For the past several weeks, I've been reflecting on the completion of The Ghost Ships Trilogy.
First, I shared the news that Phantom Armada: Final Reckoning was finally finished and nearing publication.
Then I wrote about the creation of Lieutenant Alastar Kar — how a character born in an online role-playing game more than thirty years ago eventually became the heart of a trilogy.
Last week, I reflected on what happens when a character stays with you long enough to become an old friend.
This week, I find myself thinking about something else.
What does it feel like to reach the end of a story you've carried for years?
The answer is surprisingly complicated.
There is excitement, certainly.
There is relief.
There is satisfaction in knowing that the story reached the ending it deserved.
But there is also something else.
A quiet realization that a journey which has occupied a significant part of your life is finally complete.
The Ghost Ships Trilogy has been with me for a long time. The characters have lived in my imagination for decades. Some, like Alastar Kar, have accompanied me for close to half my life.
Over the course of three books, I have watched these characters face impossible odds, experience heartbreaking losses, form friendships, discover family, and confront threats capable of destroying entire worlds.
I've celebrated their victories.
I've mourned their losses.
And more than once, they've surprised me by taking the story in directions I never expected.
That is one of the great joys of writing. Stories rarely end exactly where you thought they would when you first began.
As I look back on the trilogy, I realize that while there were battles, mysteries, ancient civilizations, and galaxy-spanning conflicts, those were never truly the heart of the story.
The heart of the story was always the people.
A young officer searching for where he belongs.
A linguist determined to understand those who are different from herself.
A loyal pilot willing to risk everything for his friends.
A mother searching for a son she thought she had lost.
People trying to do the right thing in a universe that rarely offered easy answers.
Those are the stories that stay with us. Not because of the spaceships. Not because of the battles. But because we recognize something of ourselves within them.
Am I sad to reach the end?
A little. I think any writer would be.
But more than sadness, I feel gratitude.
Gratitude for the readers who joined me on this journey.
Gratitude for the characters who have occupied my imagination for so many years.
Gratitude for the opportunity to finally tell the story I set out to tell.
Most of all, I feel thankful that I was able to bring this trilogy to its conclusion.
Every story deserves an ending. Every journey deserves a destination. And after years of writing, revising, editing, and imagining, The Ghost Ships Trilogy has finally reached its harbor.
The final chapter is written. The final voyage is nearly complete.
And while it is time to say goodbye to this trilogy, I have a feeling there are still many stories waiting beyond the horizon.
— Dawn Steinman
Ready to experience the full journey? The Ghost Ships Trilogy is available now in print, ebook, and audiobook. Start with Journey Into the Void and follow Lieutenant Alastar Kar from the very beginning.
Explore the Trilogy →