Last night, I finished the rewrite of False Witness. Today, I started my rewrite of Evil Twin. I hope to have it done by the end of the week. Then I can look for beta-readers, perhaps as early as next week, and get on with writing up outlines and character sketches for my next project while I am waiting for my beta-readers to get back to me.

I hope the long drought of books will soon be over. It has been too long since I have published anything.

I think I have finally made up my mind on my course of action.

First, I will revise my novel False Witness (second novel in the Charlie Rowe series,) and my novellette Evil Twin (which also features Charlie Rowe,) then I will find beta-readers and editors and a cover designer and have them out this fall or this winter.

Then, I will start working on my third Charlie Rowe novel. It doesn't have a name yet, but my tentative plan is to combine three story ideas into a three-part novel, essentially composed of three novellas.

The three parts will have the tentative titles of Old Wounds, Slings and Arrows, and Casualties. My plan is to link them thematically, by having each one bring Charlie to a realization about his life. In the first one, he will gain an understanding about why he does what he does. In the second story, Slings and Arrows, Charlie will begin to question whether he should stay in the business or not. In Casualties, he will realize that he must do what he does.

This is subject to change, of course: another choice would be to combine Old Wounds and Slings and Arrows into one novel with an A plot and a B plot, and then write Casualties as a seperate novella to wrap up the story arc.

I don't have to decide for a while, however. First, I still have to finish False Witness and Evil Twin. Then, while they're being beta-read and edited, I must do some outlining and character sketches. After my struggles with Jane Doe, I have come to the conclusion that I must have an outline, at least for novels, even if I deviate from it while I write the story.

And after that, I have plenty of other ideas to pursue. For example, I have to write a non-series novel that touches on gun politics and ties in with False Witness, and I have several other ideas as well.

I don't having a lot of ideas, as it happens. I'd rather have too many than not enough. I just need to get better at working on them.

And I still have to find a job to pay the bills.