The History of Gemini Man
Part III: Gemini Outsider
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And here we are at the grand finale of the Gemini Man and our journey through its history. As a reminder, the campaign has around two days to go, so if you have not yet backed, you are running out of time. Remember: there is a good chance this edition will never be available again! Anyway, enough of that. Let us get straight into it today and explain just where the final chapter of this series came from.
This one, however, is a lot more straightforward than the first two are. Basically, I just wanted a way to increase stakes and peril without having a larger scale. As a result, the story feels more personal to the characters and yet the threat is also the most dangerous they've encountered so far. It's lower key, but no less explosive, if that makes sense.
The strangest part of the writing process of the final book in the series, Gemini Outsider, is that it was written and edited during the pandemic. I say this because a lot of what happens in the book is pretty much the opposite of what living in the time period was actually like. I should explain what this means. The entire story is about insiders and outsiders, trust and loyalty, and what makes a home and a community. All things that just about everyone was dealing with at the time in lockdown world, and many are still dealing with it even after restrictions have long since lifted. The difference is that, just like each of the other two books, I had been writing this one in a totally different mindset than each of the original two books. This helped it differentiate itself even more from the others which, as I said, had always been my goal here.
As I'd already said, Silver Empire was dealing with a lot at this point in time, and I still had an entire book finished and awaiting edits while I wrote this one. Because of the state of everything in both the world and in my writing time I had planned Gemini Outsider to be a sort of soft ending point for the story. I did this for the simple reason that I had planned on leaving the series on the backburner for a little while in order for both Silver Empire to catch up and to see the audience reaction from Book Two. There was no sense having a backlog of books just sitting there. That wouldn't help anyone. It wasn't as if there wasn't plenty else to worry about in the world at the time, either.
So when I finished writing the book I kind of put Gemini Man out of my mind for while. I worked on other things, and thought up other ideas to pursue. I didn't know then that Silver Empire would never get to release the follow-ups and I would have to do the honors of getting a cover made for Book Three myself. By the time they were able to get to Book Three, edit it, and send it back, the series had already been out of my mind for awhile. I actually had to read through all three just to finish off the final editing sweep for the Kickstarter. That was a trip!
The last few years have really been bizarre, even outside of what I was doing.
The pandemic was a fairly dark time for just about anyone who lived it. I'm sure anyone reading this knows that for themselves. I can't say whether it directly affected the direction and tone of Gemini Outsider, but I can say that of the three books in the series, this is the closest to how I write as of the date this piece you are reading is being written. Our characters had been on quite a journey since they were thrown into that experiment back in 2018 and, even though the three books take place across only one summer, it felt as if their journey had come full circle after being lost in the desert for decades. Writing can be weird like that.
Now that the pandemic is finally over and the third book (as well as the second) will finally see release in the world, it will be nice to see the audience reaction to how much happens. This entire series went through an arc on its own, and that's just talking about its production. We haven't yet gone into the story itself yet.
So let us do that.
Gemini Outsider is where we wrap up the one of the main plotlines in the story of our duo. That being their strange quest to find a place in the world. This has been hinted at since the start of Book One, and it is the problem most paramount to their journey.
You've probably noticed, but I've mostly avoided talking about the nitty gritty details of the plot in any of these books, mostly out of respect for spoilers. This has made the history a bit tougher to talk about in greater detail. However, I have no reason to avoid talking about the story in broader strokes, so that is what I will do here.
The first two books were grander stories, almost by necessity. The first one was a planet hopping tale involving discovering a new world and encountering a whole race of people, and the second was a cross country road trip across America to crush a cult. For the third book, I had two options. I could either go bigger, or change focus. Instead of wrapping up the main story (because I had originally intended to do more books after these three) I decided instead to solve the more pertinent issue our characters had been suffering since the original book: a place to call home.
From what you can tell from the first two entries, traveling was a big aspect of both. That isn't so much the case with Book Three. It is more about standing your ground and refusing to buckle under tremendous pressure. And there is quite a lot of pressure here.
I should first address the elephant in the room. Why three books in the first place? How many was I even intending to originally write? Well, truth is that I more or less had the entire thing mapped out in my mind, depending on how Heroes Unleashed was going to progress forward. Because, as I said, the entire project was not just mine--I was merely a piece of it doing my own thing. How the rest of the project will unfold now beyond Gemini Man, I still have no idea.
Originally, I had planned on writing two loose trilogies, the first one ending with this book and setting up our characters for the wider Heroes Unleashed world. It would give other writers an idea of who Matthew and Jason were, as well as their workings and cast, and could use them accordingly in their works. There was to be a lot more crossover to be had.
