Chicken Scratch

I am one scene and connective tissue from a finished draft of Vol 1 before the "final" editing pass, and this is probably the longest stretch of time I've focused on one project and written it in order. Naturally that means I am getting restless.

If I am done with this volume by October, my original plan was to do a refresh edit on Arks Be Damned and possibly take a swing at publication, but I sincerely doubt my ability to JUST edit and not write. I can't decide if I want to just plow straight forward into Vol 2, which I think pretty much needs to be re-written at this point because it is the oldest Raze content, or if I want to take a break and tackle something that demands less research. With NaNo on the horizon, I'm wondering if I should get a head start on at least plotting out a project.

I think my only projects that don't require a MOUNTAIN of research are Gutter Punk, Other Nations, and The Dog Star. They... really couldn't possibly be more dissimilar in terms of themes, style, and content. I've tried Gutter Punk for NaNo before with so-so results, and Stan has indicated that they like Other Nations the most out of my non-Raze projects, but I'm in a creature mood so The Dog Star is looking very attractive. Maybe use October for creature building so I have a fully stocked bestiary to launch into NaNo?

Speaking of bestiary, I really need to update the one for Raze because a *lot* of new species have been added in the past year, and they'll be particularly relevant for 1.5 and Human Extinction. We got fish monsters, spider monsters, folklore monsters from several cultures (finally some pig hominids, thank fuck), and even a new osvermis genus to pad the original content pret wildlife. I'll toss it up here when I get around to it for funsies.