Geekomancy has gone off to my editor, and any day now the next round (line edits) will arrive.  In the meantime, I’ve been plotting and planning and thinkerating about the sequel.  I’ve never written a sequel before, so I have a whole new set of challenges and opportunities.

Since Geekomnancy was originally a distraction from my ‘real’ project, the stress level when I started writing was very low.  I was just taking a fun break to try out an idea. Now I have a deadline, established continuity, series ambitions, and so on.

What I usually do (as in, what I’ve done for the last four novel starts) is to think and outline and ponder characters and plot, throwing it all into a mental pile.  When that mental pile of ideas and characters got too high, it would tumble into a wave of writing, and I’d ride that wave to get the first draft started.

The pile is building, and I’m trying to push myself to make the second book even more fun, more exciting than the first one, to build on what I’ve done while also finding something new to show readers, while keeping myself from stressing out too much (ala “oh crap Sophomore slump and I have way less time to write this book and what if the first one was a total fluke!”).

All in all, this time around, I’m feeling less like preparation is building up a mountain of ideas and more that it’s strapping on gear to prepare for my first skydive.

The light is green, I’m standing in the open door of the plane, the wind rushing in, lapping at my fingers.

Nothing left to do but let go and dive.  Also, I should probably avoid that turbine.