Is There a Black House Sequel in the Works?

In 1984, fellow authors Stephen King and Peter Straub collaborated to create the fantasy novel The Talisman.  It was a simple, albeit lengthy, story about a boy trying to save his dying mother.  In his quest, he discovers a parallel world called "The Territories".  The book was met with mixed to positive reception.

It would be almost 20 years before the two worked together again to create the sequel, Black House, which was released in 2001.  At this point, King was intent on finishing his Dark Tower series.  As the books progressed, more of his work began to tie in with the magnum opus.  Insomnia was a direct tie in, as was Hearts in Atlantis.  As The Talisman was a book that dealt with parallel worlds, it made perfect sense to tie Black House into the series as well.

A third and final book in the Jack Sawyer series has been mentioned on more than one occasion.  On the one hand, I hope it does happen as I enjoyed both books and would be glad to read more about Jack and The Territories.  However, there was no real arc between the two books.  Each one was pretty self contained so I'm not sure what purpose a third book would serve.

I'm not even sure what the story would be.  The Crimson King was defeated, so what other threat could there be to face?  Of course, the main antagonist in the first one was just a mere human so maybe the threat would be along those lines.  It may be something else entirely, I don't know.

There's also the possibility that we won't even see the book.  Both authors are friends so it isn't a matter of a falling out or lack of cooperation, but it took nearly two decades for the first sequel to be released.  Another wait like that, and both authors will be well into retirement by the time of the supposed book's release.

This is one of those series where a third part would work, but isn't necessarily needed.  If King and Straub decide against making another book, the series wouldn't suffer.  We wouldn't feel cheated as readers due to an incomplete story.  While Black House followed up on The Talisman, there was no need to read one in order to understand the other, nor was there some subplot that spread through the two books to leave elements open for a third book.

If they do decide to make a third book, great.  I will wait for its publication and pick it up when it is released.  If it never comes out, that's OK too.