The Missing Appendix

I’m afraid I have a confession to make. I haven’t written it yet, so it isn’t really missing.

If it passed you by … and SPOILER ALERT, if you haven’t read the book, you may wish to stop now …

I make reference to this as a “postscript” in chapter 35 (page 497 of the printed paperback) and then again in the America Today excerpt when it has vanished from the eBayRetro auction sale. It was a deeper analysis and exploration of the soul dimension by my protagonist. The ultimate description of ‘what happens when you die’ that he feels the reader needs to know. The original purpose of his written account; it’s what he has just found out.

But towards the end of the first draft, I realised I had one or two problems with this.

Try as I might, I couldn’t think up a suitable proof for a theory, and I’d already mocked and ridiculed the ‘fruitcakes’ who deluded themselves with false proofs (page 350). It would need to be something damned clever, and so far it has eluded me.

Something else that was further bothering me was this; I realised that my protagonist’s philosophical ranting might not be every reader’s cup of tea. It detracts from the flow of the plot, is not particularly scientific and parts are a bit difficult to get your head round. I felt that putting more like this in the main body of the text might not go down well with some of you who just wanted to get on with the story and weren’t much interested in the more esoteric generosity of the mind-enhancing Physic.

It could perhaps go in as an appendix at the end.

Trouble was, there’s already the epilogue and the two excerpts and I think these conclude the novel with some nice twists. A dull appendix just for afficionados of a nerdish predisposition maybe wouldn’t sit well here.

And then I read about what’s called in the trade the “reader magnet“. This is a freeby that directs punters to your website and gives away some ‘extra’ piece of writing’ in exchange for your email address.

I had a brainwave. My reader magnet would be the missing appendix.

But as I’ve already told you, I haven’t written it yet, and I still haven’t been able to come up with a convincing proof. So instead, I thought I might leave it up to you to give me your take on the soul dimension. You can comment here, or we could set up a private discussion through the contacts page.

Who knows what we might come up with?