Friday night I started getting lots of ideas for the novel — started really living it. It feels so nice to be in that obsessive place again.

Saturday I wrote a lot, especially for me. Sunday I did about 1500 words. Last night, I had a migraine — relatively mild, but still, pain. I managed to do another 1000 words. I’d wanted to finish chapter eight, but I couldn’t. When I finally took my medicine and went to bed, all I could think about was the novel. I plotted out the finale of chapter eight. This morning, the cat woke me up early — just before 6. I tried to go back to sleep, no, really, I did. But the novel inserted itself into my conscious thought before I could drift off again, so I got up and wrote about another 1000 words, finishing off chapter eight. Tonight I start typing. It will take me a little while — I suspect that both of these chapters will need a little work, as they were written so quickly. Plus, they’re both over 5000 words. Hopefully by the weekend I’ll be finished, and able to move onto the next two chapters. I’m averaging about a chapter a week again.

For a while I wondered if this trilogy was actually only a book and its sequel. But I really want this to be a trilogy. I finally realized what I would be missing if I wrote the story in only two books: one of the major players would never have an onstage appearance. And he needs to appear, both in the second and third novels.

See — I’ve been resisting plotting out the third novel. Though I love the second novel, the one I’m currently writing, it’s been more difficult to write because I know so much of what’s happening. By not plotting the third novel, I was giving myself more room to explore. But I do need to do more — if only to make sure that all the threads I’m starting in the second novel get tied up in the third. On Saturday I came up with the start of the prologue as well as the last few lines of the third novel, which was so exciting for me. I need to sit down and have a brainstorming session about the third novel, as well as read through some of my old notes about it. Oh — and I’m probably renaming the third novel from “Harp of Rainbows” to “Harp of Fire.”

One other thing — I have a two-novel brain (or story engine as Jay calls it.) I’m always working on two at the same time. That’s how I’ve been from the beginning. When I wasn’t working on the third novel, my brain started searching for other projects. Now, the really, immensely cool thing is that besides the crack novel, a new idea is forming at the back of my head — a new fantasy novel (or novels) that I may write someday. Though I know ideas are a dime a dozen, I still worry sometimes that I’m going to run out of them. But now I feel reassured. I won’t run out of ideas just yet.