The Road So Far: Writing a Series That Remembers...

When people ask where to start with the Highway to Hell series, the easy answer is Route 666. It’s the beginning of the road, and the moment the first wrong turn is taken.

But the longer I’ve worked on this series, the more I’ve realized something important: the books were never meant to reset after each installment.

Each story carries something forward.

In Route 666, the danger begins quietly. It’s the kind of wrong turn that feels almost ordinary at first. The characters don’t yet understand the road they’ve stepped onto.

Sins of the Fathers shifts the focus from the first mistake to the weight that follows. Some consequences don’t belong to the people who must face them. Sometimes the past demands payment from the next generation.

By the time the story reaches The Gathering Storm, the pressure is no longer distant. What once seemed like isolated events begins to connect, and the characters realize, too late, that what’s coming cannot simply be avoided or ignored.

Then comes Evil Reigns.

That book isn’t about starting the conflict. It’s about living with what happens after the storm arrives, and when the consequences of every earlier moment finally settle into place.

Looking back, I realize the series has always been about the same idea: the past doesn’t stay behind us. It waits. It accumulates. And sometimes it follows us farther down the road than we ever expected.

For readers who have been with the series from the beginning, I’m grateful you’ve stayed on the journey this far.

And for those who have only recently found the road, there’s still plenty of it ahead.