Continuum: The Final Hours + Outer Signals + What's Next?
That's exactly what this article was supposed to be about: the important final hours of a campaign, the excitement of completing the first trilogy, the announcement of a very cool new project, and further insights into the future of Space World.
Instead, I'm sitting here after a few hours of sleep, yelling at my computer, eating weird leftovers of something, and feeling completely exhausted.
And so the new title for this article emerges: Was it a no-brainer?
Everyone who has read the first book knows why the trilogy is called that and how the title works on so many levels in the world of books. But in my world—was it such an obvious choice?
Not really, even though I thought I knew what it was about in 2019 when I wrote what I thought was the first scene of the book. I had no idea! And unlike other authors, the outbreak of the pandemic took me away from writing for many reasons. Today, I looked at the first scenes I wrote – almost exactly two years ago to the day. I recognize the characters, still a little rough around the edges, but they're there. I had only found a fraction of their story and had no idea that I was on the trail of a multiverse.
And so I started writing – and soon realized that I had finally arrived: where I had wanted to be my whole life, in the life of an author. Or rather, on the way to it, because in addition to two jobs and writing, there was so much to learn. About writing, about research, novel structure, characters, dialogues, what to do when you think it's a book and then the story turns out to be a trilogy, courses and mentors, author contacts and friendships, alpha and beta readers, so much software, crowdfunding, layout, publishing, marketing ... I'll stop with the list now, but it could go on and on.
Only I didn't know any of this when I started writing my first and, as I thought at the time, only book—which at that point was titled “No Brainer.” And that's exactly what it was back then: something I had to do, a decision I couldn't have made any other way, and the adventure I threw myself into because I'd been waiting for it ever since I told my little sister my first made-up bedtime stories as a child.
Amidst all the noise and chaos of that first year of writing, the multiverse I had found grew: Space World, a world that exists between the familiar and the incomprehensible. And I quickly realized that there is more than one story to tell here—and how difficult it is to live with writing a book when your mind is already two books ahead with a plot because it connects to the scene you are currently writing.
Space World is huge, multi-layered, and a constant challenge. That's exactly what I love about stories, characters, and worlds when they are greater than the sum of their parts, when they develop a life of their own, when the characters step off the pages of the book and accompany me in my everyday life or take me into their world.
And I'm grateful that I didn't know much about the world of writing when I started—maybe it would have discouraged me again, like so many things in the years before. But this way, I had no idea what I was really getting myself into, and I dared to do it anyway—and that's why I can now share this No Brainer with the world!
And how does No Brainer end? With a book called Continuum – which, as we learned in one of the earlier articles in my wonderful SPACE WORLD TIME(s), means: a seamless progression in which things are connected, even if they pretend to be something else.
In Continuum, many of these connections are explained, and new ones are discovered that are unexpected. In addition, the stories of the characters we know and their mission become part of a larger story set against the backdrop of a multiverse in which many paths and forces are still undiscovered. What we have seen so far was only the beginning – and I look forward to every single step along the way.
So now, to conclude, here's a quick rundown of what should actually be the topic here:
- The No Brainer trilogy is complete – hurray!
- In the new year, there will be an audio version of SPACE WORLD TIME(s) – with extras and ... more on that later when it has taken on a more concrete form ... or if, by some strange coincidence, we should still achieve this stretch goal.
- Next writing project: Book 4 in the Space World series = Book 1 in the next trilogy: No Clue = a book titled “Singularity.”
- Also planned for 2026 is a novella as a prequel to the No Brainer trilogy, which tells what actually happened between Steve's experience with the atomized stranger and the plot of the first book.
- Beyond that, books 2+3 in the No Clue trilogy are planned, as well as another trilogy ... and besides that ... even more that would go beyond the scope here and probably blow my mind at some point. Let's just say: it stays exciting!
Oh, yeah, there is one more thing: the campaign ends tomorrow... so if you still want the illustrated edition, you should grab it now HERE ;-)
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