Plans for the final few months of 2020

With the third book in the “Century of Wind etc” series finished, I’m putting the series aside for the rest of the year. Lord willing, I’ll write another three (of twelve) in 2021, then another three in 2022, and then the final three in 2023.

I know myself and I know I tend to get burned out if I do the same thing without any break in the repetition. I keep a very (like, abnormally) detailed schedule but I deliberately arrange things so that, other than on rare occasions, I’m not doing/writing the same thing two days in a row. That’s part of the reason why I write multiple books a year; I work on them every other day, going back and forth between them to keep things fresh.

So, all that said, I’m not going to try and write a twelve book series all at once. Three a year is plenty.

Now that I’m done with it for this year, what’s next is a variety of ideas, some of which date back many years. First, I have to finish CHUMPTY DUMPTY AND THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST. That’s the third and final book in the trilogy of children’s stories. It’s going very well at the moment; I’m actually about to start on chapter eight, in which the trio visit the town of Reggieville, whose town motto is “Streets Ahead.” What’s “streets ahead” even mean, you ask?

If you have to ask you’re streets behind.

Once Chumpty 3 is done, I have one more children’s story to write and it’s one I’ve had on my to-do list for many years. It was a story I pitched to Phillip for us to co-write as a screenplay though we never got around to it. THE GREAT MOUSE ESCAPE, about a pair of lab mice and their attempts to secure their freedom.

In addition, next week I will begin outlining and preparing to write BURIED DEEP, a horror story that stretches from snowy Connecticut to swampy Louisiana. It’s an idea that I originally wrote as a short-story a decade ago and it’s one of a few shorts I’ve done that have the potential for longer-form storytelling. I hope to have it done by the end of October, Lord willing.

The last book on the docket for 2020 is a western entitled THE WILDEST TOWN IN THE WEST. I almost wrote this at the end of last year, but then the El Dorado idea came to me and I just had to write that one first. TWTITW is about an out of work actor who finds his way to a sleepy town in the dying days of the old west and helps them stir up some business and tourism. The story has a light-hearted tone and it’s one I’m very excited to write. Hopefully it’ll be done before Christmas.

There’s lots more coming in 2021 but that’s for another day; 2020 is full enough for me to worry about as it is!