Another book finished at over 400k words! This is now the fourth work that I've completely finished writing, two Harry Potter Fanfictions as well as another Sci-fi story that I've fully self-published on Amazon. My other work while it had larger cosmic forces, was centered on an Earth very close to our own. Actually set a bit in the past compared to the modern day. As you can guess, this story was not that. It was a very expansive setting, and it was definitely interesting trying to balance the worldbuilding of something so complex with the other elements of the plot.

  And the plot. Oh boy, the plot. I'm a discovery writer, so I wrote the story pretty much chapter by chapter, especially in the beginning. It wasn't really until Part 3 or 4 of the story that I started fully fleshing out the larger plans and endings that I wanted for the story. It became much more critical to plan things out once I started messing with the timelines and pinning down details that happened in the past and the characters started interacting more heavily with the Shadow.

  Honestly, I think the flashback parts were some of my favorite parts of the story to write. The CODA section on Earth in Part 5 especially was really smooth to write for me. I feel like I integrated them pretty well into the larger narrative by having the Shadow come in to facilitate it all. As well as unraveling different parts of the past and making each time something unique so it wasn't just Sean/Emily being essentially ghosts all the time like they were in Part 5.

  One of the hardest parts of this story was the Immortals. One of the things that prompted me to write this story was how Immortal characters are portrayed in every other story I've ever read or seen pretty much. All of them could be powerful or ageless in some way. But usually there's some kryptonite or special laser that our heroes can use to kill them. Which means they aren't really Immortal, since they just got killed. I mean, if they can get killed by stuff, even if it's something really specific, then they weren't actually fully Immortal in the first place really. More like ageless with some extra powers stacked on top.

  I told myself when I started this story that I would never kill off an Immortal character. Never. No gimmick, no way to kill them. At several points I considered the Shadow taking direct action to kill certain characters or revert them back into mortals, especially Peter, but I chose not to, feeling it would cheapen the central idea of Immortality if there was the chance the Shadow could just swoop in and unilaterally kill somebody. A literal Deux ex machina too far, which I especially had to be careful of for, considering everything that happens with the Shadow already.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I think I did a pretty good job of working within those constraints of never killing off an Immortal. And I also introduced pain desensitization and the brain healing so they can't be driven totally insane and immobile either. But it was difficult to keep tension especially in battles when our main cast is literally unable to die and will live forever. The Endless Flesh mitigated that somewhat with the main tension from being separated and isolated or captured by the Endless Flesh rather than death.

  I think that Emily became a much more complex character than Sean did in the end. Not that means that Sean was bad per se, but he just had much simpler motivations. He felt like he a failure for not protecting the people he cared about properly and was doing his best to push against that and help them in a way that he felt was due to his own efforts rather than someone else's intervention. Meanwhile, Emily has all sorts of things going on with her past and her relationship to other Immortals/ the wider galaxy. Emily's pretty essential to the whole story, so she's pretty much cemented in. But Sean did end up with a much more minor role than I envisioned for him originally in the beginning. Still significant, but not as central as I imagined him to be.

  Anyway, I'll probably end up rewriting this story at some point, probably tighten up the beginning section especially. I might even minimize Sean and the younger crew's role and make Emily the main character depending on how I'm feeling when I return to this story for a rewrite. Let me know what you think about that idea, and also about Emily's and exploring the universe's history through the time travel especially. I did wonder what readers would think when there were these large detours away from the wider more advanced galaxy in the future to explore these other eras and time periods of Earth and Gaia instead. Even if it did explore Emily's backstory and the Shadow's motivations through that.

  As for the future, I've left some bits and bobs at the end more open ended, so I also definitely have plenty for a sequel if I need it. But the ending is wrapped up in what I feel is a good place with most things wrapped up.

  If you have thoughts on anything that I said above or any other part of the story, then feel free to leave a comment below the chapter or leave a review on the story. Feedback helps me improve as an author and create even better stories in the future. Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed Foundation of All!

  Living in an Eldritch Neighborhood is published on Amazon if you're interested. Available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats. Every little bit helps support me as an author, if you want to go check it out!