Where Sequels Come From

It's been a little more than a year since I published both my books, the Alaska youth adventure, Cheechako, and the Alaska mystery Indecent Exposure.

I felt a little lost when I finished both those books, after I'd gone through the torture of formatting for e-book and paperback and finally uploaded everything. To my surprise I felt cut off from those characters I'd been spending so much time with.

At that time, I missed the adult characters most. Probably because Indecent Exposure was the book I had most recently finished. And it wasn't long before I found myself back on my early-morning writing schedule, pounding out sequels to both books.

As of today, I'm on approximately page 170 of the Cheechako sequel, working title Float Monkeys. It's a longer book, already some thirty pages longer than Cheechako.

I'm writing on approximately page 100 of the Indecent Exposure sequel, working title simply "Hardy 2."

But ... Why Write a Sequel? 

There are all kinds of reasons to write a sequel. From a purely business standpoint, a sequel doubles your sales. If your book works at all, anyone who buys and reads the first will buy and read the second.

But I think it was Mark Twain who said "Only a fool writes for money." I think he meant just for money. I've grown attached to eating regular meals and sleeping indoors, so money still looks pretty good when it shows up.

But beyond money, and beyond even getting to "hang" with your book character friends, it is fun ... challenging ... even exciting to take good characters and let them expand into new situations, new challenges, new adventures.

Here Come the Float Monkeys

I didn't want to write another "winter" book. So both of my sequels take place in the Alaskan summer. 

Float Monkeys takes Will, his dog Blackie, and his good friend Elias, to southeast Alaska, to work for a bush plane flight service near Sitka. It's a completely different Alaska, still rugged, wild, sometimes dangerous, and we get to see different sides of the boys and even of Blackie. 

Float Monkeys are what are called "dock boys" in Alaska, or ... as I've come to learn ... "ramp apes." They're the teenage boys–and girls–who flunky for the flying services, loading gear in and out of planes and filling up the tanks.

As with any youth novel, they are almost completely un-supervised in their world and so anything can–and many things do–happen. And it's all good for the reader. 

Jesse Joshua Watson Paints the New Cheechako Cover.

Before I sign off, let me say that I'm thrilled to announce that Jesse Joshua Watson is currently doing sketchwork for the new Cheechako cover, and will subsequently also be producing covers for the next three books in that series. If you don't know his youth cover and illustration work, you should. Check him out at: www.jessewatson.com