You know, I've been doing a lot of internal review and contemplation. I haven't posted here in a while due to some heavy personal things I've been dealing with. I haven't been able to write since July. It isn't writer's block. I just haven't had the energy to create.
I've been thinking a lot about what would happen if I was no longer present on the face of this earth, as grim as it sounds. I have been writing in my series for nearly twenty years. And what do I have to show for it? One revised book and a train wreck of projects waiting around to be written, completed, or overhauled and pulled from the limbo badlands.
What would I leave behind as a writer if I only had two months left? Two years? Five years? What would happen if I could suddenly no longer write? There are so many stories I want to draft and have exist just for the sheer sake of knowing I wrote them and they're somewhere besides inside my own head.
In recent years, I've realized I need to get back to my roots and the original reason I started writing: for me. It was never to become rich or famous or cool or anything like that. I wanted to create my stories for me. For the simple yet complex and rich pleasure of picking up a story I know I could trust and enjoy. For reliving those raw wisps of energy and thought in a refined form and woven together more cohesively in a fashion that I could enjoy again and again, at my own discretion.
Now, I just hope I have the opportunity to continue to write and bring as many of these stories to life as I can before anything comes up that would prevent me from adding material to my list of accomplishments. I still intend to do as much as I can to achieve that goal. I have no idea when I'll be able to get another book published and available to the public, but I hope it isn't too far down the road. There is so much in my imagination that I don't want to let die. A trilogy must be completed yet again. A duology must join it in written form. A mini series yearns to grow its family. Standalone stories, new series, adventures with magic and machines and space and darkness and light and intrigue are all crying to be told. I will do my best to bring them to fruition. And all along the way, I just hope and pray that I have the strength to accomplish what I desire.