I got a big hole knocked out of my life this week and I'm still trying to catch up with everything I should have been doing for four days when I was forced to basically do nothing.
First let me say, I'm healthy. That wasn't the problem. Thanks for your concern.
My truck, on the other hand, was sick and chose to let me know that when I was fifty miles from home. In case you don't want to read the entire saga below, let me just say that I have learned a few lessons, including the fact that I will never again get in my truck, even to drive to the grocery store, without my SHTF bag, my cell phone, and my computer. This might have been a slightly different story if I'd remembered those items last Saturday.
Here's the rest of the story.
I went to a great cigar and wine event on the state line between Washington and Idaho near Coeur d'Alene. Fifty miles from camp. I was just going to be gone for a few hours. The event, Big Ash at the Loft, was fun. I won a beautiful humidor for my cigars in a dance contest. Then discovered the prize was for the worst dancer. Ah well. When I left the event, my truck refused to start. I had no phone.
Fortunately, I had friends who hadn't left the event yet and borrowed a phone to call AAA. AAA couldn't get it started. Friend said to have it towed to a repair shop a couple of miles away and he would pick me up. I could crash at his house until the truck was ready. Of course, the shop wasn't open on Sunday, but Monday morning I went down to it, explained the situation, and they promised to look at it right away.
They discovered the problem along with ten other problems that I really needed fixed before I head south for the winter and it would take two days to get it all fixed. ($1550). My friends let me stay in their guest room for the entire time but I had no cell phone, no computer, and no spare clothes. I was pretty much isolated from Saturday afternoon till Tuesday night.
Since then, I've been in catchup mode. I've just uploaded another eight chapters of What Were They Thinking? to SOL and queued them up, and have updated my website and Patreon page. I've launched into writing Sly Cortales's Story and it's going well.
And I've tried to answer my email.
One question got to me because I have been asked it frequently this summer. It has to do with what other sequels are in the works and what other things I might write.
Yeah. I have about fifteen to twenty stories I'm trying to put together or have notes on or are sitting in my "To Be Written" folder. Unfortunately, I have only ten fingers and 24 hours a day. Nonetheless, here are some of the projects I've been asked about and what my intent is.
1. Will you write a sequel to Living Next Door to Heaven? Yes. The 'equel', What Were They Thinking?, is in progress now. But I know many of the questions are really about continuing the story beyond book nine. I think this is a good idea and have long had the idea that the next book in that series would be narrated by Xan because it is really the story of the next generation.
2. Will you write a fourth book in the Strange Art series? I have a concept for a fourth book, but it hasn't really gelled yet. I keep thinking it will happen soon but it doesn't.
3. Where is the next Props Master book? I've written the fourth or fifth draft of A Touch of Magic, but it just doesn't please me yet. It's excitement is entirely metaphysical and that doesn't always turn the crank. Another draft is in the works.
4. Will there be another Erotic Paranormal Romance Western Adventure? That series is finished.
5. When are you going to write a story in either the Swarm Universe or the Naked in School Universe? I have about fifteen thousand words of notes and sample material for a story in the Swarm Universe but haven't developed it well enough to submit to the guardians of the galaxy. Frankly, the quality and expertise of those dudes scares me because I just write fluffy little things that tend to break universes. I'll get to it. NIS? Never.
6. Will you please do a real do-over? By real, that is compared to the tricks I played in Not This Time and "100 Days". Um… maybe. I have a concept, but you probably won't like the way I treat it any better than the others. There are aspects of the do-over that I really don't appreciate, notably wikipedic memory of everything that happened in the previous life and instant success in having any 14-yo girl desired because of his vast former life experience. Those are real deal breakers for me. But, I've another concept in mind that would perhaps change everything and still keep the excitement of a do-over alive. What if the dude went back to his 14-yo self but discovered the time had shifted? He has all the same friends and acquaintances he had the first time through, but the time has advanced to the present. His knowledge of what went before is just history. What he has is experience to guide him through this life, but not foreknowledge. Maybe I'll write that as soon as I have time.
7. Is Drawing on the Dark Side of the Brain a one-off? I don't think so, but I'm waiting to see how people respond to it. It was slow getting moving but I think it's just hitting the good stuff in the next few chapters. It ends at the end of the kids' freshman year in college so there is certainly room for a sequel if I follow the typical school scenario. I even have notes on some of the scenes, but no storyline yet. Dark Side will conclude in mid-November. Then I'll decide whether it merits a sequel.
8. What are you writing for NaNoWriMo? I'm writing as Wayzgoose and will do the sequel to City Limits, titled Wild Woods. Making notes like crazy to get me through that and have had long discussions with my editor.
9. Other Wayzgoose projects? Yes. I have a dozen chapters of For Mayhem or Madness completed. That's the sequel to the currently posting For Money or Mayhem. I believe I will post my intellectual thriller, The Gutenberg Rubric on SOL (as Wayzgoose) starting sometime in October.
10. If you could just write anything you want to, what would it be? Um… That's pretty much what I do. The real problem has always been how to get more written faster. So far this year, I've written half a million words on eight stories. I'm currently posting three stories at the same time with a chapter going live every day. I have ten other story ideas that I've written a paragraph, a page, or an outline for in my idea file. It isn't a case of someone telling me what I have to write when, but simply a case of having time to get it all written.
So, there you have it. Currently writing: Chapter 27 of What Were They Thinking? What's next? I'll let you know when I get this one finished!