Feeling uninspired.

I'm so close to finishing Ghostlander (62K words), I don't want to stop now.  I've had the ending sort of mapped out, so each chapter is being done as intended, and each chapter by itself seems fine, so I'm assuming it all holds together.

But I do have a sense of having lost an overall feeling for the book.  I don't feel that strong urge I usually feel.  Thing is, I'm not sure you need the feel that "urge" to get the job done.

It's a little bit like building a house or something where I'm busy building a wall while I've forgotten how the rest of the building will look.  But all I need know is that this wall is necessary.  So I just need to build it competently.

I took a long break in the middle of this book in order to finish Faerylander.  At first, I didn't think it hurt me, but as I've gone along I've felt the disconnect between the first half of the book and the second.

I'm a firm believer that you finish a book once you start.  Taking another break wouldn't help, only make the disconnect worse.

The basic plot has come down to three "haunting" that have to be resolved.  (Hauntings come from guilt or anger or unresolved issues.)  So those are three walls I have to build.

Then the final chapter or two where the source of the hauntings has to be exorcised once and for all.  The Big Bad.

So I know what needs to be done and just have to do it.  Maintaining the "inspiration" within each chapter, even if I'm not feeling it overall.

So I see the entire Lander series as 'potential' still.  Faerylander has been worked on a great deal, more than any other book I've ever done.  Both Wolflander and Ghostlander are going to have to go through rigorous rewrites to make them work and make them consistent.

So the lesson here, I think, is make sure you have a clear path before you start a book, and then keep working on that book until it's done.

I have really liked the two Virginia Reed books, Led to the Slaughter and The Dead Spend No Gold.

I want to make sure the third book is as good, so I'm going to be ruthless about protecting the space around the writing of it.

I have a subtitle, but not the title.  The subtitles of the first two books are: The Donner Party Werewolves and Bigfoot and the Gold Rush.  The subtitle of the third book is "Ghosts of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine."

It's going to be set in Central Oregon, along the Meek Trail, and I'm really looking forward to it.  When I'm ready to write something, I always have a metaphor of a overflowing well in my mind.  The sense that it really wants to be written.

As I've said before, I like the main character Virginia Reed so much that I'm looking forward to being in her head again.

She's about 17 years old now; and confident of her abilities. (What do I know about teenage girls? you ask. They're human aren't they?)

I have to finish The Dead Spend No Gold first.  I'm hoping to make it as polished as Led to the Slaughter.  

And then, and only then, when I feel that nothing will interrupt me -- and with the full plot and feeling of The Dead Spend No Gold still fresh -- will I write Ghosts of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine.