Charles asked R.W.W. Greene:

Just finished "Earth Retrograde". I liked a lot of what you did there. Still the seam 'tween "Mercury Rising" and it was an open wound. There were just too many moving parts in "Retro", attached to the existing anchor of "Rising". A stricter culling & smaller, less busy story might have been better? Are eva going to return to the world of "25 to Life"? With a better POV balance, I think that universe has legs?

R.W.W. Greene Charles, thanks for reading. As it said in the ER Acknowledgements, the series was supposed to be a trilogy, with an installment in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Alas, sales for Mercury Rising were not good enough for book three, and I had to scrap an already-written book two (where Brooklyn lost a leg and pissed off all his friends, Om had a human boyfriend, and etc.) I regret the loss of that book, and it's possible I brought too much of it into Earth Retrograde. in my defense, there wasn't a lot of time. I had the option of having Book Two come out through Angry Robot and self-publishing Book Three, but I didn't want to go that route. Perhaps I chose poorly.

I had some ideas for more "25 to Life," including a same-world story about the folks on the colony ship, but it's all about what I can get through the gate. I have a third of two 'same-worlds' written and an outline for a sequel wherein Julie's kids get hold of Juniper's keys and try to rescue an online friend who's dying slowly in a city cube. The manuscripts are all hanging out in a Google folder with my three starts from this year (half a book each) and the three books my agent has already.

Publishing is not an easy game, and I've often said it's even harder to stay published than to get published. We will see what the future holds.

Thanks again,
Rob

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