I’ve been feeling in a rut lately. Work is less interesting to me than it once was, and I find myself drifting off for long periods. Did you know that some psychologists consider daydreaming a mild and relatively harmless form of dissociation? Kind of cool, no? Anyway, I’ve been dissociating more frequently than is really productive, and I’m afraid it’s starting to be noticeable. It might be encroaching depression, but then it doesn’t really feel like I expect depression to feel (Nobody expects the encroaching depression!).

Worst of all is that I haven’t been writing. Except this blog, occasionally, which doesn’t really count. Other stuff, which I will now attempt to explicate and justify, in the hope that it will provide some kind of jolt of inspiration. Bear with me. Hidden in here is a badly framed (even Byzantine) request for the advice of my trusted friends.

First, and so far longest project, is a realistic novel centered on an Emergency Room and dealing with the racism and paranoia that I’ve found to be endemic here in Phoenix. I’ve got around 310 pages done of that, some of it is pretty darn good, in my totally fair and unbiased opinion, but I’ve hit a major narrative wall and don’t really know what to do about it.

Second is another book length project about a woman whose plane crashes in the Namib Desert and is rescued by an eccentric millionaire and his wife, who may or not be on the run from various nogoodnicks. Hilarity (or feeble attempts at it anyway) ensues. That one I’ve got about 60 pages done.

Third book length piece is the first in a planned fantasy trilogy based in part on Finnish mythology; this first part is really a ghost story. It’s the one I have the best handle on plot-wise, but seem to be lacking juice for it at the moment. ‘Bout 120 pages done there.

On top of those three I’ve got two short stories, one in progress and one in polishing, that I work on when I don’t feel like working on anything else. The latter is up on my other blog, here, if anyone’s interested in adding their two cents about it.

So my question to you, dear reader(s), which one of those three would you like to see finished first? I need to finish something, but I’m doing this horrible bouncing between projects thing, and I think they all suffer for it.

Help me out. I’m begging you. Reply in comments and thanks in advance.