Do you remember the 007 film Never Say Never Again? That was the one where Sean Connery, who swore to never return to the role of James Bond, returned to the role of James Bond.
On that theme … when I published last June The Loss of What Is Past, which was the unplanned sequel to The Lightning in the Collied Night, I said there wouldn’t be a trilogy. I thought I’d taken Lai and Kapono’s story as far as I could—after I’d published an alternate ending to Loss on my blog.
But then some readers of Loss told me they would have liked to know more about Dr. Aroha Whakatane, one of the sequel’s secondary characters. And as I thought about that, I decided I’d like to know more about her, too.
In Loss, Aroha led an unsuccessful physics project that investigated the use of matter/antimatter reactions for power generation on Earth. But she also accidentally discovered tachyons—the (formerly) theoretical subatomic particles that travel only faster than the speed of light … and can therefore travel back in time. Aroha’s mentor Yinuo told her that tachyons could theoretically be used to send messages to the past. And that’s where the sequel ended, with Yinuo pondering whether antimatter and tachyons would someday be put to some practical use.
I started thinking, what happened then? Was any use ever found for antimatter and tachyons? How about Aroha? In the Timeline of Events in Loss, I noted that she’d gotten married in her hometown of Queenstown, New Zealand. Whom did she marry? Did she and her husband have any children? Did she do anything interesting during her career as United Earth’s chief physicist? And what about United Earth? What happened to President Witi Ngata, his executive assistant Charlotte Evans, and other characters such as Captain Joseph April? Did Earth face any challenges as it recovered from World War III? What happened to Lai’s Love One Another movement? Who picked up its leadership after she died … or did it wither and die without her?
And then I thought about the two Māori characters I’d introduced in Lightning and Loss: Witi and Aroha. I thought it would be interesting to explore the culture, beliefs, and language of New Zealand’s indigenous people through them and other Māori characters, such as Aroha’s husband.
And thus, last summer I started outlining a story in which Aroha is the protagonist. Before long, I had a story that I thought would make a good capstone to Lightning and Loss, creating the trilogy I’d sworn wouldn’t happen.
As of today, I’m halfway through the second editing pass of the first draft of my third novel: Waves Toward the Pebbled Shore. In case you were wondering … yes, that’s from Shakespeare—a slight tweak to a line from Sonnet 60. In case you’ve never had to think up a title for a novel, it’s really hard to find an original title! There is an eBook of short stories with the title Waves toward the Pebbled shore: Stories some you may not have heard, but I don’t think there’s any way it will be confused with my science fiction novel. As for why that title … I hope it will be clear when you read the book, which I plan to publish in early June 2026.
But first, I have to do more editing, and also more research on the main location for the book, Aotearoa (the Māori word for New Zealand), and on the Māori people. I’ll be going to New Zealand next month for up-close research … and because I’ve always wanted to see New Zealand, and because it’s Summer there now. 😊
(Photo courtesy Bond Suits)
