Absolute Zero✔️

AFTERWORD

This novel was the one that probably gave me the most trouble in terms of actually writing it.

After Necropolis 3, I was in a world of indecision, made all the worse by being deep in the dark heart of winter as 2014 dawned. I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, and I also have depression issues which were, at the time, still completely untreated. I wouldn't begin taking medication (for the first time in my entire life) for another year and a half at this point.

I had finally finished dealing with Dead Ice (in its original form), as well as the Necropolis Trilogy, and I at least knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to introduce the next new protagonists. The problem was that I still didn't know what form I wanted that to take, in terms of overall story.

At first I decided to try and write some short stories set in the Shadow Wars universe to buy myself a little time, but this ended up not working out. After a few weeks, I finally settled on The Dirt Wars, an old, old idea I'd been holding onto for a long time. (Originally it came to me in like...2004.) The basic concept of The Dirt Wars was that two corporations had staked a claim on a miserable planet that happened to be rich in a certain mineral. Neither wanted to give up, so both had hired mercenary armies to guard their mining sites and it turned into a little war over a miserable ball of rock and dirt. During the course of their little war, they accidentally awaken a hibernating race of alien monsters and are forced to work together to survive.

I went through two iterations of this idea in January 2014, and was satisfied with neither. Finally, desperate to continue working on content, I decided to retool an idea I had from the late 2000s about horrifying monsters unleashed on a distant frozen planet. This became Absolute Zero. I made the plan and set to work.

Unfortunately, my problems were not over. I was still suffering through the SAD all through February and into March, and although I always have my ups and my downs when it comes to writing, Absolute Zero felt mostly like downs with very few ups. It took me ages to get a chapter out. It was so bad that at one point someone actually asked me if I'd consider getting someone else to write the book for me.

Which, like...why? Why would I do that?

In the end, I FINALLY finished it in late April. I was really glad to be done with it, and I have to say, for as miserable and painful as its creation was, I'm genuinely surprised by how well it turned out. I don't think it's great, at all, but it's surprisingly serviceable as a story, at least for me.

That's about all I've got to say. Honestly, I wish I could've let Sharpe and Gideon live. I really liked both of those characters and would've loved to let them stick around as secondary characters, but unfortunately the story required their deaths.

Onto the next one.