This is just a general update of sorts, as much for my own personal mile-stoning as for anything else.

Last night I typed “The End” on Lantham #6, called In The Cloud, thus adding to the stockpile that my poor publisher has to wade through in her copious free time. Normally, this would be a cause for opening the next scheduled document and working on the notes to get into the new book.

This time, it didn’t quite happen, because for the first time in a few months, I’m torn about what to write next. On the one hand, I have Lantham 7 pretty much ready to write–I know what it’s about, and I’m excited about where it’s going. On the other hand, I’ve come to the uncomfortable realization over the last few months that I’ve been essentially avoiding Antithesis 3.

Frankly, the next two installments of Antithesis scare the hell out of me, and I’ve been round and round in my own head, and I can’t really figure out why. In the past, books that have scared me have always wound up being some of my very favorites once they’re done (and, by happy coincidence, they’re frequently reader favorites too).

Since I have a podcast due, which got pushed so I could wrap up the Lantham book, I’m going to do the ultra-courageous thing and avoid making a decision for a couple days–but the thing I can’t avoid looming in my near future is that, whether it starts this weekend or in a few weeks when Lantham 7 is in the can, I’m going to be diving deep once again into the dark and twisted universe of Joss Kyle, Alyssa Hartman, Cassy Orinthal, Doug Reeves, and company.

Which, I suppose, leaves us only with the nagging questions:
Will our writer conquer his paranoia and delve deep into the most paranoid universe on his plate?
Will the resulting book do justice to the ones that have come before?
Will he choke to death on index cards and thumb tacks as he lays out his plot on his office wall?
and Will he eventually survive the adventures of the characters he so dearly loves to torture, or will they turn on him and declare victory once and for all?

Find out. Next week (by looking at the word-count-o-meter in the right side bar). And remember:
It isn’t whether you win or lose, it’s whether you sit the fuck down and type through the game.

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