Looking to the Future

So where does The Eternal War go from here? I've mentioned it before in several places but not here so I thought I would elaborate on my overall plans.

One of my pet peeves in regards to a series is if it seems to have no place to go. One of the things that has to happen on a book-to-book basis is that the characters must grow, and the challenges they face have to not only be new, but there has to be a little bit more at stake. I feel as if I accomplished this with the conflict in Spiral X versus the conflict in White Rock. With the former, the conflict was small, limited, and the fallout is contained fairly well. With the latter, it is much larger, and the fallout from the events is similarly large and a bit messier as a result. However, there has to be a point where you really can't top yourself. Otherwise you start to lose focus and it really becomes kind of comical, almost in a morbid sense, to try to work out of the corner you've backed yourself into.


To that end, The Eternal War has an ending planned. The "Cheryl" portion of the series will encompass ten overall books. The conclusion of the tenth book will lead into a trilogy to wrap everything up. In between I plan on writing at least three other books which focus on two of the more interesting supporting characters, plus a book that will focus on what will likely be the most controversial aspect of The Eternal War mythos. Like with Split, I plan to write a bunch of short stories and novelettes that bring to light various aspects of The Eternal War that don't necessarily have anything to do with the characters you already know, though I do plan on touching a few of them as well.

Overall that is a lot of material to get through, but once I have done so I do not intend to revisit this setting. There has to be a point where enough is enough and if sixteen books and numerous short stories don't fit the bill, then I'm not sure what else to say. One of my favorite authors, David Eddings, once was asked if he intended to revisit the world he created with his Belgariad and Mallorean series. His reply was that he had created thirteen books overall with the world, taking into account the Begerath and Polgara books, plus the Riven Codex, which is the same number of books Homer had with the Odyssey. He figured if thirteen books was good enough for Homer, it was good enough for him. I completely see where he came from on this and while I will be doing more than thirteen books, there is a point where what I have out there will be good enough.

That said, such a point is a long way off. In the meantime, I have started brainstorming how to put Book Three together. I know the overall theme and focus, it's just a matter of lining the contents up. There's also a lot going on in my life at the moment, so I must continue to reiterate how my writing is merely a hobby at this stage. It barely makes the top five in my list of priorities, and some days it doesn't even reach that far. While I anticipate a rough outline for Book Three to be done before the Summer is out, anything beyond that would be premature to speculate on. I will do what I can to keep you all informed of what I am up to, and hope you'll continue to stick with me as I continue my indie author journey.