Did some calculating on my walk the day before yesterday and figured out it will take most of the rest of the year to clear away the backlog from the stories I've already started.

So rather than initiating a new project, I'm going to try to deal with what I've already started. However--there is a big caveat to that. If I have an idea that really excites me, I'll still indulge. That impulse has worked for me so far.

"I Live Among You" is an interesting example of that. I wrote it on a lark on Write a Book month, and it came out really well, and painlessly. It's a fun read. I could probably do this kind of story just about any time, if I wanted to--and weirdly enough, it would take less time than going back and fixing one of my previous stories.

Nevertheless, I don't want all that effort to go to waste. The saving grace of the rewrite is--it does improve the story, and there is already content that can be embellished.

For instance, I have felt one of my weaknesses is world-building. I sort of wing it, which sometimes works, but sometimes doesn't. I now have a complete world in the "Lander series," and so the amount of time it will take to get the 5 books (5!) ready seems to be worth it.

I don't want to get discouraged or bogged down, though. I want to maintain my enthusiasm for writing.

But in clearing away the backlog, there should be plenty of opportunities to be creative. For instance, 17K words into the rewrite of "Faerylander," I needed to write a new chapter. So I wrote it on my walk yesterday and it was very satisfying. As long as I get enough chances to write new stuff, I think I can stick to the discipline.

The second book of the Landers series, "Zombielander," will need to be 1/3rd fresh, and the third book," Cthulhulander" will be all new.

I have the second half of "Tuskers IV" to write, the second half of "Devil's Forge." All that should give me inspiration. And as part of the backlog, so to speak, I want to write another Virginia Reed novel this year.

So it looks like it will be about half and half, new book, old book, new book, old book. There are several books I don't intend to try to deal with for now. As soon as I've got this backlog done, I'll set off on another fresh round of writing, and when that winds down, then I'll go back to my even earlier books (Sometimes a Dragon, The Reluctant Wizard, Spell Realm, The Odyssey of Linger Longfellow) and try to do something with those.

I'm going to have a lot of books in my "Vault" if I can accomplish this. At some point, I'll just start putting them out, one by one, every two or three months. Heh.