Not much – yeah, that’s a load of crap. I’m up to my eyeballs in stuff from work, to theatre, to upcoming shows to trying to get Knight Moves polished up and ready to go. I’m about 1/3 of the way through the first draft now, and was hoping to finish the whole thing for the Heroes Con in June, but that’s realistically not going to happen. I go into tech rehearsals for RENT next week, so I’ll be losing most of two weeks’ worth of writing time in the evenings, what with loading things in this week and tech rehearsals next week.

I watched rehearsal for the first time last night, and it’s going to be a very good show. One of my big problems with theatre in a small market is the casts are typically very uneven. You’ll have very good leads, and decidedly mediocre supporting actors. Or you’ll have one lead that is significantly better than the other, or something like that. This cast is all pretty even. They’re good, and there are some very nice moments already, so give them a few more rehearsals and an audience, and they’ll be very good.

I’ve acquired 16 LED fixtures and a new lighting console of my very own for this show, so I’m spending about $5k on a show that will pay me $1,500 (design fee + rental budget), but then I’ll have a bunch of gear that can be rented out for the next few years. I’ve already lined up 3-4 rental shows for the summer, so I oughta be able to pay for this gear in a year or two. Worst case, I can sell it on eBay and get my money back. I’ve also borrowed a bunch of other gear, so the show should be pretty awesome looking. Which I hope will be the case, since this is probably my theatrical swan song, at least for a little while. I just don’t want to take time away from my writing to sit in a dark theatre for a couple of weeks anymore. And I’m almost to the point where I make more money writing than I do designing, but not quite.

So after Rent I’ll be taking a break for a while to focus on getting Knight Moves out the door, then turning my attention to one of several projects that I have floating around. I think the next project will be something outside The Black Knight Chronicles, so here’s your chance to help me decide what to write next. Here are my current ideas, what do you want to read?

1) Spy Thriller in the Vince Flynn/Tom Clancy mode?

2) Coming of Age horror novel about kidnapped kids?

3) Mystery/Action novel about a city falling into an abandoned mine?

4) Epic fantasy novel about an unrepentant elf assassin?

5) Space bounty hunter?

Your vote counts, people! Lemme know what to write next. I might completely disregard your ideas, but I might not. Leave it in the comments.

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