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So I was writing chapter 11 of Infestation today.  Well, yesterday and today now I suppose since it’s three in the morning now and I just finished the almost eight-thousand word chapter.  I had something happen in it that was only going to be a relatively minor thing, but as I wrote, it actually turned into a major thing that took up the entire chapter and will continue on into the next.

Some people plan out their entire books ahead of time.  I never have, and that’s exactly the reason why.  When you write organically, the story practically writes itself.  All you have to do is to press the keys to make it happen.  If I’d have planned out my book ahead of time, I’d have limited this to a rather small part of one chapter, but instead it turned into this major thing with aspects of morality, mercy, revenge and other story elements that really ended up being something I’m quite proud of.

I don’t really have much else to say other than that.  The work on Infestation is progressing along at a normal pace.  I should have it finished in the next couple of weeks and then I can edit it and get it published.  I’m still having a dilemma about what do do next.  I feel like there’s still another book or two I could do before publishing the final book of the series, Travelers.  I’ll just have to see where the writing takes me.  I’m thinking at this point that there’ll be at least one more book before Travelers, because I need to wrap some things up with the rest of the series before I publish that one.  There might be more than one, but we’ll see what happens.

I was thinking over the weekend about Travelers and how I’d really love to write more about Jake and Lana, but Travelers was written to be the end of the series.  The only way I could write more would be to write a book before that detailing their life together before the events in the final book, which I may end up doing.  I’m thinking there may be one more of the regular part of the series after this one to wrap things up with that part of the storyline, and then I’ll either end it with Travelers or write that other lead in book first and then publish Travelers after.

Then again, I may end the regular series with this book and wrap things up for this part of it in an Epilogue.  I kind of want to end the series so I can move on to other things, but I want to do it right.  Travelers came out awesome, but getting to Travelers is leaving me with some questions about how I want to proceed.

Oh well, I guess I’ll make that decision when the time comes.  I just finished chapter 9 of Infestation after a weekend where I felt like I just couldn’t get enough sleep.  Yeah, it was one of those weekends.  What a waste. 😛

I did up the cover for Infestation yesterday and I’ve started work on the book itself this morning.  It starts out a few weeks after the end of Conspiracy, because I didn’t see any point in going through the whole thing with the hybrids waking up as humans and what not.  They were never intended to be actual characters anyway, so jumping ahead moves the story along in a better way than if I’d have become mired down in all of that stuff.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  Time to get back to work.

What’s worse than writer’s block when you’re an author?  Burnout, that’s what.  It’s one thing to get stuck and not know where to go next in a story, but when you’ve got burnout, it’s a whole different beast.  The problem with burnout is that you can write, and you know you should be writing, but you just can’t seem to face it.  I wrote and published fourteen full length novels in a year, and to be perfectly honest, I burned myself out.  I just reached a point where I needed a break, so I took December, January and the early part of February off…for the most part.  I did a little writing during that time whenever the next scene would pop into my head and I didn’t want to lose it, but for the most part I just had a nice, long rest.

After finishing Travelers, which is now fully edited and ready to go whenever I reach that point in the series, I’ve been feeling sort of rejuvenated and excited about writing again.  I’ve already got the opening of Infestation rolling around in my head and I can’t wait to get started on it.

To be honest, I was ready to give up.  It’s damn near impossible to get any traction in the indie market today because the marketplace has become absolutely flooded, both with well written novels and absolute junk that had no business being published in the first place.  Even if you’re writing a great story or series, trying to compete against the flood of material that’s out there now in a world where fewer and fewer people are taking the time to read books for pleasure can be really discouraging.  So what are you supposed to do?  Well, you can either keep going and hope that someday people will discover your stuff and you’ll start getting some word of mouth sales that you can build on, or you can give up.  I came to that crossroads just recently, and I’ve decided to stick with it.

Now, something else I’ve said recently is that Travelers will be the final book in the series.  Now I’m not so sure that’ll be the case.  It’s written to be the final book in the series because it takes place over two-hundred years in the future after the main characters from the rest of the series have all moved to the Nathalis dimension, but there’s nothing saying that I couldn’t just continue on from there and continue with their adventures, while doing the occasional crossover stuff with the characters from Travelers since they’re still living on Earth and trying to rebuild things.  To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do at this point.  I guess I’ll decide that when the time comes.  We’ll just have to see where the writing takes me.

At this point, I’ve decided to keep writing for myself.  When the series does come to an end, I’ll publish Travelers and then I’ll very likely start working on several stand alone novels that will hopefully attract those readers who aren’t ready to jump into a series and get them interested in my writing.  I think I’m going to start looking for an agent too.  I mean, I know I’ll be opening myself up for countless rejection letters, but who knows?  I might just find one that can really help me get things going.  You never know.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I got the juices flowing again and I can’t wait to get started on Infestation.  It just breaks my heart that I can’t show Travelers to anyone yet, because of all the books I’ve written so far, it’s far and away my favorite.  Oh well.  Its time will come eventually.

I just finished editing Travelers, but as I said in previous posts, as it’ll be the final book in the series, I can’t publish it until I write and publish whatever books will come before it.  It really frustrates me that I can’t just publish it now, because as of right now it’s far and away my favorite book of the series, and one that I became very emotional about when I came down to the end of it.

I’ll be starting on the next book of the series at some point early in March.  Because I have an unbelievably horrible memory and it’s been a few months now since I wrote Conspiracy, I think I’ll have to read that one again before I start work on Infestation, just to get myself back up to speed on where I left things.

That’s it for now.  I’ll put out another announcement once I’ve started working on Infestation.

I just finished the first draft of Travelers, so tomorrow I’ll probably start in on the editing process.  The first draft came in at 105,486 words, and typically I’ll end up adding two or three thousand more words during the editing process.

I’m extremely proud of how this book came out.  Considering I had to create a completely new group of characters and place them in a post invasion world over two-hundred years in the future, getting through this book was a rather monumental task, but I finally did it.  I think it might just be my favorite book of the series as well.  Unfortunately, it’s also the last book of the series, which means I can’t publish it until I reach that point.

I’ll be starting work on the 15th book of the series, Infestation, probably at some point within the first two weeks of March, and then we’ll see how things go from there.  If that ends up being the last book before Travelers, I’ll publish them both at the same time.  If not, then I’ll just keep writing the series until I reach that point.  It breaks my heart to not be able to release this book yet, because it really is something I’m proud of, and something that I also got very emotional over as I brought it to a close.  Still, there’s more story yet to tell, and I’ll be doing just that starting in March.