad. Cause this is the beginning of the end. I mean sure, there’s still a long way to go – book three won’t hit the shelves until July next year – and yet there’s now a completed story and soon it will be published and submitted and yeah, there’ll be editing to do with the publisher, BUT after all these years, I have to face the fact that I’m going to be saying goodbye to these characters.
No more of Maggie’s cheekiness, or Ione’s quirkiness, or Bernadette’s quiet wisdom. No more of Lucas’ dedication, or Stephen’s intensity, or Hampton’s sensitivity. And then there’s all the non-pov characters to miss – Owen, Kenyon, Jack, Jacob, Oswald, John, Siobhan, Peter, Liam, Elizabeth, Helga. Even my antagonist, Asarlai, and the character I love to hate, Sarah.
There is the possibility of a follow-up trilogy, and I’ll meet up with them again but that’s also partly a commercial decision – if this trilogy doesn’t sell, if the world of the gadda doesn’t work for readers, then there’s probably little point in going back to them.
This has all just hit me, you know. I wrote the title of this post and then BAM! There I was, getting sniffly over the fact that the trilogy is done.
There’s still a lot of work to be done on this book – I know some of the areas of weakness already, and will be interested to see what other areas I find as I start to go over it with a fine-tooth comb. The plan is to polish it up and have it ready for my readers by the end of March. I’ll get it back beginning of May and then have two months to tweak and fix it before it goes off to the publisher.
That wide time-frame should also give me ample time to deal with the proofs of The Secret Ones, and the edits of book two. If I have any time left over, my plan is to start on the research and planning for Battle for Odana, which is growing from a stand-alone book into at least a duology, if not a trilogy.
Would love to have book one of that done by the end of the year, so next year I can work on book two (maybe three) and possibly the beginning of a new gadda trilogy. If folks like the first one.
There’s so much in this writing game that’s such an unknown.