Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Could the well run dry?

Since I started back to writing 3 years ago, I've been amazed by how much creative energy I've had.  I haven't run out of ideas.  I've come up with a variety of stories.  I've liked all of them.  I think they're pretty good.

They're starting to pile up.  Not only stories that I finished and decided probably needed a lot more work, but even books that I think are almost finished.  Because I have to wait for editors and publishers, I'm forging well ahead of the capacity of the market that I've managed to enter. 

I could just start throwing some of these stories online myself, and I suspect that someday I'll do exactly that, but as long as I'm making headway on the publishing front, I'm putting my best efforts out one at a time, being careful to get them as good as I can get them. 

So when a story like Gargoyle Dreams comes along, straight on the heels of The Last Fedora and The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders, the question arises -- should I go ahead and write it?

The answer so far is yes.  I guess I've always felt that I shouldn't turn down any gift from the muses.

But maybe I shouldn't worry about that?  Maybe I've proven that there's more where that came from?

I do worry about it and I'm going to continue to write these books as they come to me.  I have had the well run dry before, so I know that it can happen.  I was pretty much stuck for a couple of years between Icetowers and Deviltree (circa 1980 to 1982) without anything coming to me.

Even more dangerous is that something else will come along in real life and knock me off course.  Linda and I still need to make a living from the stores, so that is a constant worry.  And of course health issues.  Something like that could subvert my writing.

So I'll just keep writing these books as they come to me, even if I run far ahead of any ability to put them out. 

Besides, it's the most fun I can have.

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