Yes, it is time to do this again. The monthly airing of insecurities.

This month, as I prepare to edit the final Mina and Matty series, one worry is picking at my brain: did I screw myself?

See, I really love Mina and Matty, but I also really wanted to get back into novels. However, my novels won’t be published for quite some time. The first one needs a copy editor in the worst way, and the second one is in pieces.

Now add my web comic to the mix.

Based on my novellas, and starting in June.

So, I’m wrapping up the stories that I feel I can write without a copy editor, in favor of novels that won’t be out for a long time, while simultaneously starting the stories over in a second medium…

Did I screw myself over?

Am I branching out only to have sawed off the branch behind me?

Don’t get me wrong. There’s something to be said about starting Mina and Matty in comic form, knowing that the stories are finite and the ending clear. Hell, doing the comic has already helped the ending. I’m reading and rereading the first few stories, which really helps me make sure that everybody’s arcs have been completed.

But I’m also about to bring in a new audience, just to tell them, “This is it. The story ends here.”

Did I just strangle the goose that lays the golden egg?

It’s a question that has been plaguing me, and one that I cannot know the answer to at this time.

The truth is, if Ashley and I decide that we are just having too much fun with the comic, I literally have years of material with these characters, just with what I have written now. Comic time is slow. We have six weeks (we’re planning on updating twice a week) of scripts written and are about 1/4 of the way through the first story… and it’s a short.

We might get sick of doing this, finish Uncommon Animals, and never move on to the other series at all… in which case, my quitting these stories won’t matter.

But… we could also build up a fan base, and at some point in the future, have to tell them, ‘That’s it. The party is over. Go home, now.’

I suppose this is something all series writers go through. The truth is while I love Matty and Mina, 21 stories (and numerous flash pieces for blogs and prompts) later, it’s time for me to move on. I was either going to write these stories forever, or stop now.

I truly understand David Tennant…

But it’s time.

But… did I screw myself?