Derelict

Ending Derelict

Hey everyone.

It probably comes as no surprise by this point that Derelict isn’t going to return. 

I’ve given this a lot of thought and I don’t make the choice lightly. I’ve made multiple attempts to get back into it over the past few years. I’ve made plans to continue where I left off, to reboot book 2 while keeping book 1 canonical, even for a spinoff series in the same world. The motivation peaks every now and then, but it never lasts.

Derelict was something I started as a senior year portfolio project for college over a decade ago. The person I was then is different than the person I am now. That doesn’t negate the importance the series held for me, nor what it represented for many of you. It’s not a series I’m ashamed of, though it is a reminder of a time in my life I was at my lowest.

I also feel as though the world has changed. Or rather, my understanding of it has changed. I genuinely don’t feel qualified or comfortable writing a serious, grounded story about climate disaster, authoritarian government, isolation, deadly respiratory infection, and injustice against certain groups (or in Derelict’s case, species) of people. That’s not something I thought about when I was twenty and starting the series. It’s definitely something I think about now.

A year or so back, I re-examined why I thought I needed to return to Derelict. I came to the conclusion that it was no longer out of love or excitement. It was out of guilt, obligation, and fear. 

And that’s not the foundation of a good series. Not for me, at least.

I could probably write several pages on why I feel the way I feel, but I don’t think there’s a need to “show my work” to justify this and lot of this is deeply personal. I’m sorry that I made announcements in the past that sounded like Derelict would come back. I didn’t understand how I actually felt about the series at the time I wrote those.

I still love nautical horror and bleak worlds, and I’m sure those themes will carry into future works of mine. In that sense, the spirit of Derelict will carry on in some form or another.

Thank you for reading.