I figured I had, at most, 12 books in me: the A&O trilogy (i.e. The Books of Rachel), my grand sci-fi saga, and a handful of standalone novels.

But when I recently tallied all my book outlines*, I was shocked to discover I had 30 novels left to write!

The math: A&O took me five years to write.  Hence, it will take me 5 years x 30 novels = 150 years to complete writing all my books.  (And that’s not counting the additional book ideas I’d inevitably come up with during that 150 year span of time.)

Barring a cure for aging in the next 40ish years, I only have time to write eight more novels.  Sadly, I will be forced to do some heart-rending literary prioritizing in the next few years.  Damn you, mortality!

* These aren’t mere “story ideas”; these are fully fleshed-out summaries.  I’m a chronic outliner: I need to know how a story begins, builds, and ends, before I can write its first draft.  I envy authors that can begin writing a tale without knowing where it’s headed.