Duck, duck, duck, red herring.

Is it weird that I had fun editing this latest manuscript?

“We don’t believe you, Weaver. No human has ever enjoyed editing.”

So what’s your point…? 🙂

It’s been only about a week since I handed the manuscript back to the author (so no, the “laser burns” haven’t completely healed yet), but I’ve already moved on to other things: for example, discussing cover art with the talented J. J. Peabody, who created the cover art for the previous three books in this series.

The author has also already moved on to other things: Almost immediately after finishing this novel, he started writing not one but two others. At first, it was just the opening chapter for the sequel to Project Brimstone, but then he started working on fragments of early scenes for the next (and last) book in The Awakening series, too. (Because of events that are foreshadowed in The Sleeping and the Dead, I felt it necessary to ask Paul a few questions about his plans for one secondary character in this WiP… The conversation ended up lasting a couple of hours and delved into a lot of technological details, backstory clarification, etc. I’m still having trouble visualizing the tech upgrades, in particular — and the author, of course, doesn’t ever visualize anything — but I’m sure I’ll adjust.)

Today, December 18… Naturally enough, I tend to be especially interested in the fates of characters I contributed to the overall story (that vast interlace of novels and short stories that we’ll end up with when all is said and done). It’s probably for the best, then, that Paul has set aside the sequel to Project Brimstone for the moment and is concentrating on the fifth Tebrey novel: although I don’t know the specifics, I have some idea where the next Endless Realms story is going soon, and I don’t need to be worrying about Raven while I’m also worrying about Geoffrey… and Lyra… and Jon.

Yeah. I think I mentioned in a previous post that Jon Livingston is (will be) in this fifth book, right? He was mentioned in The Madness Engine (and in The Sleeping and the Dead — I’m fairly sure I can say that without it “spoiling” the plot for anyone who reads it), but very little information is given about this character: Jon is friends with both Drake and Geoffrey. He owns a small starship, less advanced than the ones Tebrey is familiar with. Geoffrey, along with his housemate Jason, first met Jon when Drake was trying to kill him. As Geoffrey tells Tebrey, “Jon is a hard guy to hit. In all fairness, though, Drake never actually tried to kill him. He just showed up on my world with the intention of doing so, then changed his mind.”

(Tangent: I would like to take this opportunity to express my delight at the dramatic irony of Tebrey saying to Geoffrey, “One of these days you’re going to have to sit down and tell me everything.”)

The only bit in book four that doesn’t just expand slightly on what’s in the third book is… well, a major plot spoiler in one of the secondary threads, so I can’t tell you here. Guess you’ll have to read The Sleeping and the Dead if you want to know.

I “interviewed” Jon for one A-to-Z post in April of 2015, if you want to “hear” (read) something in his voice. (Paul recently mentioned to me the other day that he may write follow-up character interviews for his own blog, and if he does, Jon will undoubtedly be among those interviewed.) Not a lot there, either, but for one or two readers who may have been paying close attention, that little bit should explain a lot.

EDIT: 3:42 pm. Just finished talking with my clone-sibling again. While I was typing this blog post, he was writing Jon’s first scene in the story. Paul said Jon is a paranoid sonofabitch. I laughed. Of course Jon is paranoid; just the incident with the “interdimensional ninjas” would cause that, to say nothing of earlier events in his backstory. Later in the conversation I said, “Makes sense to have someone he knows in the group sent to fetch him, because a familiar face is sure put him at ease and make him feel safe.” (That noise you just heard was irony exploding… and then bursting into flames. Maybe exploding more than once, all things considered.)