"What's next" scrawled on a blackboard with white chalk

After people finish reading If Souls Can Sleep, they often wonder, “What happens next?”

While Book One of The Soul Sleep Cycle provides enough resolution to stand on its own, readers already know a second book in the series is forthcoming. There is plenty of dreamscape real estate left to explore, but where might the story go?

The good news is Book Two is scheduled for release this fall.

The bad news is readers will have to wait a little longer to find out what happens “next.”

Solving the riddle

If Sin Dwells Deep is technically a sequel to If Souls Can Sleep, since it was written—and will be published—after Book One. However, the events of ISDD do not follow those of ISCS chronologically.

The two novels span roughly the same timeframe: Book Two starts a couple of months before Book One and concludes a few days before the epilogue of ISCS, though that doesn’t make it a prequel.

If Sin Dwells Deep can best be described as a parallel novel.

Bisecting a book

I’m not sure how other parallel novels are born, but for me it happened by accident. You see, I didn’t realize I was composing a series when I started writing If Souls Can Sleep. I had many ideas and thought (naïvely) that I could fit them all in a single book.

Before long, however, I saw the error of my overambitious ways. Juggling so many focal characters and intertwining plots became untenable. Rather than one freakishly large baby, it turned out I had twins.

In the end, I decided If Souls Can Sleep would be Vincent’s story, with Milton’s storyline supplementing the main narrative.

And the ideas that didn’t make it in? Well, they were prime material for Book Two. In fact, Chapter 6 of an early draft of If Souls Can Sleep—a scene that introduced Project Valhalla dream drifter Allison Greene—became Chapter 1 of If Sin Dwells Deep.

Exploring new territory

Whereas Book One introduced the idea of dream drifting, Book Two reveals many more details about Project Valhalla’s mission and the men and women involved in that top-secret operation. The reader will also learn more about “the enemy”—those responsible for ambushing Milton prior to the start of the series—as well as a terrifying new villain.

A handful of scenes from Book One are shown from a different point of view in Book Two. But Book Two is more than just Vincent’s story told from another perspective. If Sin Dwells Deep focuses on Allison, aka Syn, and even though dream drifting is a big part of her life, she has her own personal demons to confront.

In short, the two stories are interconnected yet independent.

Creeping toward a conclusion

Although If Sin Dwells Deep won’t answer the question “What happens next?” the next novel will answer a more pertinent question: “What is the true threat to the dreamscape?”

By the time Book Three hits shelves in spring 2019, readers will have a clearer view of the big picture, setting up a confrontation that has been building for years. Not only will If Dreams Can Die answer “What happens next?” it will provide a satisfying conclusion for the series.

As for what happens after that, I always hold onto a few ideas just in case…