Chapter 28 is currently with the editor, and I'm hoping it will post tomorrow morning; not a promise, though. Chapter 29 is about half done, and I hope to have it ready to send out to the editor by the tomorrow as well. Chapter 29 will be the last main chapter of the story, with an epilogue to cover a few other things.
There are threads of this story that are not going to be fully wrapped up by the end of it; that is by design, as I intend to write a sequel, hopefully a general series of stories revolving around George, Jill, Akilah, and Josh. I have a specific model in mind, and the next story in the series will wrap up the rest of the main threads of this story. Future stories in the series, while they will involve train travel in the background, will not be quite as much of a rail fest as the previous ones.
I noticed that with the posting of Chapter 26, there was a sudden small decrease in ratings for the story. You are under no obligations to rate the story as anyway other than you see fit, of course; my job is to provide you with good quality entertainment, and if you think I am doing a lesser job than in previous chapters, lowering your posted score is your privilege.
I would appreciate, however, that if there is something specific you don't like about the direction or content of the story, such that you feel the need to lower your score, if you would kindly drop me a message or story comment telling me the reason for that. I am not writing to reader feedback; sometimes people just don't like the story idea I have, and thats fine, but it is also the possibility that I have fallen into a trap or tunnel vision, or such like that, and being made aware of it would be appreciated.
I also got a bit of feedback from a reader who apparently rode the late-60s/early-70s Sunset Limited as operated by the Southern Pacific at a time when they were actively trying to decrease ridership; at that time private railroad companies were required to operate passenger trains along routes, as part of recompense for the public land gifted to them by our government to build their right of ways. The only way they could discontinue service on a line was to demonstrate there was insufficient demand for it to justify operations. Many operators endeavored to do that; Southern Pacific was one of the worst.
Their objection was that the train they rode at that time was horrible; coaches only, terrible service, and vending machines for food. That circumstance did exist, and it ended as a trade with the ICC to operate the train tri-weekly. Amtrak took over passenger train service as a government-run entity on May 1st 1971, and ended almost all of the practices.
I do a pretty extensive amount of research for these stories. The services and circumstances, as well as the schedules, found on the trains are correct to Amtrak service as existed on the date posted in the story. For example, when Jill and George rode the Desert Wind in The Love Express, the Desert Wind had a dining car and it was mentioned in the story. Six months later, for Eagle In The Sunset, the Desert Wind itself had no dining car; dining service for passengers on that train were provided by the dining car on the California Zephyr up to Salt Lake City; there was only lounge service west of there. That is reflected in the story.
Services at present dates have declined a bit from that offered in 1995, although nowhere near as bad as Southern Pacific trains in the final days of private passenger train operation. This story takes place in the later part of 1995, and the quality of the trains, the equipment used, the food offered, the prices found, and the nature of timekeeping on the system at that time are all as existed in 1995. 1995 was 24 years ago; it was a somewhat different world than the one we live in now.
Finally, unless something weird changes, there will be three more chapters in Eagle In The Sunset- 28, 29, and an epilogue covering a few important events that I don't want to hold off until the next book to mention. Unless I stop writing for some reason, there will be a sequel to this book that will most likely answer all questions you have with the ending.
I have not decided whether I am going to write its successor first, write the sequel to I've Been Everywhere, or do both. I also haven't decided if I am going to post them in this fashion, or write the book and then post it in regular postings once I've finished.
The sequel to I've Been Everywhere is going to be set distinctly in the future from now, cover some more events of Johnny's past relative to the end of IBE, some events of his life between the end of the first book and the beginning of the second, and contain the events around the end of his life. I sat around debating what I should do with it, and I realized I could not keep using the song-inspired location format.
I also took a look at current events as I see them, and the trends in society, and realized that his future would have to exist in a certain world; I don't particularly like that world, but it is the one I see. It should be an interesting book, with some happy and touching moments, but it is not going to be a particularly happy story.
It is not going to be a political story, in my definition of politics. I'm not going to really be talking about the correct side of left-vs-right, conservative-vs-liberal or democrat-vs-republican. But a central thrust of the story is the breakdown of the world as Johnny knew it when the story leaves off in 2009. I spent quite a lot of time talking about Johnny's perception of societies ills, and this book will continue that.
If this story is one you want me to tell, even if it is going to be more than a bit morbid and sad at times, let me know. It will not be the last story in that universe; there are quite a few individual characters who deserve substantially more investigation. If you want me to keep my perspective on this to myself and just write the adjacent stories to Johnny's lives, let me know that, too.