Crunch Time

Added some more to "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" this morning after the weekend's hiatus, and then I hit a brick wall. The time has come to set up for the big scene, and I don't even know the particulars of that yet. Who will be where and how will it be resolved? Should I have one more scene in which one of the conspirators is called to account? How close should that happen to the final confrontation? Oh, but wait! What about the objective in the story, the missing woman? What do I do with her? Bring her in? Keep her off stage until after it's all over? I have some ideas for things that should happen in order to weave together facts and events, but I think I really need to make a serious effort to consolidate it all. There should be excitement, suspense, drama, and a satisfying "crunch." I already know there will be a secondary crunch at the end which will close the loop on the story.

I'm already toying with a theme for a third novel in the Windsong Lake series, but it's just a broad stroke of an idea. This one might actually require some research first in order to explore the reincarnation aspect of Stefanie and Paul's relationship. To do that, I'm thinking about having them return to England and the place where Paul bought Stefanie her moonstone locket, the place that seems to inspire a lot of her paintings. One idea I had was to interleave their exploration of their history with what was happening in the time when they were first united. (If that seems confusing to anyone, I suggest reading "Dabblers" for references that help explain it.)

Before a third Windsong Lake, however, I feel compelled to do a third Jack Watson. I may have posted about this before, the idea of a stalker being one facet of the story with an embezzlement plot as the mainline case. I have a bunch of notes I wrote up some time ago which probably contain more details than I remember. It's why we make notes, right?

And then there's the inspiration for a sort of dystopian adventure which would be a major reworking of an earlier novel that I've rewritten a number of times already. That one sometimes calls to me, too, and would be something of a departure for me as the new incarnation will be set in the future.

Could I possibly work on more than one novel at the same time? I know I tried it once before and then dropped one when the other started coming together faster. Lucky for me, there are no rules for how to do this job, and I'll never know until I try.