So I’m working on the fourth EDGE book — tentatively titled THE EDGE OF INFINITY. I’m writing on the plane coming home to New Mexico and I suddenly realize that this book is set about fourteen years after the events in THE EDGE OF DAWN.
All three of these books have been very closely tied to the real world, and real world events and I suddenly realized that Donald Trump will be president and that is going to have a profound effect on the state of the world in 2031. Advances in science will no doubt suffer. The rights of minorities may well be in jeopardy. Women’s rights may be curtailed. The fight against climate change will have been delayed and perhaps derailed. Which given Lumina Enterprises stated purpose to increase knowledge and understanding of the universe and the world we inhabit a real headache. It means my paladins have been fighting a rear guard action. That’s going to change a lot of the tone of the book, and perhaps change the emotional content of the final scene. It might be less triumphant and more the act of people striving to find a better way on a planet far, far away.
Or in the words of Peter Diamandis —
“The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us are going to the stars.”
It might get even more complicated before all is said and done. I do think it shows that there has been leakage if not a full open gate this year. All wars wax and wane, fronts change hands. This might be evolving into a holding action with just certain areas managing to ward off the demons.The casualties will certainly grow. Did you start out intending to write an allegory of the situation we are in now or is it life imitating art?
Alas, life is imitating art. I had hoped we were moving away from tribalism and superstition. Sadly, I was wrong.