Now that Pink Ballerina has hit the beach, I wanted to let you know that along with DEAD BEEF and soon-to-be-released Decisive Moment, and a couple of other stories and novels I’m still developing, they will portray Our Cyber World, a series of parallelequels. To see how this is going to work out, let’s talk about that tongue twister: parallelequel.

About the Parallelequel

Before I get carried away and claim I’ve come upon something new or even novel, let’s remember how someone wiser and more ancient that me said there’s nothing new under the sun. This applies here. The parallelequel is a hybrid of the sequel, the prequel and the spin-off. It is defined by stories that unfold in parallel or with some time offset, but not necessarily preceding or following another sequentially in a way that one story drives or provides the basis for the other. Each story features a different protagonist and may share some of the characters from other parallelequels in the series, but primarily they all share the same world.

This overall story structure enables me to explore a more complex world as conveyed through the different points of view and voices each story’s leading characters offer. Having read a few series that bring on burn-out by the third or fourth book, I hope to create a more interesting experience for my readers, along with keeping myself from falling asleep on my keyboard. Those two considerations tend to go hand-in-hand, actually.

The Our Cyber World series will provide me with the first test for this approach. So far I like how it is coming together, letting me envision stories that bring to light a number of aspects and adventures within the world that DEAD BEEF and Pink Ballerina have already inhabited. Decisive Moment will soon join them. I hope you come along with us.