A JUGGLING ACT: How Many Books Can I Keep In the Air?

by | Apr 8, 2017 | writing

There have been a few times in my short writing career when I have found myself in a juggling act. Too many books, so little time, you know? This would be one of those times. I started a project here, submitted one there, and soon enough, I ended up juggling several things at one time.

The Lady and the Hussites

This sequel to The Lady Bornekova has been contracted by Clean Reads and is its first round of edits. It will go through content edits (working on the continuity of the story, plausibility, closing any loopholes in the plot, etc), then line edits (more the grammar type stuff), and then proofing edits before a final read-through from me. Cover art will come at some point in this process as well (that’s the part I can hardly wait for).

A Convenient Risk

I will be exercising my skills at self-publishing this manuscript. It is in another editing process right now as well. Advanced Reader Copies have been sent to “Turnquist’s Troupe” as well. Though this book was finished after The Lady and the Hussites, it will actually hit your favorite computer ebook store first in all likelihood.

Leaving Waverly

Ah, the novella I wrote crazy fast… It is with my mentor/critique partner to give me some editing feedback before this novella is ready to go out to my newsletter followers for FREE! So, everyone who is signed up currently, or signs up for my newsletter will receive a FREE copy of this novella.

Trail of Fears

I am in the self-editing trenches with this back-logged novel. It’s been too long on the shelf. So long, in fact, that I have grown in my craft skills to the point this now needs a major re-haul. What seemed perfectly fine to me at the time, now looks too tell-y and the point of view too shallow. I’m excited to dig in and a little intimidated at the enormity of the rewrite.

the Diary

This novel is completed, with the last beta reader, and “resting” before I tear through it with my self-editing eye.

Unnamed Work

I am in the “spark” phase for the next novel. I have the “kernel”, the idea, the “what if”… And I am so excited about it, but I am not quite ready to share any more than this: it will be Historical Fiction, still, but will cross into the realm of Biblical Fiction.

In Summary…

I’ve got a lot going on. I don’t know how “normal” this is for an author (to be juggling so many novels in various stages at once). It seems that most of my author/writer friends have only one, maybe two going at a time. I understand that Isaac Asimov would have sometimes in excess of four or five going because he would tire of one and then move to another to work until he bored of that one. This way, he was always working, but never letting his creative juices dry up.

At any rate, having multiple works going is normal for me. It keeps things interesting. And I wouldn’t have it any other way? What about you? Any of you have multiple tasks/works going at once? Any of my author/writer friends wish to share how many works in progress they handle at one time?

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Sara R. Turnquist