Integration

I haven’t been writing of late because I’m trying to figure out what happens in book two because it affects how book one ends – and I’m getting close.

The biggest problem is that I’ve apocalpysed Earth and granted people superpowers, but governments do not go quietly. For every intrepid werewolf, there are fifty superpowered bureaucrats who don’t want their rice bowl taken away.

I’m more interested in the Department of War than I am in the rest of it, although there will need to be some walk-ons from elsewhere.

I see two forces: Top down and bottom up. I’m not sure what the “top down” people are going to be doing beyond trying to reestablish their control in post-system America. The “bottom up” people are the base commanders who are faced with both internal issues (the airman who can shoot lightening is not going to be happy going back to his mechanic role), external issues (we have super powers, let’s loot the base next door!), and apocalypse issues (where is the food and water coming from? where do we get gas?)

None of that is new. What is new is an insight from Quest Academy. Don’t fight, integrate. (That’s not a theme or the plot or anything like that; it’s just a thing that happens in one case.)

This fits with the trilogy not-quite-a-plan. The end of book three needs to be something triumphant. I don’t want our intrepid heroes to be bogged down in military chain-of-command, but a special forces or quick reaction team of werewolves is very do-able. I would need so much help getting the military part right, but becoming defenders of Truth, Justice, and the American Way seems like a suitably triumphant end for book three.

The end (not necessarily “ending”) of book one is going to be logistical: Our intrepid heroes (and friends) have what they need to survive the winter.

The military will no doubt be doing something similar. As has been said many times, the US military is the worlds greatest logistics force; it just happens to have weapons. I think it’s safe to assume that they’ll be mostly fine with just a bit of handwaving.

There is a plot-line split around chapter 24 (I keep renumbering them) where our intrepid heroes are dealing with the town (Kier), The Squad is off claiming territory, and Marcy is in a time-dilated dungeon learning space magic.

That’s where I’m stuck because I’m POV switching like mad and it doesn’t read well. For the first pass, I think The Squad and Marcy adventures are going to become novellas; ripping those scenes out of the main book. They could either be bound separately or slapped on the end as bonus material. I can always copy/paste it back into the main story if I change my mind.

Book two (tentatively Foundations) is going to be somewhat of an British Boarding School story (Quest Academy, Hogwarts, etc…) but they will be establishing the school while figuring out how the System works and what should be taught. I’m not sure if it’s an actual school/campus, yet, or just ad hoc teaching/learning that evolves into an actual school. I can’t make that decision until I decide how permanent Kier is as a base.

It would be a bit strange of a small town in South Dakota becomes a center of power. Unexpected underdog is a good theme to push; people like that. On the other hand, I need to get our werewolves off planet. If they’re constantly moving around, as opposed to building a (power) base in Kier, that’s not a big deal. If they’re building up Kier and suddenly decide to go off world for six months, that’s disruptive. On the other paw, “disruptive” is good for plots.

If I’m going to extract adventures into novellas – The Squad seems an obvious title for one of them – I have a ready-made place for “back at the ranch” stories. Maybe a recurring appendix so it doesn’t get confusing what order to read the books in. It would also be a neat way to trick the people (such as myself) who pay attention to the percentage indicator on their Kindle: The book ends at 95% and the last 5% is another story.

Ah hah! The not-quite-cliff-hanger ending of book one: A military (Army probably, possibly Air Force; I’ll look around and see what’s in the area) unit shows up in Kier as the sun sets and snow starts to fall. Book two picks up right where book one stopped. I’m somewhat dubious of the “use last chapter of previous book as first chapter of next book” technique, but it might work for this. But, if I do that, continuous chapter numbers become hard to resist. Perhaps restart the chapter numbering on trilogy boundaries but don’t otherwise advertise the trilogy-ness.

Book one and book two are going to cover about the same amount of time because they’re both seasonal. Book three will break that pattern, but I’m not sure by how much, yet. If I’m going to kill the series in book five, it would be fun to title the books that way: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. Unfortunately, I’m not going to know if I’m killing the series in book five until books one through three (and probably four) are published. If I continue, it will set a pattern that I don’t want – and I’d have run out of season names.

The point of all this: Book three will be about integrating the pack, but not the leaders, with the US military, not fighting them (much). This can be done in parallel with the adventures of our heroes, the leaders. If I’m going to do that, I need a pretty hard rule about POV switches or they will get confusing. I really like chapters as time boundaries. That makes switching POV every chapter sensible. The reader can assume that the two POVs take place at the same time and every other chapter advances the clock.

That screws with the “The Squad” appendix in book three because they are most likely the second POV. For now, that’s a future-Mark problem.

Digression: Speaking of “Mark”, I’m thinking about a pseudonym for these. An obvious one is swapping the first and last letters of my last name: Rizes. Since the series title is Pack Rising, that seems fitting. “MR RIZES” works for me.

Next up: Write the last scene of the last chapter of book one, copy it to the start of book two, and start outlining book two. THEN go back and finish the last few chapters of book one so it all fits together. For book one, I’ve had outlines running about five chapters ahead of the text. Five chapters ahead is now into book two.

Featured Image: What’s up with the glowing pants? On the bright side, it is a glowing thing for the cover. I like the glowing claws coming through/decorating the boots. Biggest reason to ditch it: He’s alone.