I know there is an answer, I just have to find it.

Everything has been a new experience with this round of writing.

Back in my first career, (7 books) each book I wrote was a separate world.  Which is odd, since LOTR's was my inspiration.  You'd think I'd want to write a trilogy.  Snowcastles and Icetowers were really one story split in half (because I wanted two money advances instead of one...)

Anyway, when I wrote the Death of an Immortal, I hadn't been planning to write a sequel, but the story left itself open to one and enough people liked the first book and asked for a continuation that I gave it a try.

Somewhat to my surprise, the second book, Rule of Vampire, was easy.  It just naturally followed the first, without having to invent a whole new world.

Blood of Gold, the third book, though, turned out to be more difficult, for a couple of reasons.

1.) An accumulation of characters that needed to be included.  I discovered that in order to engage my interest, I needed new characters to write about.   It was O.K. to add new characters to the second book, it wasn't unwieldy.  But by the time the third book rolled around, I needed to have all the characters be part of the book, and that got a little dense, and at the same time, scattered -- if both of those things can be true.

2.) Loose ends.  There were so many incidents in the two books, and a long story arc, that needed to be resolved.  In a sense, when you write a trilogy you're upping the ante with each book, making the story bigger and wider, and all that has to be brought to a satisfying conclusion.

So while the first and second books are fairly easy, by the time you get to the third book, it becomes much more complicated.

I've come to realize that a Series is different from a Trilogy.  Or put another way -- a series can be a bunch of separate stories starring the same characters -- or they can be one long story.

I think from now on, I'm not going to attempt the long stories, if I can help it.

The Virginia Reed Adventures are each separate, with the protagonist the same and the basic format, but not a continuing story.  Same with the Lander series.

That's going to be my model from now on.  So, for instance, if I continue the Golem Gangster Chronicles, each book will be a separate adventure.  Same with the Deeptower books. (I have a fantasy trilogy in mind, but that's on the backburner for now.)

All the above is a roundabout way of saying that I'm finding it hard to write the third Tuskers book.  There are so many characters and storylines that I'm afraid they're becoming too diffuse.  I love the overall story arc, I think it works, but the mechanics of it are daunting.

I'm going to keep trying different approaches until I've got one that works.  I'm not afraid of throwing out entire chunks if I need to.  I know there is an answer, I just have to find it.