I’m trying something new.  I sort of had to.  I’ve been working on MS5 and it’s been an uphill battle the entire way.  This is unusual for me because the characters had literally come to life previously.  They told their own story.  Even after I had decided that the story was finished and I was moving on to other pastures, snippets of their continuing lives continued to bombard my mind at odd times.  Like, while driving.  Or in the shower.  Or while talking on the phone.  Key scenes of what ‘should happen next’ flooded my mind while I tried to write other stories.  My wife was right (again).  I should have written it down…because now that I’m actually trying to WRITE MS5…blank.  My mind turns into a wasteland and I can literally hear the winds blowing between my ears.  If I close my eyes, I can see tumbleweeds scampering across the dank recesses of my mind.

What to do, what to do??

Start a different book instead, that’s what.  And of course, the ideas start flowing again.
So, for the first time, I’m trying to write two different books at the same time.  Even though Caldera isn’t scheduled to be released until March, I’m working on the followup to it now and it has gotten the creative juices flowing once more.  After sitting at my computer screen and drawing a blank for so long, I’ve found that getting the story down isn’t such a chore.  It’s still slow going since I’m bouncing between two stories now and I’m constantly having to remind myself what occurred in the past, at least the creative juices are flowing again and progress is being made.

As pappy used to say, do what you gotta do to get it done.  If it means writing two stories to get one out, then so be it.