The unexpected sequel

I'd like to state this from the outset; I'd still like not to have the freedom to do what I've recently done; start writing an unexpected and, for me, largely unplanned novel. I'd love a book deal with a major publisher even though I know that would probably be the end of such adventures.

    But I'm an indie author so bring those adventures on!

    I need to rewind and explain.

    Last September I published my novel LMF. This is a tightly plotted, structured and short book (55,000 words) set on one night in February 1944 in an elderly Halifax bomber over Germany. I set out to explore combat fatigue and stress of crews driven to go on beyond their limits because of the threat of LMF - being declared lacking moral fibre; essentially of cowardice by the RAF.

It's been well received and well reviewed. I've even appreciated the ones that have pointed out the little errors I made - I've treated them as editorial advisors and made the changes! 

    But one review stood out. It said something like 'looking forward to the sequels'.

    Sequels? LMF was always meant to be a standalone book. The story arc was complete, there was nowhere else to take it.

    But the seed was planted. That word sequel kept coming back to me.

    I think all writers have a sort of computer ticking away at the back of their minds, somehow working through all the fragments of story ideas, unheeded, below the level of consciousness. Every so often a workable idea is produced. Often that idea is delivered when the writer can't do anything about it; in the middle of the night, whilst driving, etc.

    Sometimes, though, it arrives at the right moment, in this case when I had a notebook and pen in hand.

    It was like a landscape at night lit up in perfect detail by a flash of lightning. I could see the story, the continuing story of the main character in LMF. His story arc was not complete; those found to be Lacking Moral Fibre were usually reduced to the ranks and given menial jobs to do, bearing the visual scars of where their rank insignia had been removed but carrying the mental scars deep within. Was there any way back from there? 

    So I even had my title 'The Way Back'. 

    And it had to be written.

    Now.

    My other projects had to be put to one side.

    It was time for a writing adventure to start, to use the one main advantage that indie authors have; the freedom to write what they like.

    I still seek NOT to have that freedom. But I'm enjoying it whilst I still have it.