Writer's Commentary

Some final thoughts

My original plan was for to write a new version of Who Killed Kennedy to appear online with the published novel. The alternate tale would strip out all the JFK elements and present a different finale. In the end I have put that plan to one side for now. Pressures of work from my career as a freelance writer mean I don't have the time or energy to tackle such a task - especially without any prospect of payment to fund such an endeavour.

Also, I haven't had the jolt of inspiration that's so necessary for creating fiction. Writing stories just for the money is a hollow, hateful task in my experience and I'd rather not rewrite Who Killed Kennedy's ending, flawed though it may be, and make matters worse. So, for now, I've decided to let sleeping dogs lie - and any other clichés.

There were vague plans for a sequel of some sort if Who Killed Kennedy was a success. The book did well, got better than average reviews and earned me several royalty cheques. Alas, within a few months of Who Killed Kennedy's publication Virgin learned it had lost the Who licence and the prospects for any more novels outside the New and Missing Adventures ranges became moot. Certainly I had done the research for all Earth-based stories set after Day of the Daleks, the point in Who continuity where Who Killed Kennedy effectively stops. TV tales like The Sea Devils, The Green Death, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Robot and Terror of the Zygons would have provided plenty of grist for the story mill. But it was not to be.

In the Summer of 2002 I was stricken with an idea for a way of reviving the Who Killed Kennedy approach to Who continuity, but with a fresh approach of its own. Instead of a single protagonist involved with the events of a dozen different TV adventures, the novel would follow the effects of a single story on multiple protagonists in a single day. Magnolia crossed with 24 in the Who universe, if you like. I started doing research, wrote up a short pitch called Crossing The Rubicon and submitted it. The idea was well received but blown out of the water by problems with rights clearances. So, for now, the thematically linked sequel - definitely not to be called I Still Know Who Killed Kennedy - remains on hold.

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