Currently, I have one main- a book that is planning to start a series, as long as the agent likes it.

I also have my distraction, a mystery. If I loose track on my series, I”ll transfer over. Sometimes I’ll spend time working on that.

It’s a mystery, and I think it’ll be worthy.

WHen my main series book, I’ll turn to PST as a distraction and my mystery as my main. Then I’ll head to my second book as my distraction.

I am keeping two on the focus, a fiction series book. It’s my first book, and I think it’ll be worthy, even though I’ll have to arrange the series that comes with it.

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So I'm one of those writers who writes, but doesn't sub. My game plan, a mistaken one perhaps, was to finish a body or work before I began submitting to agents. But in the meantime, bits and pieces of these works have been winning contests and getting very positive agent/editor critiques at conferences.

I've been writing for a long time and assembling my best work, and not venturing out into the market until I had a fare sampling of my wares to show. That doesn't mean I'm trying to publish everything I've produced in fifteen years. It means I have a small collection of the best, representative of many years of honing my craft.

As far as the multi-tasking goes, I write the way I cook Thanksgiving dinner. If you didn't start the pie and the sweet potatoes until AFTER the turkey was done, you'd be in trouble. Various manuscripts are in various stages of preparation. After a draft or revision, I set a piece aside and work on another, so that I always have something cooking even if something else is cooling.

(My apologies if this comes out twice .. I thought I sent it .. but here it is on my screen again waiting on word verification.)

So, when I query, should I indicate that this first book that I'm submitting is intended as part of a series with full length drafts of the next five manuscripts available for review? That's my take on this question, but maybe that's just me.

I only write with publishing in mind, but realistically, I know many are not publishable. I've written in several genres, but I've narrowed my interest down to mostly action/adventures.

I finally found someone to work with me on editing and to get my projects out the door. We chose one novel that my editor felt had promise, but it was over 600 pages. It needed to be split, so I suddenly had two novels. As my editor worked on bk #1, I started writing bk #3. When I got the edited version back on #1, I wrote the next draft. I gave it back to her then wrote #4 in this series. The queries for bk #1 are out the door finally, and as bk #2 is being edited, I am writing #5. There is nothing I would rather be doing. It's a good thing, because I can't stop.

I have also been working on parts of a novel, but that will be quite a while before it will be finished. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I'm focusing primarily on 2 projects, with a 3rd shorter project sidelined for when I hit writer's block, which means something's wrong and I need a break so I can find the problem:

1. a high fantasy YA novel that's on revision #3 or 4 (depending on how you count it)

2. an urban fantasy YA novel that's in the first draft, plotted out except for the hiccups that are appearing in the drafting

3. an urban fantasy serial novelette that's based in the same world as a currently shelved novel idea. It's helped me with the worldbuilding for the shelved novel. I know basically what I want in the plot, but I'm still working out how to get there, so I'm a rougher first draft stage with this one than with project #2.

It's nice to have the variability, because when I feel like smashing my head open instead of spending one more second in one world, I have another all ready for a visit. (And a few others that I can dream about visiting when I get done with what I'm currently working on, including a few that I know I lack the skill to pull off.)

Unfortunately, projects 2 and 3 are similar in genre, and both worlds have vampires and werewolves. It takes some concentration to remember which type of vampire/werewolf goes with which story.

I do like working on several stories at once because it keeps my brain and writing nice and loose. Sometimes I will dig myself into a deep rut or block with one story….I find that if I take a break from that story by working on a different story, the words start flowing again and I feel refreshed when I return to the first story.