Aftermath and tulips
214/04/2024 by ChrisJamesAuthor
Spring has sprung here in Warsaw, so below are a few pictures of Mrs James’s tulips. Every year, we spend many pleasant coffee moments sitting in the garden and admiring the results of her hard work the previous autumn. For the tulips, scroll down. In the meantime:
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m not given to authorly naval-gazing. But finishing the first draft of The Repulse chronicles, Book Seven: Aftermath, did give me reason to pause for a while. When I began the series in 2017, I never quite believed I would reach the end. In 2016, the modest success of the original history of the war in Repulse: Europe at War 2062-2064 led me to create the Chronicles series, and as the years passed, the series has has gained a loyal readership. The Covid pandemic played a major role. When it began, I’d only written the first two books and had started a new job that promised to take up a lot of my time. Then, suddenly, we were in lockdown and I was saving two hours a day not having to commute. Book Three saw a notable increase in sales which, in turn, spurred me on to keep writing subsequent books. Then, this week, I finished the first draft of the last book.
There is still a long way to go with it, as all of the editing and proofreading remains outstanding. Hence, I’ve set the publication date for 30 June. In my experience, 10 to 11 weeks is about the soonest I can go from first draft to a product of publishable quality. For those of you who are waiting, I will confirm that the cliff-hanger on which the last book, Operation Repulse, ended is resolved head-on (and then some). Now, I and the small army of people behind the scenes who help me, will make sure the text is in the best possible shape for you. As with all of my books, the Kindle pre-order is live at the early-bird-catches-the-worm price of USD 2.99 or equivalent. The cover on the right there links to the UK page, so if you’re in the US click here, in Canada click here, or in Australia click here.
For me, this week it was quite strange to type “THE END” on a novel and not immediately consider the next book in the series. Because there won’t be one. Thanks for reading. Take care and here are the tulips.
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Congratulations on getting to an end. Lovely tulips.
I both crave that (working on LIMBO, the third book in my mainstream trilogy, when not mired in taxes) and fear it – there’s a very strong sense of purpose in doing it, and I have no other plans or hobbies or desires beyond doing the ‘as read by author’ audiobooks and hardcovers and large-print editions.
There may be more books in that universe – or not: do we have any books telling us how Jane Eyre’s life went with her Mr. Rochester and the coming child? Maybe there’s no more easily mined conflict, and readers aren’t interested any more.
My model, Dorothy L. Sayers, managed two short stories about Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vine after their marriage – and that’s all we got. Probably because Wimsey wasn’t doing the same kind of detecting after becoming father of three, or Sayers married him off to be able to move on herself (she later wrote theology!).
Other authors plunge into a new series – I’ll be around 80 when I finish LIMBO, and Pride’s Children has taken 24 years so far, and will consume ~5 more – so it’s daunting to consider writing anything very long after that, and I pray I get that far.
We never know, do we?
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Thanks, Alicia. Yup, the last few months I have been asking myself if I really want to reach the last chapter, the last page. But I need to move on as well. The seven books have been fun but I’ve also got other things to write. Good luck with LIMBO and Pride’s Children!
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