PBW’s talking about books that don’t get written today. She wraps up her entry with the following question:

What’s in your unwritten archives?

It took me a few minutes to find the spiral notebook in which I log brief tidbits about ideas. I then revisit it periodically and leave a dated note regarding my feelings about it. For instance: 9/10/04—Eh. Tabled for now. 2/4/05—Huh? Dead. (Clearly not one of my finer ideas.)

But flipping through the pages, I find:

An epic (meaning really freakin’ long) time travel romance in which heroine travels back to the American Civil War and drama ensues. I flipped through the many, many pages of this book a couple of months ago and it was definitely written before I heard the phrase “headhopping”.

A western that I liked (and which had a first line my mother loved and still remembers even though it was ages ago) but from which I’ve ripped some stuff for Taming Eliza Jane.

A short contemporary romance that has something to do with a big house, three meddlesome old aunts and a handyman. Original, huh? In my defense, I believe this is my postpartum book with the short kid. It was pronounced DEAD.

Crotch Rocket — I don’t know who’s hotter, the hero or the bike, but I still intend to finish this one. (sexy contemporary novella)

A really, really bad first chapter to Harlequin Intrigue — I mean really bad. Fortunately I never showed it to anybody. (This was also a postpartum idea, I think.)

A short western novella — It’s going to be the free read when I get off my butt and finish it. Love the story, stuck on like two scenes.

A western set in a whorehouse — calamity ensues. Might follow-up Taming Eliza Jane. Depends.

A romantic comedy set aboard a murder mystery cruise. Yeah, it’s still at the dock, and I think it’s got dry rot by now.

A women’s fiction idea — A little NEXT-ish, and I like elements of it, but not enough for a whole book. I’ll probably rip stuff from it for other stories.

A comedic romantic adventure ala Romancing the Stone — Somebody else published a book VERY similar to what I was working on, so I tabled it.

The sequel to Interstellar Sparks — I love Dane. I need to make some time for him.

Secret Project #1 — Paranormal. I sabotaged this one my very own self. I’m so pathetic sometimes.

Romantic comedy set in a…well, I might still do this one. It’s got a premise that might be so yesterday, though.

The Impossible Bombshell — I’ve mentioned this one before, and I still want to write it. I need more hours in my day.

Another sexy contemporary novella involving a friendly little wager. I still want to write this one.

A novella for a “foursome” antho — I got about…3 sentences into it and scrapped it. Not my cuppa tea.

Cursed Not-Dead Guy — sexy contemporary paranormal-lite novella. Love this story. Hope I find time to finish it sometime this century.

Formula 1-set romance — Got stuck and moved on, intending to come back to it. Almost time to come back to it, I think. F1 starts up soon, so that’ll put me back in the mood.

Time travel via Bermuda Triangle — Umm…I think I watched a show on the Triangle, got this fabulous idea. Woke up the next morning realizing it was a really sucky idea. Marked DEAD.

Futuristic space western series thing — Love it. Sneaking in time to work on it here and there.

SSE — Working on it.

Secret Project #2 — a contemporary romantic comedy

So those are the ideas that gelled enough to go into the notebook. It doesn’t count the gazillions of scraps of paper floating around my house. Or in my iPaq. Or in notepad files littering my hard drive.