For those of you who've noticed that my blog suddenly got quiet, it's because I took a full month off from writing, and just spent the time recovering, decompressing, clearing my mind, and that ever so elusive action of actually resting for a change.  I know, right?  Who actually rests anymore these days?  Well, apparently my brain and body decided that would be something fun to try for a change.  So I took a month off my writing and the majority of what I was doing, save for the obvious things I had to keep up, like my job (gotta pay the bills), a few things at the prophecy site I run, and things like eating and sleeping.  Beyond that, I didn't do a whole lot.

I have actually gotten back into writing again, but not to create new content.  Instead I'm just going back through existing works, tweaking a little, and kinda playing things by ear.  As a result, my August deadline for Offworld Chronicles 3 is pretty much toast.  The idea behind that is, rather than burn myself out and/or give you guys a substandard quality book, I'm going to do this next chapter in the series at the speed I'm best able (I'm not a puppy mill author, so stuff will get here when it gets here, and when I'm satisfied that it's ready, and not a day before) so that you have the best book possible.  I know some of you are hyper impatient and can't wait for the next book.  However, I believe that, when it's ready, you'll be glad I waited as long as I did.

Now, another good purpose for waiting and taking my time with book 3 is because of the other books coming after it.  Right now there's tentatively supposed to be 7 books in the series.  Based on what I learn with books 4 and 5, plus my attempted prewriting of the ending to the series (don't worry, I've done this before and it sometimes helps me better direct the story if I know where it's going in advance), I will know with far better clarity if the series will cap out at 5 books or 7.  I don't see it ever being 6 books though.  Why?  Well, depending on where I take events in the 4th hextant, the story will either tidy up by the end of book 5, or will stretch on for two more books before completing.

So why so much uncertainty?  Welcome to the world of writing.  Especially when it comes to long novel series like this.  I'm also doing this as a paid hobby and a thinly paid one at that.  So short of someone handing me half a million dollars and saying, "Write for a living", I think I'll stick with my day job and just do this on the side for fun.  But for those of you who are patient enough to stick with me through this, I can promise you that it'll be worth it.  I just want to do this in a way that both I, and you, are happy with, and if it takes a while to do that, then so be it.  Good quality is never rushed.  It's slowly refined. :)