Decisions, Decisions: An Author's Struggle

On September 3, 2016, I released my fourth book, the second novel in my Legend of the KhiMara fantasy series, entitled The Chronicle of Zhào Gan-Zian. Since that time, I've been struggling with the decision of what to write next. You see, there are several stories in my head screaming to get out.

My first published novel, Solfleet: The Call of Duty, began a military science-fiction saga that continues with Solfleet: Beyond the Call and is waiting to continue further with Solfleet: Above and Beyond. It's a character-driven series with deep intertwining plots and subplots that will take some very unexpected turns along the way, and this first trilogy is only the beginning. With each of the first two books I literally had to bury myself in the Solfleet universe for months or even years at a time. As enjoyable as that is, it can also be exhausting. Yet, I'm anxious to continue.

The Legend of the KhiMara series, on the other hand, is a more adventure-based fantasy series. That's not to say that it's not character-based as well, of course, but the KhiMara books are shorter than the several hundred-page long Solfleet books and each is more centered on one individual character, whereas the Solfleet books are much larger in scope, so I can write them more quickly.

Then there is the series of novellas and novelettes that I've written based on the Internet fan film series Star Trek: Phase-II -- five of them so far (FREE to download in PDF format on my STP2: Novelettes Facebook page). The first few of those stories fall between the film series' live-action episodes and the rest continue the story arch beyond them. I have at least one more of them to write before I can even think about calling that series finished.

So the question has been this: Do I go to work on Solfleet: Above and Beyond, Legend of the KhiMara: The Chronicle of Alexia Castellanos, or Star Trek Phase-II: The Storm?

But wait. It's not that simple.

Remember those stories screaming to get out of my head that I mentioned? Those three aren't alone in there. Alongside them stands The Realm, a fantasy series that will take place roughly a thousand years earlier in the world of  Legend of the KhiMara. As of right now, that looks to be a six-book series, though that might change. *Yes, it's a prequel series, which is something I swore that I would never do, but the story is completely separate.* There's also Sentient, a near future science-fiction trilogy that will look at the emerging world of A.I. and artificial life from a very unique angle and give a very specific large group of readers a very nice surprise.

I'm anxious to get to work on all of them. So anxious, in fact, that I've already written the first ten chapters of Solfleet: Above and Beyond, outlined Legend of the KhiMara: The Chronicle of Alexia Castellanos, and outlined Star Trek Phase-II: The Storm. As for those other two projects, I've already written the first 22 chapters of The Realm and the first six chapters of Sentient.

So you see, readers, I'm at something of a loss. I want to work on all of them, but that's obviously not possible if I actually want to finish any of them. What to do???

Cover Art by Juan Carlos Baez

Cover Art by Jeffrey Hayes

Cover Art by Bill Lutz