Can't wait to finish these three books.

"Snaked" just needs two more chapters written and it's done.

I'm two/thirds through both "Fires of Allah" and "Tuskers IV."

Coming back to these after a long time, I seem to have new ideas, which is both good and bad. I'm not sure my new ideas are seamless with the old ideas.

Part of me thinks this makes the stories a little less predictable and that's a good thing. Part of me is afraid that it changes the tone and plot too much.

I won't know until I finish, so I need to finish.

I'd be worried if I hadn't just finished "Faerie Punk," my 130K word urban fantasy novel, just before I embarked on all this.

Next year I figure it's going to be different. "The Darkness You Fear" is live, "Tusker III" will be out, and "Tuskers IV" will be finished. It will be time to start putting my finished books into the world, probably self-published, and probably at least a third of them under a pen name.

So the next six months are all about finishing up what I've started. Finish the 4 "Lander books." Finish "Deviltree" and "Deeptower." Finish "Sometimes a Dragon." Put them out under the name D.M. McKinnon.

Devote six months to getting everything I've started ready to go.

Then begin anew.

New Rules:

Finish the first draft before you start something new.

Give the book plenty of time to settle, then come back and completely rewrite it.

Don't embark on continuing story lines. It's okay to have a series as long as each book is standalone. 

Don't have covers made until you know you're going to self-publish them.

Start just putting them out as you finish and they are fresh.