Since I have several weeks before the editor can get to The Obsidian Palace, I’ve been taking the last stage of editing slow. I’m over halfway done, and expect to finish this week, even with an expected interruption tomorrow.

Heaven’s Fallen is coming along slowly, as I expected it to. I’m only doing a fifth of my standard amount each day, but I may finish the rough draft sometime in January, but I’m not holding my breath on it. I lost my motivation to write it once already, and I don’t want to make promises I’m not sure I can keep. Besides, even after I finish it, I’m sure it’s going to require a lot more editing than most of my stories, with the long break in the middle.

I really haven’t done a ton on preparing for Crisis of Faith yet. I have a vague outline, but I want to re-read the books before delving into it too much, since I want the story to feel right for the series. Some of my most beloved characters are in it, after all! I have come up with a few of Sistina’s recent projects, which just make me laugh. She’s such an odd character.

Now, with all that said… I’m currently debating on the project after Crisis of Faith. This week I got blindsided by all the major plot elements of Ashes of Time falling into place. I know I haven’t said much about the book idea before, but what I can say is that it would be something of a tragedy (in my mind, anyway) and it involves a demonic invasion. Oh, and it’s set in the same world as Through the Fire, just in a different area. This story is the type that I’d probably normally split into two or maybe even three books, but the way the plot is designed, I don’t feel right doing that. I hate leaving massive cliffhangers at the end of books, and splitting them would lead to that.

The second option is working on Heaven’s Fallen to finish its story. I’m not necessarily as thrilled by this idea, because the story is so weird, and with my issues writing it, but it’s an option. The story is something of a romance, and involves a world where there are portals between the heavens, hells, and what they call the mortal plane. The residents aren’t true angels or demons, as when they die they go to afterlives, but there are a lot of oddities to their world. Some elements of the story are dark, rather like parts of Ancient Ruins, though not quite as bad in my mind. That’d debatable depending on the viewer, though.

The last option I’m seriously considering is returning to Lilith’s Shadow, as I’ve been making plans for it for a while. I’ve had the title Queen’s Move in my head for a while, as I intended for Lilith and Company to move to another city after things wrapped up in Down with the Queen, and I laid down several plot seeds in the previous book. If I do this, I have three major plot arcs that should be split between three separate books. I can’t guarantee that, since Down with the Queen managed to condense part of what I planned to be a major (separate) plot arc into itself. I’m currently leaning toward this option, but the other two ideas are interesting to me as well.

Those are the ideas going through my mind right this moment. I have a lot of other ideas as well (and I mean a lot of other ideas), but these are the ones I feel are best for me to work on in the near future, and I’d love to hear opinions on them.