Progress Report, in which I make a LeBron James reference

OK.  I’m getting a bit annoyed with the lack of a decision on the next novel project.  As are you, I’m sure.  So I’m this close to doing something I promised myself I’d never do again:  I might embark on a sequel.

I’ve done this once before, with Petra Released.  Though I was pleased with the result, I later realized with some chagrin that I had just spent a year working on a novel I couldn’t market unless the original sold.  That struck me as a, shall we say, suboptimal use of my time and energy.  After that, I made a deal with myself—no more sequels until a publisher or editor expressed an interest in the original.

Makes perfect sense, right?  But here’s the thing:  I don’t have anything else firing my imagination at the moment.  (In fact, this was the reason I wrote Petra Released in the first place.)  Maybe the reason that no other stories are popping into my head is that I still have these sequels to do, and they’re taking up the necessary brainspace.  Given a choice between writing something unmarketable and writing nothing at all . . . that’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it?

I haven’t committed to the sequel just yet.  I have one more idea I think I’d like to explore a little bit more before I make my choice.

Right, then.  Come next week at this time, The Decision will be announced.  Which, I suppose, is almost but not quite as exciting as that other Decision from a few years ago.

Write Club updates:

Just over two months to a personalized no from an agent on a novel query.

And 31 days to a tier 1 bounce from Uncanny.

‘Til next time, kids . . .

Current Music: "Trapped"--Bruce Springsteen