When I first started making notes about what would eventually become Tempest, the book was a stand-alone. It just felt that way, even while I was jotting stuff down on Notepad. And then I began work on the draft manuscript, and I hit a point early in the book (chapter four, if you’re interested) which felt pivotal.
‘Ooooh,’ I thought. ‘I can do something different with this.’ Or words to that effect. And that’s how an additional Notepad session was created, in which a Tempest sequel (actually, a prequel) began to take shape. Yay!
Except I said ‘a sequel’ (meaning a prequel) because after a few months of dabbling with the draft prequel, and yes that was while I was still writing Tempest, it became clear my notes laid out a different prequel to the one I’d roughed out at the top of the Notepad session.
So in my head, right now, Tempest is a trilogy:
- Tempest
- Prequel #1 (two years before Tempest takes place)
- Prequel #2 (immediately before Tempest happens)
We’ll have to see how it all works out.