Writing A Fistful of Ether

(Highlight hidden text to read spoiler trivia)

Me: And with that the whole story is told. All conflicts are resolved and everything is wrapped up in a nice neat package.

Brain: No it isn't. What happened to Trish?

Me: She went home and lived out a mediocre life. Not everyone gets a gold medal at the end of the day. 

Brain: You developed her character and then left her high and dry at the end. She wasn't even included in the climax. Also you're completely ignoring the other problem.

Me: What other problem?

Brain: Precisely my point. Also do you realize that the way you ended the second book just created a whole new blank canvas?

Me: But I don't WANT to do another book.

Brain: Wait! Wait! You know what you could do? Sci-fi western!

Me: Well that's... Damn you.

So there I was again at the end of a book but still left with a setup that was much too enticing to not persue. This time however, I didn't have a giant backlog of story waiting to be written or an inspiring song to spur me forward, just a character that I liked and a nagging feeling that there was still more to do. And that sci-fi westen scenario... Trish went from side character to supporting character to singular main character. She gets to have her own adventure in a brand new scenario.

The idea for the third book, (not the setting,) was originally for a prequel to the first book, centering around a younger Travis in his military life prior to defecting to Apex. Trish was just as easy to cast in the roll since the two have things in common and very similar backgrounds. I still wanted Travis in the story as not quite a supporting character but more like a secondary character. It's about both of them but it's still primarily her story. From square one in the first book I fostered some kind of relationship between them because I liked the way they interacted. It's a sort of a Léon: The Professional kind of way. There was always some kind of hierarchy separating them but in A Fistful of Ether, they are finally equals.

I had characters that I liked and a setting that I liked but what's the conflict besides all of their personal baggage? One of the questions I asked myself is, What's next for ectos? Are they being run out of town with torches and pitchforks yet? (Maybe for book 5... Somebody please stop me.) I've imposed a sort of guideline on myself for creating sequels. My thought is that the series is about ectos. The books need to have ectos doing ecto things and the next book should also one-up the last book in some way. The mythos that I've created needs to be updated and expanded. There needs to be something new that's never been seen before. In the first book the whole idea was new because the world hadn't been established prior but it was more or less Travis' double soulbond that was the weird thing that broke the rules. In the second book it was the living ether computer which could do nearly anything virtually and even had influence over the physical world. So what's new this time? What if you could bottle up ether and give it to the masses? What if it could be made ten times more powerful? What if it fell into the wrong hands? Well, wouldn't that suck? That conflict will do nicely.      

Several western movie themes and clichés are present in the story such as a sheriff, a hired gun, a town reliant upon a mine, a burlesque saloon, running the law out of town and poisoning the water supply.

While trying to develop a plot that I liked, one passing concept was that Travis was actually hired by the antagonists which would pit him against Trish in a very emotionally conflicted scenario.

Travis’ dead man’s pseudonym 'Victor Stanton' is a reference to Arch Stanton, the name on the grave next to where the treasure is buried in the movie the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Van makes a reference to Charles Bronson, who was the star of Once Upon a Time in the West; also the star of the Death Wish franchise mentioned by Andy Merrick in the first book.

Trish Merrick shares the nickname "Blondie" with Clint Eastwood’s character "The Man With No Name" which is also referenced in the name of Zack’s drink.

Baxter the ice cream man was inspired by Billy Corgen in The Smashing Pumpkins music video for Today.

The Warren Brothers were inspired by Kane and Lynch of the same titled video game and the Macdougall Brothers from the Outlaw Star animated series.

The Warren Brothers are constantly in conflict with one another. Incidentally, their ecto powers are fire and ice.

Teflon appears in the overall story timeline the moment Trish develops a crush on Travis. He dies when the crush is finally realized.

The working title for the book was 'Psychotropia.' The joke working subtitle was 'A Sirius Incident.'