The Story Continues?

Sequels.

You might say, "Why are you talking about sequels when you haven't written a first book yet?" Because I like to get ahead of myself, that's why.

When I first imagined and wrote the rough draft of Cold Blooded in 2016, I was adamant about one thing. There would be no sequel. This was it. There was no other place for the story to go.

But. I may have been wrong. See, I have all these ideas that I thought of between the rough draft and now, that I thought I would integrate into the next draft. But a lot of them, well, there's just no place for them. I can't make them fit into this plot I already have.

For instance, and I'll tell you about this because it's a half baked idea and won't be much of a spoiler, a rival ice cream shop opens up in town. It's a fun idea that would give more action to the Creamatorium story line. But I don't know where I would put it. And frankly, it seems like a sequel thing, in order to raise the stakes (haha, vampires) in the "mundane" workplace part of the world, while some other new shit is going on in the murdery/supernatural world.

So I might have to write a sequel after all. I have no idea what the main conflict would be, at this point. All I know is that I am determined not to introduce werewolves, because I think the old fur vs fang rivalry is cliched and done to death. There always has to be some kind of love triangle or interspecies romance, and I just don't want to.

Ideally, I'd like to wrap up all my loose ends from the first book, while leaving the possibility open for continued adventures. So in the event I get the first one published, and they opt not to publish the second, I won't leave readers with a cliffhanger. Because I'm not an asshole. But if they do want a sequel, I'll have somewhere to go with the characters and the world.

Speaking of the world, I first wrote this in, like I said, 2016. And I didn't name the town in which it takes place. I just used the placeholder [town name] every time it came up. I still haven't named it. Nothing has ever seemed quite right. I need something quaint, but potentially ominous, or something. So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to share them.

I'll see you next week.