First, some items for the record:

• The pages for "The Rainbow-Colored Sheep" and "Homecoming" were updated on September 11. A new merchandise section was added for TRCS (which is an acronym for "The Rainbow-Colored Sheep" which saves me a great deal of writing as do all acronyms, which is why they were invented.)
• Also on the 11th, the new chapter of The Chronicles of Nightfire, Texas and the short story "The Dragons of Nod" were added to the site. The Nightfire episode was #13 "The Mines of Sangra Dios"
• Then, on the 15th, Haiku #67 was added, which I wrote just after writing the "Dragons of Nod" scene in which Prince Joryn made his fateful decision at Bluepearl.

Now for stuff. So how 'bout that Nightfire #13 cliffhanger? Quite a doozy, huh? The next one's crazy too. I've actually written both of the next episodes, but keep forgetting that they haven't been published yet when I speak to people about them. They should be up pretty soon. I'm happy with the second cycle. It really brought out a lot about the characters that I didn't know when I wrote #1 eight years ago. It also pretty much told me where the characters will be going and what they will be dealing with in cycle 3.

As for the much delayed fantasy story "The Dragons of Nod," I was so relieved to finally have it on the site for everyone to read. It's different from anything I've written before. It's based on a dream I had, but you'd never know the story and the dream were connected if you had them to look at side by side. It's a work in progress. It's a series: The Legends of Nod. I am already working on the second one.

Right now, things are crazy. Life is crazy. I have a lot going on. There have been economic stresses all around recently. I simply have not been able to stick to my writing schedule because of my other work and a number of near catastrophes that I've been struggling to get myself and others through. What I think I've learned is that, as I've said many times before, I need to put my work with the youth first. So I've made a radical decision, which actually makes my writing process much more what it was when I was writing my first novel.

I have decided to throw out my writing schedule for the most part and just focus more or less on one thing at a time. This is tough for me, and I'm so tired of struggling to find the best method for working within a schedule. The fact is, the schedule I was working with most recently was perfect for my own creative process. It went right along with the way my multi-tasking brain seems to function. In fact, if I didn't have another full-time job, I would have been completely satisfied and never met a moment of stress or frustration over getting behind in my writing. As reality stands, however, juggling the incredible demands of running a youth program with a date-specific, project-crammed writing schedule just doesn't quite work. Not without ulcers. So I'm tossing it. I would never leave my present job voluntarily, but if life ever takes the job from me, I will very likely return to the type of writing schedule I was on and just do writing.

In the meantime, I am going to write things as I can, then get them published when I can. Pretty simple, eh?

I've been looking at all of my unfinished stories. I'm going to try not to start any new ones for a while. I want to focus on finishing what I've begun. This includes published works such as Cry, Wolf, Metrognomes, The Chronicles of Nightfire, Texas, The Penny Dreadful, and The Legends of Nod. It also includes some unpublished short stories that I had a scene to write down that wouldn't leave me alone until I did, but never found the time afterwards to actually write out the whole story. I want to finish these things and free myself up to write new things without feeling pulled away, guilty for not writing the next part of whatever series finds its way into my thoughts.

Right now, I'm working on a story about a zombie. This is a character story. I've tried to get this character in action several times, but I am always left unsatisfied and go back to the drawing board. This time, I have no problem with the way the story started. Of course, this is also the first time that it's about a zombie. I haven't even gotten to the zombie yet. The only scene I've done is at a wake, and at long last, the characters interacted right, the dialogue came out right. It's just the way it should be, and I'm finally going to be able to tell a tale of Tex McCoy, who Nightfire fans may recognize as a name referenced by Valen Alexas as an old friend. In fact, the ideas for the Nightfire series and this one started churning in my imagination at almost the exact same time. Nightfire just took shape a whole lot easier. So that's my project. My working title for this one is "A Life of Its Own."

Once I get these few things that I've already started writing finished, I'll get back to the series that need finishing in something of a rotation. I will get to everything that time permits, but if I'm to write "on the side," I can only do it one project at a time.

More later -and if you haven't already, vote!