Okay, so I now have a writing schedule that totally makes sense to me. I realized this week that I’ll be much better equipped to continue writing Iris and the Crew Tear Space a New One in late 2019 or early 2020. I have a really exciting new collaboration that we hope to announce in late September, which will take up a lot of my headspace for a super cool reason.

This means I will complete the first draft of Life in Another ’Cosm first, making it my NaNoWriMo 2018 project. I feel really good about my choice and think Iris and the Crew will get the attention they deserve next year. I’m kind of in love with Iris and the crew of the S.S. Sp00nZ and think it’s going to be a really fun ride. But my other manuscript is calling, and I love those characters, too.

Just as a refresher, Life in Another ’Cosm: Jinny from the Blog is the first sequel to Life in the ’Cosm. I’ve affectionately nicknamed the book The ’Cosm Breakfast Club. My books can be like times capsules for me, and I’m calling on my love for the 80s movies I watched as a teen for this novel—keeping the tropes I liked but discarding the ones that don’t fit with how I see things today. This story has adolescent aliens and a wise tree with an attitude who issues an oracle. Although there are many new characters, Virj, Noola, Xax, and Viv are back, too:

Jinny’s parents are so in love, it’s really gross. Thankfully, her warrior grandpops are epic. Malley High is ugh, Jayke is ughier, but Selma’s pretty okay for someone donned in 50 shades of black. To cope with all the meh, Jinny spends her free time blogging about her microcosm. Her pointless existence goes snoozily along until the morning she meets a four-armed musician on the bus flight to school. She wants to get to know them but realizes she’s forgotten her Geology homework. Skipping first class to scrounge around a quarry, Jinny finds a solid specimen inside an abandoned vessel. The only problem is, this rock poops.

_{(This is the draft blurb and cover concept.)}

I’m looking forward to reuniting with my teens, who have been patiently waiting for me to come back to their story. But seeing as how I’ve taken time away from them to write The Stealth Lovers, they forgive me. Because they think Xax and Viv are awesome.

So, yay! I have a plan of attack. Let’s see if it flies!

And thanks to all of you who have told me on social media that you have bounced around with deciding on what WIP to tackle next. It helps knowing I’m not alone.

Cait Gordon is the author of Life in the ’Cosm, a story about a little green guy who’s on a quest to save half the person he loves. Cait has recently submitted the prequel to ’Cosm called The Stealth Lovers, a military space opera about legendary warriors Xaxall Knightly and Vivoxx Tirowen. When she’s not writing, she’s editing manuscripts for indie authors and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors manage disabilities and/or chronic conditions. She also really likes cake.