The Final Trilogy

It’s an unusual sensation, finishing a book.

After all those months of increasingly obsessive work, of deadlines and edits and word counts, when you send in the final draft you’re suddenly free... and you have no idea what to do with yourself.

I usually wander around for a few weeks, gazing blearily into the sun while I struggle to remember how to talk to people. A lot of housework gets done. Rooms are cleaned and shelves are put up. Bulbs are replaced. Cars are serviced. I spent three days last week putting together seven glass cabinets and rearranging my shelving system. When I was finished I stood back, nodded in approval, and then wondered what the hell was I going to do next.

Faithful Minions, ever since I finished Death Bringer I have been at a loss.

Yes, I’ve been working on The End Of The World, but that’s practically finished. It just needs another few hours of writing and it’ll be done. I’m delaying that as much as possible, actually, because I need to have something to write.

I usually play video games when I finish a book, but I finished Infamous 2 weeks ago and I still haven’t started the new Red Faction... it’s sitting there, waiting for me.

I’ve been training, of course. I have the most wonderful black eye that you’ve ever seen, courtesy of a swinging elbow that smashed into my face. Oh the fun...!

But it hasn’t all been black eyes and shelving units. For the past few days I’ve been thinking about the final three Skulduggery books. Only three left. Good God. We’re almost at the end. Well, kind of. We have three years left, which doesn’t sound so bad.

I know EXACTLY what Book Eight is about, and I know EXACTLY what Book Nine NEEDS to be about. But Book Seven... Book Seven is my last chance to come up with a brand new story idea. It has to tick all the boxes and fulfill the requirements and contain certain key moments and scenes that will lead us into the final two books, but apart from that it can be about anything. So, for the past few days, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. For the past few days I’ve been daydreaming, coming up with the next book...

I still haven’t decided on it. I thought it would go one way, then changed my mind and wanted it to be about something else, then changed my mind again. The fact is, I don’t know yet what it’ll be about, but I do know that I’m close to deciding. And when that happens, well... I’ll have started on the Final Trilogy, and in my head at least, I’ll have started to say goodbye to Skulduggery and Valkyrie. It’ll be another three years until I bid them a proper farewell, but it all starts here.