PRICE OF FREEDOM TIDBITS.

Status: Writing on Chapter 192 of The Price of Freedom. (Page 1,678)

Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)

Watching: Conserving energy to keep the house cool during today's 90+ degree weather.

Listening to: "No Ordinary Morning"; "Strings for Yasmin" by Chicane/Tin Tin Out

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 252.

TOPIC: UPDATES AND OTHER INTERESTING TIDBITS

Was thinking how I was going to continue the storyline up to the next big confrontation in Waco. But seeing how Kayla went from being an adult of 35 back to a teenager of 16 (and driving Kenneth nuts with conflicting emotions and needs (hehehe) ), I saw some prime opportunity to do a little exploring of the changes going on in Kayla herself.

And Mother knows this too. But they both know that this won't change anything between them.

So the fight continues unabated.

Right now, the two are engaged in a bitter argument over who is the stronger and which has the upper hand. It's a bit ironic that Mother's creation would one day break from the fold and side with humans and latch onto one of the more prominent freedom fighters; thus vexing Mother herself.

And to think that Kayla was once cold and calculating--completely without emotion or feeling. (Of course, I've delved into this past aspect of her a few times throughout the book. It's still a fascinating subject to fall back on--just for personal inflection.)

Now...being sixteen years old has given Kayla's character a whole new dimension to explore--not at least with the ongoing relationship between Kenneth and her. I found it surprising to know that this was the age in which they encountered each other in 2162. I had always thought that she was 19 years old when the book first opened up--and that's how things were.

It never once occurred to me that Kayla also can change from what she was once to the person she is now.

The more I write in this book, the more stuff keeps popping up. And I'm glad that I never saw a reason to restrict myself like the industry hacks want me to.

This kind of personal exploration and flexible writing allows me to just...write.

Forget the limitations and what lies ahead, I'm just going to see what will come down the pike.

However, since I've already established Kayla's character in the last many...hundreds of pages hence (including the nervous breakdowns and other behaviorial shorts in her programming), I think I'm just going to keep going with the way things are and see what happens.

I'm bound to scare someone with what's buried in these latter pages. :0)

***

I know that there are going to be a lot of questions when The Price of Freedom finally debuts sometime in 2018, but for the time being--? I'm not worried.

I've also been toying with a new prequel novel for The Price of Freedom called The Frontlines of Freedom. I was talking with a new writer contact last night (or over the past couple of days), and she was doing a prequel for one of her books.

Now, even if I hadn't talked with her, I had also been toying with the idea of doing a backstory after the first two books are complete. (Because by themselves...? It's going to be a long publication run for this saga.)

But I've been so engrossed in finishing the first book and seeing where it leads before I embarked on a possible sequel...? I didn't want to risk torpedoing any new information which will be embedded in the current tome.

However, the book will document the battle outside of Waco, Texas in 2162--where the reader is first introduced to Kenneth Sparks--where he and Captain James Tanner encounter a stray Neos reconnaissance unit headed by Kayla Sorenson herself.

While most of The Price of Freedom stays focused on Kayla, this prequel will zero in on the fated decision to allow Kenneth and Kayla to return to one of the few remaining Free Earth Movement strongholds left over in Washington D.C.

The novel will also explore some of what Kayla used to be--seeing how the current novel only gives out hints and such; but nothing seriously concrete.

Think of the hints as being dream images laced in perpetual fog of unreality: You don't know if it is real or not. You just go along for the ride and hope for what passes for a happy ending.

But I've always wondered why I didn't backtrack the novel from 2162 and up until the current year of 2166.

I didn't see the need, I suppose. I just started it out a month before the new year (December 2165), and went with the flow.

Seeing how I'm halfway through the novel (at 326,006 words), the urge to do so is getting stronger as time goes on.

However, if anyone here is worried that The Price of Freedom will somehow be "derailed"--don't start betting now.

Cause the book will be completed first--and then I'll see what happens next.

Sky