On What's Next

So, I find myself in between things at the moment, doing my best to pump my latest book (my New York zombie apocalypse novel SINCERELY DEAD which is really, really good and you should buy it) and also wondering what (if anything) I should write next.

I’ve long been a few chapters into a follow-up to HOPE TOWN, with an eye toward turning that (perhaps!) into a series. Thus far in the follow-up, Parker’s life is going downhill fast, but Nate has a life preserver to toss him – if only Parker will grab hold.

I’m more than a few chapters into the next volume of the APPLEWOOD saga, which I’d very much like to continue, except that stopped selling a long time ago, not to mention hardly anybody read the follow-up (FLEDGE) anyway, so that seems a non-starter and probably a waste of time.

And though this one hardly sells either, I think my pirate adventure SWASH! would make an excellent candidate for a sequel. In my mind, it would pick things up a few years later, with Chris graduated from college and running the zoo on Sully’s Rump, when Captain Hornblossom and his merry men return. I have an idea I’d like to flip things on its head, with Chris and Sarah returning to the eighteenth-century – to save Barney from something? Who knows!

I guess I’ve been fortunate in that I have lots of ideas, some written down, others still flitting around inside my head. I’ve never had to worry about “writer’s block” or where the next idea would come from. No, the problem with me has always been simply putting my ass in that chair and getting down to business, but once I’ve made the decision to do that, I know the writing will come.

However, it makes no sense to write sequels to books that don’t sell, so unless they get miraculously discovered and embraced by the public, I’m not going to write any of those. Besides, writing novels is (for me, anyway) extremely time-consuming and (lately) very injurious to my health. Seriously. The last one almost killed me. BUY IT!

And writing novels that hardly anybody (short of family, friends, and only the occasional kind stranger) buys or reads is simply soul-crushing. I just can't do it anymore.

Therefore, I’ve decided my next (and unless I'M miraculously discovered and embraced by the public, no doubt last) bit of writing will be another entry in THE DICK LONDERGAN CHRONICLES. Yeah, hardly anyone buys them either. But at least they’re fun to write! Plus, being short, they don’t take it out of me the way a full-blown novel does.

So stay tuned to this space, where Dick Londergan will no doubt once again find himself in the midst of his most vexing case yet . . .

And as always, thanks for reading.