Well, after 18 years of writing some 4.5 million words, spread over 6 books, containing 181 chapter, 'The Three Signs' has finally been concluded. "But wait, William!" I hear you exclaim. "What becomes of Will, Lori, Megan, and Michelle? Do they all live happily ever after, or is there another disaster in store? How dare you leave us all hanging!" It will be like the angry messages I got at the end of Book One - "You've killed off the main character! How could you!"
But, like a model railroad layout, which is never truly one hundred per cent complete, no story is ever really finished. Do the Guardians have anything more in store for Will? What will happen with the School of Computer Science Engineering, can Will restore its reputation? Have the Roberttones completely ended their career? Will Australia now achieve everything Will and the Guardians hoped for? Will Kaz become State Premier?" There are all these questions yet to be answered.
So, there will be a short epilogue, that will (I hope) answer these, and other, questions. This will be written over the next month or two, and then I will cease writing any more in this series. I first start writing what evolved into this saga in 2006, as an extended short story for a friend in the UK (who, by a fluke of writing, ended up being memorialized in the story as the subject of the music written by Elton John and gifted to Will and the Band). After writing several chapters of what was to become 'Angie', I realized that there was a far more extensive story here. I searched around for a theme, eventually coming up with the concept of 'The Three Signs of Love'. Meanwhile, the story took on a life of its own, minor characters developed into major story lines, various twists and turns crept into the plot. However, the basic span of events, and the concluding scene, remained fairly much fixed in my mind.
I can only hope you've enjoyed reading it at least half as much as I've enjoyed writing it. During the process, I have gone through the death of my original muse, major illness (including open heart surgery, brain surgery, and cancer treatment), the death of both of my parents, my wife (after a long illness), remarriage, job loss, relocation halfway across the USA, and the usual ins and outs of daily life. Some of the things I have experienced ended up in the story (including the scene with Alexa after the pot muffins), some were just wild flights of fancy and my fevered imagination. I make no apologies for the changes I made to Australian political history - if the efforts of the Guardians, through Will, had no impact on events, then what was the point of it all?
There are many people that I would like to thank - Maureen Copley, who gave me the initial inspiration to write, and the encouragement to continue, Lisa Purdon-Ball, who became my muse, the many other writers here on SoL, who while I can't claim to be as good as some of them are, at least inspired me to continue. My (ever-patient) editor, Benton, who reviews my chicken-scratchings, trying to make sense of how I've tortured the English language, spelling and grammar to turn my writings into something readible and understandable. And, finally, you, my loyal readers - I've never really worried about the scores of my stories, number of downloads, or any of those metrics - what is important to me are comments and the words of encouragement, where you tell me how much you enjoy the story, how you hope Will will get through his latest setback, how much my writing brings back memories of Sydney and the Australian music scene of the era.
It has been a great experience for me, a true learning experience, and I think my writing has improved considerably from my first feeble attempts. I'll never reach the heights of those who get awards here, I'll never get to the point where I earn money from my scribblings, but that was never my intention. I have got incredible enjoyment and satisfaction from putting my ideas down on paper (or screen, actually), and the feedback - both positive and negative - was a great bonus.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing the journey with me, Professor Will Morris, Lori Earle, Megan Winters, Michelle Jones, and all of the others - Lisa Davis, Janelle Ward, Jillian Winters, Fiona Shaw....