Shifting Gears! -- Switching Book Projects in Midstream

When working on a novel, I dedicate myself wholly to that universe and the characters that live within it. It's extremely difficult for me to work on more than one novel at a time.  I tried to do it in the past, but the bleed over between the two worlds can make everything a muddled mess.  Therefore, when I jump into a writing project, I try to be faithful to it until the very last line is written.

While writing THE LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING, I had numerous interruptions.  The revisions for all three AS THE WORLD DIES novels kept pulling me out of the world of the Bastion.  I would have to literally decompress for about a day or two before shifting gears into the ATWD universe. When I went back to Bastion, it was the same process. It's almost like I have to shut down everything for one world, so I can pay attention to the other.

That being said, when I finally finished Bastion, I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment considering the multiple interruptions it endured.  It feels really solid and I love it.

Now I'm facing an interruption with my newest novel, THE MIDNIGHT SPELL.  Kody Boye, my co-author is going  away on vacation for around two weeks, so that leaves me high and dry.  We're working very closely on each chapter, so there's no way one of us can write ahead.  So I have to set aside THE MIDNIGHT SPELL even though we're more than halfway done.  I'm a little sad about it because I love Christy, the character who is narrating my part of the story, but I know we can jump back in once Kody's back. We've been moving very swiftly on this novel and it will be done  by mid-June or earlier.

So, while Kody is away, I'm diving into PRETTY WHEN SHE KILLS.  *grin*  So happy to finally leap into the world of Amaliya.  The rough draft for PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES was written in three weeks time back in 2007, so I'm aiming to repeat the "fast draft" process I learned from author Candace Havens.  It is a really intense process, but it's a really great way to get a rough draft written.  The fast draft is so all-encompassing it really fires up my imagination.  I'm so excited!

So after writing my last scene for THE MIDNIGHT SPELL until Kody returns from vacation at the end of May, I'm switching my background image on my computer to this:

It's time to come home to Austin, Texas and Amaliya....