Parkinson's Law

I'm struggling to complete a short story that's part of an M/M vampire romance anthology coming out in October. This is my self-imposed deadline, not anyone else's. All three (or four, the plan was for four) are mine, and I wanted to release them in time for Halloween.

I'm already "done" with my December release, but not really. I know I'll be working on edits from my book coach from August through November.

And then there's next year. I have a six-book series to put out next year. Friends, I've written these books, but then I got held up in the process of rewriting them and now ... none of them are ready for publication. None of them. And I also wanted to work on my two Hollywood series, which are still ideas in my head.

I am one human with a full-time job trying to publish a book every two months. I am also the type of person who loses productivity to Parkinson's law. I will absolutely take all the time I'm given to complete a project. That means I need to set hard deadlines for first drafts so I can move on to the next one.

I'm finishing this vampire story by the end of July. Hard stop.

I'll get feedback on my December release in August, but I won't start working on edits until October. That leaves August and September to hammer out the first draft of my February release, Stone of Power (prequel/book 0 of the Farbonnur Elves series - previously The King's Physician, only now with more Veldani, because he is the glue that ties this series together). Then I'll edit it in December, and I'll continue on book 1 in October/November ...

The only way this works is if I don't stop. I put my faith in myself and in all of you that eventually, the work I ship is going to find its way to the readers who want to read it. My reach is tiny but my imagination and the stories waiting to be written are larger than the internet.

At least I'm not behind schedule (yet). I need deadlines to assure I won't fall behind. And a little fear. Okay, maybe a lot of fear.