Eddie Whitlock's Blog: Reader and Writer - Posts Tagged "sequel"

I haven't updated the blog here on GoodReads lately because I have spent most of my free writing time working on the sequel to Evil is Always Human .

So far, so good. The current rough rough rough draft is over sixty thousand words. The story is not finished. I have another one-forth to go, if my estimate is correct.

The tale is not in chronological order this time. It starts in 1951, jumps back to 1930ish, moves forward a few years and then - well. The plan is for it to jump as far forward as the 1970s before ending in 1952 or so.

My hero now has a name, though I may change it, and will be addressed by the name throughout. It was easy enough NOT to name him the first time around, but now I need to name him. He's a grown man, after all.

The story deviates greatly from the family tales that drove the first one. This one really incorporates some true-life stories along with some totally fictional ones.

I am writing this on Thursday, February 28, as I prepare to go to Winterville to do a presentation on "Urban Folklore." That comes to mind because urban folklore is a mix of beliefs and storytelling that yield fiction that people would rather fight for than deny. In writing this sequel, I have said some pretty negative things about humanity. Although I wouldn't fight anyone who disagreed with my cynicism - I'm a coward - shooting someone in the back is not beyond me.

At least not in a fictional setting.

“Well, why aren’t you excited?” Priscilla asked me.

“I am.”

“Well, you don’t act like it. If my book was up for an award, I’d be excited.”

“I’m happy about it. I’m not going to win because my book is such a downer.”

“Are the others upbeat?”

“I don’t really know, but I gotta figure some of them are.”

My book, Evil is Always Human, is a finalist in the General Adult Fiction category for the 2013 ForeWord Reviews contest. I told Priscilla about it because she has been supportive of my writing and her mother actually read the book. She expected me to be excited. I am pretty pleased with that fact, but there’s no point getting excited about it. I kind of think excitement is for suckers because ultimately nothing works out and you’re going to die anyhow. I mean, you can be pleased because something good happened, but by no means should you somehow think that the other shoe will hover in midair in perpetuity.

“Oh, look,” she said. “Here it is on their website.” She was online throughout this conversation and we only made eye contact twice and then briefly. That's how I like my conversations: brief and distracted.

“Yeah,” I said. “There’s not a picture of the cover because apparently I effed that part up.”

“Still, it’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah.”

“So when will they announce the winner?”

“I think it’s in June,” I said, but I really didn’t know. “It’s judged by people in the field in some way. I don’t remember exactly who judges, but I remember thinking it was a group of people who knew something about writing and reading and books and stuff.” There I went, being all eloquent with words and stuff.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Well. My mom really liked it.” Priscilla still hasn’t read it. “You might win.”

“I’m working on the sequel.”

I don’t recall her reply to that. I think by then, she was surfing Pinterest for shoes or something.

“I have had a lot of people want me to write the sequel,” I told her. Then I did the math in my head and realized that “a lot of people” was probably twenty, max. Well. That was still twenty people who actually verbally told me that they wanted to know what happened next to my miserable main character.

I can go ahead right here and tell you: Nothing good. At least, not a lotta good. But it’s okay because he doesn’t get really excited about things either.