Sequels and series ...

Let me get this part out of the way first, before I go all hypocritical.  I fucking hate sequels.  I hate writers who publish their first book and call it, "Book Title 1", the first in a series of books featuring ...

Fuck that shit.  What happens if your first book isn't a success?  You're gonna look a bit of a twat (and also feel pretty fucking disheartened) writing and publishing a follow-up.

So, after that ... here comes the hypocrisy.  "The Journal".  I followed that up a few years later with "Journals" (which wasn't that good, to be fair).  Fans of mine (yes, I do have a few) have been asking for sequels to "die Stunde X" and "For the Love of the Devil", and I must confess that I have started writing follow ups for both of those.  Both, naturally, are languishing on my hard drive somewhere.  "Blood Money" was written with the intention of writing a "series of books featuring Alex Savage".  I did write a follow-up, but it needs a lot of work before it's ready to parade itself in front of readers.

I guess in a sense I'm averse to the cynical idea of writing a book with the intention of turning it into three books, when once could suffice, or the notion of rehashing the same characters, because it's far easier than inventing a new character.  A true sequel shouldn't come about immediately.  When I wrote "die Stunde X", I wasn't thinking about a sequel.  Similarly with "For the Love of the Devil", there was no plan to write a follow-up.  But some people, they either love the characters you've written, or you've left a book with an open ending and they want it resolving, as I did with "The Journal".  I personally love a couple of my characters.  I love Gaz Carmichael, one of the supporting characters in "Putrid Underbelly".  I love Benjamin Beerenwinkel from "Besotted".  But as a writer, am I that unimaginative that I can't think of any more characters?  That I have to regurgitate the ones I've already created?

Hmm, perhaps I am, because this year, 2014, I definitely smell a sequel to "die Stunde X", tentatively entitled "nach Schema F" (look it up and then consider whether I'm joking ...)