A few days ago I shared a list of all my upcoming projects on social media. It looked something like this:

Here’s what’s coming down the pike:

• Ashes in the Sky {Fire in the Woods #2} (In production Release date March 1)
• Fire in the Woods #3 (Contracted: In developmental edits. Release date TBD)
• YA Science Fiction (95% complete Work in Progress)
• Adult Contemporary Science Fiction (Aliens) Mystery/Horror (First draft complete)
• Adult Paranormal (Shifters) novel written in serial (Uncontracted: Number one complete)
• YA Dystopian Romance (Uncontracted, Complete)
• YA Space Opera – 8 book series (First draft complete)
• Middle Grade Contemporary Adventure (First draft complete)
• Hard Sci Fi Space Opera three book series (First Draft of all three books complete)

Outlined concepts prepped, outlined, and ready to be written:

1. Adult/New Adult Fantasy-Medieval setting
2. YA Contemporary Science Fiction (Aliens)
3. Adult/YA Shifter (Dragons) First chapter written
4. YA Time Travel (Aliens) First chapter written
5. YA/New Adult Contemporary Science Fiction (Aliens)

A few people have asked why I have two complete novels, and four “First Draft complete” while it looks like I am currently working on something completely new.

Well, to be honest, I didn’t realize how many things I had partially finished until I created this list. For me, the fun of creating a story is the best part. I love starting a story, and torturing my heroes to the very end of the tale. So much fun!

Usually, by the time I finish a first draft, I’ve already outlined several new ideas that I came up with along the way. Some of these I take a few notes on, and then never go back to. But many, like the five above, get 7000-10000 word outlines, because I love the premise so much that I don’t want to lose even a single spec of the idea.

Unfortunately, I cannot type anywhere near as fast as my brain works, and that list of stories to write keeps getting longer.

Basically, when the time comes to write a new book, I just pick one from the list. Sounds easy. But sometimes there are several stories screaming at me, and even after I choose, a different story keeps me awake at night.

It all comes down to my writing process, which I love… but the business of publishing usually gets in the way of the fun part. That’s why I have so many first drafts right now.

When I finished this post, it was over 800 words long. I was going to talk about my writing process, but I’m going to leave that for my next post. I think this will explain some of the insanity of my current “too many almost-finished books” situation.

See you next time!

You can find Fire in the Woods at all these awesome bookish places!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | Chapters Indigo! | iBooks | IndiBound |

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