The Indie Author's Journey: An Introspective (Pt. 2)

Welcome to the next installment! And, as promised, it's time to get into the nitty and/or gritty of crafting the story of Justice Has a Curfew—Book One. The best place to begin is at the end . . . sort of. Just keep reading, it'll all make sense. Eventually.

So, it's early 2007. I've finished TEEN JUSTICE—Book One, the first novel-length adventure starring my kids, and now I'm full of ideas for a slew of sequels. I outlined a story to develop over the next two books. I envisioned various set pieces, thought up some dialogue, and even started drafting a few chapters of Book Two. Then I got an AWESOME opportunity to spend the summer of '07 in Japan, which afforded me two ~10-hour plane trips—plenty of time to work on my stuff.

Except I didn't, opting instead to undergo my first (second?) existential crisis at the tender age of twenty-one. (But that's another, Not-For-Here story.)

Anyway, later that fall, I took a cross-country road trip with my grandparents. This time, I brought my laptop and spent a good chunk of drive time plotting and drafting. Things were cruising along smoothly. Of course, there were several critical scenes that flashed back to events taking place before the first book, but it was always my intention to write a prequel (tentatively called TEEN JUSTICE—Book Zero) at some point after the release of Book Two. The prequel would serve to (1) iron out the many MANY wrinkles in the first story; (2) flesh out the world and character relationships, and; (3) bring new readers up to speed before I concluded the first trilogy of the series with TEEN JUSTICE—Book Three.

That's when I slammed on the brakes and realized that I had a unique opportunity to hit RESET. Not in the traditional sense of scrapping everything and starting fresh, but by creating an elaborate story that introduced everyone and referenced the major expository elements, all while laying the foundation for better versions of the sequels to come.

In short, I decided to turn one standalone prequel into a three-part series before moving forward with the next two stories. Four books suddenly became six. (Technically seven, since I still reserve the right to write a new prequel based on this new timeline . . . which I just might😏)

Here's the main takeaway: Before moving ahead, I went backward. This editorial course correction forced me to rename and renumber everything before publishing anything. TEEN JUSTICE—Book Zero became Justice Has a Curfew, and after completing and releasing Books One and Two, you better believe that I'm excited to keep the momentum going all the way from the conclusion of Curfew—Book Three through the next three installments of TEEN JUSTICE (next series title TBD).

Okay, this seems like a perfect place to pause. I'll be back soon with even more BTS info on the writing process of Curfew—Book One; which, from the moment of conception to publication spanned several more years, a death in the family, the exchange of nuptial vows, and two major geographic relocations. Phew!

See you then!