As I said, originally Gemini Man was meant to be one piece in a larger picture, but that didn't really end up working out for all the reasons we've already outlined in previous parts. When I originally got around to it after taking a small hiatus and letting Silver Empire catch up I had planned on writing a final trilogy to wrap the whole thing up. But then I scratched that down to two books. Then, eventually one. The currently running campaign has instead allowed me to write it the way I actually want to write it. I'm no longer the same writer I was when Book One came out. The only way to properly finish it off would be to do it in a way that is natural to me as a writer today.
The reason for how I'm doing it is due to how I've changed my focus in writing over the years. I like having every story count, not just being another entry in a long slog of a saga without an end. I don't want to write books for the sake of writing them, but if I think the story needs to be told and I think I could do a good job telling it. The first three books in this series I felt needed to be told, and they tell a complete story on their own, but they don't wrap up the wider threat outlined in Book One. That couldn't be done convincingly in three books without badly truncating everything. So instead I used Book Three to be a different sort of culmination for the story.
Gemini Outsider deals with our characters coming to terms with the new world they have discovered and digging their heels into a position where they can finally go on the offense themselves. Writing more books after this would kind of blunt the impact of this one, and basically just describing a series of events that you can already guess will happen. This is why I added the Coda stretch goal into the Kickstarter for readers to see the end result they deserve to see. There is a story to be told to wrap Gemini Man up, but its just not needing of a full novel to tell it.
But I'll get to that later. For now, the final book.
Book Three is about our main characters setting up shop in a new town after their previous adventures made them easy targets for more nefarious forces. In the town of Riverview, hidden from the world, Matthew and Jason start to build a new life, reassessing what they lost along the way and what they can possibly do to move forward, especially with the Gemini Man still at the back of their minds and their original enemies still on the move. Now, as the ultimate and most zealous agents of their enemies stumble upon Castor and Pollux, can the pair finally win their freedom? And if they do, what can they do with it?
Gemini Outsider is the longest of the three books, and probably the longest book I've written so far. Even though the scope of the story is the smallest, a lot happens in this book, and the conclusion is easily my favorite of the three. So is the villain and the final encounter. Actually, Book Three is my favorite of all three Gemini Man books overall. It really all leads up to this one.
As for the Coda that has yet to be written (it will be once the campaign has ended and I have an idea of how much I will be writing for readers), it will be called "Gemini Destroyer" and will focus on a small time jump towards the final battle where our main characters put everything on the line. You will see where Matthew and Jason's new found strength leads them. Everything not wrapped up in Gemini Outsider will be finished off here.
In regards to the second story, the one we are dangerously close to funding in the campaign right now (remember, I recently swapped stretch goals to give backers more story content!), this one will not actually star Matthew or Jason, but another duo of characters introduced in Book Three as they deal with the fallout of that book and the remnants of Earthbound agents that have not yet given up the fight. This is the last loose end I really wanted to tie up, and the story I want to tell will give both characters, as well as that part of the main storyline, the wrap up they need. If you want this story, please help us reach the next stretch goal before the campaign is finished. This is the last piece I really want to add to the final work, and it is going to be quite the capper for the characters in question.
Just like I said before, I'm prepared to go all out to finish this series off right. Readers will be getting a lot of bang for the buck with this one.
After we finish with the bonus stories, we can finally put a bow on the entire project. Over 200K words and five years in production and we can finally reach the end.
What the Gemini Man series ends up doing is coming to a close at just the right moment, both for the writer and for the characters. What started as two people lost and thrown in the deep end, concludes with the paid finding their place and becoming the heroes needed in the moment. I started this at an early stage in my writing career, and now I'm finishing it as I move on into different territory. It's yet another dual progression, like the entire series itself. Two sides to everything!
And that is what brings us up to where we are today. Half a decade and over 200k words later and now the Kickstarter exists to finally help bring this complete series out into the world. It's been a long time coming, and I'm very proud to be able to say we are nearly done. I've wanted to be able to say that for ages, and now I can.
Thank you for joining me on this journey, especially as we reach the final days of the campaign. I could not have done this without you, and because of you, I can give this production all the elbow room it needs to reach its potential.
As I wrap up this short post series on the production history I can only say I'm glad to finally share this entire journey with the Gemini Man, and to finally close it off. Hard to believe it has been with me for so long now.
In regards to Heroes Unleashed, however, it's very much still around. Should one want to know what the other authors will do with their series they should ask them. If one also wishes to write in the world, asking Russell and Morgon Newquist about it will get you all the information you need. Matthew and Jason might even show up in future Heroes Unleashed stories by other authors. Who knows? The band will be playing on regardless.
But for me, the Gemini Man series you see here is the end of it. It is now time to move into new territory and onto new things. It was fun while it lasted, but I have new horizons ahead to try and conquer. That is why this campaign is for the Complete Series. There will be no more entries after this release, so jump aboard before it's too late!
Once again, thank you for all your support both over the years and for the Gemini Man campaign. I never thought I could come this far and I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for the readers. The Gemini Man series has been an experience to create, and I'm thankful for having gone through it.
Now it's time to make this the best series we can make it!
