Out With the Half-Done, In With the New

When do you decide it's time to put a project on hold, especially when it's one you believe in and you are nearly half done with the first draft?

That's the queston I found myself confronting this past week. After getting a thumbs-down from the Indie publisher I sent my PASKAGANKEE partial, I reluctantly set aside the followup novel, titled REVENANT, that I had completed close to 40,000 words on the first draft.

It wasn't easy. I happen to love both the completed PASKAGANEE, and the second, half-completed first draft of REVENANT. Realistically, though, it makes little sense to continue working on a followup to a book with no short-term prospects, especially when my writing time is necessarily limited by my Evil Day Job responsibilities.

On the bright side, it's not like I don't have things I can be working on. I finished a noir short story, titled "Jersey Joe," early in the wek, and then began work on a new paranormal suspense novel tentatively titled FLICKER. It's always slow going at the beginning of a new novel, for me at least, trying to introduce the characters and set a mood, but I've completed over 5,000 words on the first draft and I'm happy with the progress so far, despite the fact it's very early in the game.

And I'm definitely not giving up on REVENANT. That novel has been placed on the back burner for now, but I still very much believe in PASKAGANKEE, and when that novel sells, I will be ready to jump right back into the sequel.

I've also pretty much decided on the plot line for my followup to FINAL VECTOR, which releases this coming February from Medallion Press. Unless things change, which they seem to do often in this crazy writing gig, my plan is to jump right into the first draft of this currently untitled sequel once I've finished the first draft of FLICKER, then work on revisions of whichever one I'm happier with.

So all told it was a pretty decent week, despite the disappointment that went with hearing the publisher considering PASKAGANKEE had decided to opt out.

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