And On To The Next...

I've now finished the rough draft of Maradaine Constabulary, and I've given that out to my critique group.  Thorn of Dentonhill and Holver Alley Crew are both out shopping.  I won't be making changes to either of them in the immediate future, not until I'm given cause (i.e., an agent requests rewrites, or no agents request anything, meaning I need to give them another look-over.)

So, that means I've got nothing to do right now, right?

Not hardly.

It means it's time to develop new projects!

Last year, I was at a writer's workshop where one of the teachers indicated that you should never have only one pan in the fire.  You can't build a career if you can only write one book and then nothing.  He said something like, "I know someone isn't going to make it if I ask them, 'What are you writing next?  And after that?  And after that?' and get blank stares."

Here, I'm not lacking.

Most likely, the next project is going to be Vanguard, the first book of what would be the fourth branch series of Heroes of Maradaine.  (In other words, I have with ToD, MC and HAC three potential "Book 1 in a series" books, all set in the same city and happening at roughly the same time, and Vanguard would be the fourth of that set of serieses.)

However, my ideas for my Space Opera setting (2373-verse, for now) have been buzzing.  I actually just had an epiphany today why U.S.S. Banshee was inherently flawed, and thus each attempt to write it fizzled into nothing.  Fixing said flaw involves scrapping much of the core idea and starting over, BUT I think there is something stronger at the core which will prove interesting.  Plus I have another idea in the same setting that is flowering into a full on story.

Finally, I have two project ideas that are, really, in their infant stages.  For now I'll just call them Untitled YA Project and Untitled Heroine Project.  Both of which, right now, are little more than characters, some setting and over-arching concepts.  Neither has a story yet.  Seeds that still have to germinate.

This is a long-winded way of saying that I've got enough to keep me busy for the month of April while my group reads Maradaine Constabulary.