Done

It's been a while since I blogged (bad blogger! Bad!). I have tons of excuses: my son graduated from high school, work's busy, my wife is putting together a one woman play, the Vancouver Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals (and lost)…

Enough excuses, on to the blog.

I finished the first draft of my most recent novel yesterday (the as-yet untitled follow-up to "Harvester"). That makes three completed. It's funny how things change when you get used to them. I remember finishing the first draft of my first novel ("Blood of the King" — aiming for it to be available by the end of the year) and I may have actually shed a tear or two. This time, it was more  like "is this thing ever going to end?" Still satisfying, but without quite the same sense of achievement. When I tell people now that I finished a novel, they don't say "good for you, great job". Instead they give me a funny look and say "I know."

The challenge for tomorrow is what to do next. Now, I know many writers reading this will say "edit, dummy". Don't worry, that will come. I like to throw it in a drawer to ferment for a while (or just not open that file on my computer) before I get into the editing, that way it seems a little more fresh and I get a better view of the writing and the story. No, my friends, the question is: what other project to tackle in the interim? The choices:

1. Back to the half-completed first draft of "Spirit of the King", the second book to "Blood of the King"

2. Start a new novel. I have several projects in various stages of development including, but not limited to, a YA fantasy involving Fairies, a couple of sci-fi books, a short story I want to develop into a novel, and another fantasy (not to mention three more urban fantasies featuring the Icarus Fell character from "Harvester" and the latest as-yet-untitled conquest).

3. Write a couple of short stories.

4. Rest for a while and lose my chops.

I have to admit, I'm leaning towards the half-finished draft, my thinking being that, if I do manage to finish up everything with "Blood of the King" and get it released, I wouldn't want "Spirit of the King" to be too far behind. The difficulty becomes that finishing a novel will take some time and could keep me from editing.

I guess this is a more preferable dilemma than  not having anything to write.

Let me know what you think. Tell me what you do when you finish a project. I'm interested.

Plus I'm looking for something to do.