Ever since I finished work on Volume III in January, I've been caught up in freelance work and wading through the vast well of administrative life tasks that piled up last year. Now that I'm past that, I've been wandering around, trying to figure out what my life could look like post-Glass-Scientists. Recently, an image taken hold whenever I've tried to come up with a new story idea:

Scraping the bottom of a barrel.

Maybe this is burnout? Or simply the result of a decade of too much output, too little input? When I ask myself, "What sort of things do I like?" I end up thinking of things I liked in college or highschool, things I'm honestly not that excited about anymore. And when I try to think of new subjects that might interest me, nothing much stands out. 

My current theory is that I've become too reliant on the feedback loop of create>post>receive instant external validation! When I optimize for validation, I inevitably going back to the well of things-that-worked-before until it runs dry (please excuse the metaphor-mixing here). So even if it makes me uncomfortable, I think I should set some serious time aside just to explore new things I might like without creating anything new. Which sounds simple, but it's a pretty daunting prospect for me!

Hey look! Now that the cover for Volume 3 has been revealed, I can drop the pre-order link! We're still pretty early in the pre-order process, so not all the forms are up--I apologize for the inconvenience!