I’ve been working on Jerry and the Goddesses almost daily since mid February. It’s currently near the end of April. I expect the story will have reached the final part sometime next month, and if not, it will early in June.
I haven’t stopped writing Operational Difficulties, either. I actually just recently got a beta reader for that, and their insight is amazing. I’ve replaced several parts I was iffy on with new passages that work much better, so I’m really looking forward to being able to make the second book a much more professional effort than the first.
But getting back to Jerry and Co, it feels weird to be approaching the end. For a long time there, I didn’t think I would be writing anything else set in the same universe, but now I’m not so sure. I have ideas. Prequels starring Gary and Inanna and Sarisa (I don’t think Jerry’s life before this would be very interesting, though) and even Yarm.
In fact, my idea for a Yarm prequel might be a full novel-length work. I’m not sure. I really am fond of the big buy, though. I suppose it’s not hard to see why; I’m a big, hairy dad myself, and ‘big hairy dad’ has been the description at the core of who Yarm is.
So not only is there the question of if I’ll transition immediately to more Divine Comedyverse writing (That’s what I’ve been calling this universe, you like it?), but there’s a question of which story I’ll tell if I do. The obvious choice is to tell the story of the War Between the Gods; the great conflict that ended with Inanna and Sarisa and their generation of gods in charge. But I’m not sure how well that will translate to the page, so I’ve also been considering writing in using the language of mythology. The detached, middle-English-cadenced prose that will remind most people of the King James bible’s prose. If I do that, there won’t be a lot of room for characterization or humor, though. However, if I don’t, it’s going to be difficult for the reader to picture everything that’s happening.
Eldritch energies swirling and intentions coming to life and emotions causing things to happen in the world aren’t exactly the sorts of things a lot of people have an easy time finding a frame of reference for.
And if I choose to write the Yarm story, I’ll be changing genres. It won’t be urban fantasy anymore, but just fantasy, set in a primeval world of cavemen and monsters. But we’d get some answers to Yarm’s parentage (He might be a bit more Mastodon than he lets on…), get to meet his family (finally!) and get to see him kick the shit out of all sorts of baddies.
Another idea I had was a Gary prequel. And that, too, would be a genre shift. That would be a military story, probably without any overt supernatural elements to it. But we’d get to see Gary in his prime, kicking ass and taking names and not being particularly thorough about the names.
Of course, all of that is still beside the point. Which is that I kinda don’t want it to end.
Jerry is a certifiable badass, these days. He started as a skinny nerd who was terrified of a horny woman. And I feel like I did that transition justice. I took my time with it, and made sure that he didn’t play as a straight badass until part 35. Even then, I make sure to occasionally reference the insecure nerd he still is. He’s just an insecure nerd who could wreck a whole company of green berets without breaking a sweat.
Inanna is a much more complicated character than her origins made her out to be. She’s still an insatiable sexpot, but she’s an insatiable sexpot with hopes and dreams for the future, who knows how to get shit done.
Gary’s my Dawg; a fellow of fart with a love of guns who loves cracking inappropriate jokes. Kathy, Yarm, Sarisa… I love these characters.
So I think that settles it, then. I’m going to have to write a direct sequel.
I’m not a fan of big resets; the changes that have happened (and will happen) in this story will not be undone for the next, so I can’t give away what sorts of ideas I’ve got for the sequel. But it’s clear that I’m gonna have to write it, nonetheless.