I've concluded that I won't be able to make the deadline for the space opera anthology. My plot was arcing away from the blasters-blazing type of action, anyway, and into...I'm not quite sure. So that one will get some rest, and it's actually with vast relief that I'm turning to the story that leapt into my head when I read the call for an angels and demons anthology.
I do come up with ideas without anthology prompts, not that you would be able to tell.
The space opera one made me think, Hey, that sounds like fun, and I somehow forced my brain onto that track. I've always wanted to write science fiction because I read a fair amount of it, and it seemed like this was as good an opportunity as ever. But it was dogged persistence that got me through as far as I did on that one. The story kept getting wound up tighter and tighter until I had no room to go anywhere without breaking laws of science.
In contrast, when I saw the angels and demons anthology announcement, it didn't even register at first. It just seemed so out of my range, the way a cowboy anthology would be. But I stumbled across some art that happened to depict an angel, and suddenly I was flipping over to my word processor and typing up a storm. And I kept typing, except when I remembered that there was this space opera thing that I should be chugging away at.
There are other projects on the burner, of course. If I completely abandoned my current works-in-progress every time a shiny new idea popped up, I'd never finish anything. But the one where the words are flowing downhill from brain to fingers — the one drawing me to my desk day after day, racking up the word count, making fall a little more in love with the characters as I create and discover more about them — right now, that's the angels and demons one.
I am firmly going to ignore any other calls for submissions until the rush of this one is over, hopefully leaving behind a complete novella.
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