One of my favorite current TV shows is the faux-Batman series Person of Interest (if you don’t see the similarities between the Batman and his cast of characters and Person of Interest you just ain’t looking).

The show has more recently played up the Artificial Intelligence angle and I’ve been delighted with the story lines.  Yesterday, it was revealed that CBS was renewing the show for a fifth season but only for 13 episodes versus the usual 22-23 episodes.  This has sparked speculation that the show will conclude next season, and there has been much gnashing of teeth from fans.

Me?  Despite being a huge fan of the series, I’m not so sure its worth getting that worked up about.

First and foremost, we don’t know if this decision was made by the network or if it was the production company that requested a shorter season because they wanted to wrap things up.  We assume the network decided to give the show this shorter leash, but it isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility the Person of Interest creators simply wanted to wrap things up.

If you’ve been around as long as I have and seen as many hours of TV, you realize that sometimes the very worst thing that can happen to a good show is that it goes on longer than it should.  Look at The Simpsons.  Take a look at The X-Files.  And then consider most British TV series, which are usually presented in short bursts but which often have very satisfying -and complete- stories to tell.

If it turns out Person of Interest’s short season five was the result of an arrangement between CBS and the show’s creators who wanted to wrap things up (a big if, I grant you), I can totally understand that feeling.

Joss Whedon left the cinematic Marvel Universe after making the second Avengers film, this despite the fact that propelled him from the cult creator of Buffy and Firefly to a superstar and most likely set him up financially for life.  And while there has been fan criticism regarding Avengers: The Age of Ultron, the film is still getting high marks from critics and (yes) audiences and will most certainly make another metric ton of money.

Despite all this success, Mr. Whedon has noted the exhausting demands of working on a project like this and the time consumed.  He has stated that as much as he’d like to do more work with the Marvel heroes, he can’t justify cutting out another five years of his life on any new project(s).

Which brings me to…me.

In April of 2009 I released the novel Mechanic.  Over the following years I have written and released four more novels in what I’ve dubbed the Corrosive Knights series, with the most recent release, book #5, being Ghost of the Argus (released August of 2014).  By my calculations, I’ve been working on these books for at the very least 10-15 years, with the last six or so years spent working on them exclusively.

As proud of the books as I am, and I’m damn proud of my work on them, I yearn to write books not related to this series.  Books like my earlier works, novels that are standalone works which explore other interests I have.

That’s not to say I’m “tired” of working on the Corrosive Knights series.  Hell no!  It’s just that at this point in time I recognize the danger (and yes, there is a danger here) of getting so involved in this particular work that as an author you either start repeating yourself or, even worse, producing novels of diminishing quality.  Sometimes, you may be guilty of doing both.

And that I will absolutely not do.

At this moment, I’m very deep into writing book #6 in this series.  I have the bare plot of book #7 and some early chapters as well as the conclusion written.  I also have a rough complete draft of the series’ finale.  Will that rough draft eventually be released as book #8?

At this moment I don’t know.

There are certain things I still want to explore in the Corrosive Knights universe/series and I don’t know if/when I’ll be able to get to them.  So for all I know, that concluding novel may well be book #8 but it also could be #9 or even #10.

But the series will eventually end, and it will end on my terms.

Every day as I sit before the computer and write new Corrosive Knights material, I can find the work delightful or tedious, easy to write or surprisingly hard.  Sometimes, I experience a little of each emotion but in the end, when I do release a new novel, I know it is the very best work I was capable of producing at that given time and am damn proud to call it my own.

If Person of Interest does indeed end with its next shortened season, I hope it goes out on a high.

Regardless, I’ll most certainly be watching.