Since few here have read the entirety of the first two installments of my Darkside Trilogy, the discussion of the structure of the final installment is academic rather than specific.

However, the structural goals are simple.

First of all the story must be a logical conclusion to the tale told in Discovery and Conception (due out in the coming weeks.

Secondly, the plot must continue the same reality-based action that readers absorbed without any jarring action or issue that takes them out of the story by action that breaks their suspension of disbelief.

And finally, the ending must be compelling, and in the case of my style of story telling, carry out some ironic twist or completely unexpected ending. Since the ending is often the most noticeable and important feature of a tale, I want to craft an ending that does not evoke a sense in the reader of having wasted their money, time or effort in reading the tale.

In the case of the Darkside Universe, the speculative premise, the discovery of a means of traveling off-world with impunity by a black man who refuses to share his largess with the greater white American culture, or anyone NOT in his carefully selected cadre of African Americans, must convey both the rationale for this exclusive group's hoarding of the technology, and the reactions of the rest of the US when the secret is revealed.

Both halves of the premise are easy to imagine and convey when told against the tapestry of America's historical treatment of its former slaves, or anyone non-white, and the selfish, jealous nature of whites when confronted with the fact that they cannot possess something of value a non-white may own. Their frustration over the consequences of using the "N" word with impunity is the prefect example.

Detailing the consequences of white entitlement when it is discovered that blacks only can travel the solar system with impunity, and that those same blacks live a life free of normal debilitating disease in the most realistic way possible, is the challenge of concluding the trilogy with the volume, Confrontation.

Non-whites who have absorbed Discovery, when informed of the title of the third installment, are convinced an armed conflict will be the inevitable climax of the series, based entirely on the initial premise of exclusive black ownership of obviously advanced technological capabilities and the history of white America's response to any such refusal to share that which white entitlement demands possession.

My challenge is to craft an ending that is satisfying for the reader, or in the case of white readers, provides an ironic twist that will be tolerated for its cleverness should the black colonists triumph over those left behind.

The abiding question of the ending is: What action on the part of the black colonists will satisfy the non-white reader's desire for dominion over white America? And, is a violent confrontation won the only means to fulfill the promise of "winning" for the Black Separatists?