I’m not sure how to express my feelings about finishing Siege.

There’s definitely the sensation of the shackle being loosed, the prisoner going free. Don’t misunderstand–I love writing–but Siege sometimes felt like a ball and chain, holding me in place until I finished my sentence. Part of that was due to my angry villagers and their pitchforks, of course; missing a regularly-scheduled post was dangerous for my health! Another large part of it was merely the length–nearly double what I had originally planned for the story.

Another feeling is pride. It’s not the first novel-length piece I’ve written, but the third. However, this time I had committed myself to a writing schedule and saw it through to the end (even if it took longer than I expected). There’s some satisfaction to be found in completing a story this long–after all, not many would commit to such a foolhardy endeavor.

And there’s always some melancholy. Siege represents, in many ways, the years I spent playing Star Wars Galaxies and a handful of the friendships I developed during that time. I may have been the one hammering the keys, but this story is as much theirs as it is mine. I didn’t solely develop the relationships that were written here. I didn’t come up with each character and develop their quirks, strengths, and flaws. Well, for many of them I did, but for some I did not.

With Siege finally complete, the question then becomes:

What next?

Well, there’s several projects currently cooking that I want to proceed with.

First, and arguably most importantly, I’m working on a new, stand-alone story entitled Destiny’s Heir. It’s in many ways a traditional fantasy novel (with my own twists on it, of course) that I plan to pursue publication with. As a story, it’s more tightly plotted and controlled than my Star Wars stories have been, including a more careful outline and better-developed characters. It has all the classic elements of fantasy: swords, magic, intrigues, mystery, romance, and mystery. (*gag*) No, really, it’s not nearly as boring as I’m making it out to be. At least, I hope not! Anyway, it’s currently about one-quarter written.

And it will not be posted here.

I’m currently in the process of editing two other stories about Halyn: X-Wing: The Nallera Conflict and X-Wing: Arms Race. Combined, they’re about 150k words long and were written during my years in college. When I’m finished editing, they’ll be posted here as well; I hope to start posting chapters of The Nallera Conflict within a week or two.

After that?

I’ve got several other old half-completed stories that need some completion, including X-Wing: Cadet, which stars Allanna Saret as a new recruit in the Rebel Alliance training to become a fighter pilot. These, too, are on my short-list of one-off writing projects that I would like to complete and post. There’s at least two more X-Wing stories I also need to write; X-Wing: The Talus Crucible which was outlined and briefly started but never followed up on, detailing Halyn’s captivity at the hands of an Imperial inquisitor during the Galactic Civil War, and X-Wing: Rara Avis, which would revolve around Halyn’s time as the head of the flight academy on Rori–which was when Kelta Rose first entered the picture.

You know, for someone who claims he’s done writing about Star Wars, I’ve definitely got a certain theme going with the stories I need to finish. I may be just a tad self-delusional.

Keep checking in–I promise more stories will be posted.