Yes, my friends–It’s true. I’m so close to having The Open Book done now  (I wrote 6 more pages on Sunday), that the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to look more like a beacon. Coincidentally, it’s a lot like the beacon in “The Return of the King”. You know–the one that is lit, and because it’s lit, it causes the lighting of another, and another, and another…and…Another??? That’s how things are going around here. My muses got the memo that a book is getting closer to done and they’ve been sending in their requests by every means short of carrier pigeon. I am bombarded. I am swamped. I am… Working on THREE other pieces of writing that are not the one I’m trying to finish right now! Heaven help me. And the stuff that’s coming? All insanely amazing. All of it. Two have their endings all but done, and the beginnings of all three: Absolute Divinity. Middles and fore and aft? Much easier to fill in than they should be, so early in their gestation periods. I haven’t been able to stop it. Not easily, anyway. I had visions of my brain exploding yesterday, leaving trails and drips and splatters on walls, and in the red and grey there were little typed words. They were everywhere, and so I have been obeying like a good literary puppet, and putting down every piece of these three stories that I possibly can. Maybe I will have more than two or three sporadic hours over the weekend to get chunks of The Open Book done, because right now, that’s not happening. At the moment, these other three stories only seem to require that I give them a little time here, a little time there. So far, so good. In case you’re wondering what three stories I’m talking about, they are the witches/Melisites one, the bizarre 3 kinds of people one (oh, just wait–it’s super weird and would make a stunning film!), and for those who were clamoring for a sequel to The Quad, looks more and more like you’re going to get it–behold, The Pound. (Stick Max Martini in as one of the protagonists, if you want a place to start imagining this one…) The ending on this one is much trickier than the other two. Mostly because I don’t want to turn it into another trilogy. I’d really love to have more single books…Though it’s not a bad thing to get my readers sucked into committing to a multiple-book read. (Sneaky, I know.)

Wow. Okay. After getting all of that out, I’ve just drawn a blank…Which makes me think of a sharp-shooting cowboy who whips out his gun, fires it, and the bullets are…yeah, you got it. Is that what that phrase really means?? I always pictured someone drawing a card from a deck and there was nothing on it…not an empty shell… Huh.

So the awesome yet bizarre dreams are trying to make a comeback. (YES!!!!!!!!) Early this morning, I found myself at some kind of outdoor festival. No rhyme or reason for it, of course. Swing music was playing in the background. I really wanted to dance and knew no one who was there. I set my plate of food onto a table next to the dance floor (made me think of a wedding…) and crouched down to tie the laces on my shoes–my amazing 1920’s style shoes. I stood and someone said “Too bad more people aren’t dancing.” I said, “Yeah, especially since I wore my dancing shoes!” In real life, those exact shoes are not good to dance in–I’ll probably break an ankle or hip if I try it. Someone actually did ask me to dance–some young kid in his 20’s. I was stunned that he bothered, but he was really good at it and since it was just dream dancing, I got through it without getting winded. Much. There was some kind of abrupt ending to that and I rushed off to a theater house that was partially walled…It was weird, ok?? There were walls, there weren’t walls. There were doors, there weren’t doors. Lots of people milling around. There was a performance going on, and yet the stage was where the seats were and I walked right through the middle of it, a wind blowing my short, white organza like skirt around, and I had to fight to keep my bum covered. It was just a quaint little scene, really… I was impressed with how I could feel the hard wrinkles in the fabric. That was pretty amazing and I think things went a little lucid when I realized that detail. The rest is fading, of course, and I woke up in a panic about something regarding work, so you know that that is an automatic dream eraser–that abruptness. You get the idea. It was far more magical in my head, just trust me on that.

Okay, yes, so–Books. Last night I wrote down all of the books/novellas/shorts that I’m actively working on, and came up with 20. By actively, I mean that I add something to them at least once a month. I tried to give myself a realistic timeline in getting these pieces done and out, and it looks like I could have this all happen by 2025. First of all, it’s pretty damn weird to imagine releasing books in 202-anything! But, it would seem that we’re not so very far away from that, and even with a healthy goal of 2 books and 2 shorts per year, I will definitely be hitting those odd looking years.  This is certainly all subject to change, as I’ve made it clear that my muses conduct this symphony. I merely put the reeds where they belong and all that, blah blah blah metaphors. Anyway: for 2016, there will be the release of The Open Book and A Potagerie of Rejects. I’m still determined to get the As Fate Would Have It shorts done and out, so the first of those should (SHOULD!) be done by the end of the year. 2017: 2 books (#4 in The Case Files and the witches/Melisites story) and 2 more AFWHI shorts. No telling with what my darling muses will come at me between now and the end of 2017, but this is the rough plan. From there, it gets broad and there’s much lofty speculation as to what I will work on. I will let you know as soon as and each time I figure it out.