Idea overload (how many is too many?)

So, I'm driving to Roseburg from Gladstone today (about 2.5 hours give or take), and you would not believe the new story ideas that kept popping up! Well, I suppose you could, particularly since you all are mostly writers. Unfortunately, I was driving so I couldn't jot down these ideas that were coming at me like a hailstorm. Of course, because my memory capacity is that of a gnat's, there weren't many that stuck around either. Sigh.

I have four projects that I'm working on right now, it's not like I really need another story to write about; but these were good ideas! I had the multiple story lines and characters all lined up for at least three of them. Really, though, how many ideas, projects, stories etc. should a writer have at once? How long before your brain just runs out of idea space?

I caught myself laughing at the twists my morbid mind would take in this whole process. Every scenario resulted in murder, mayhem and chaos. Road rage, body dumps in the forest, farm equipment murders..... even 'Duckicide'. (There were so many crazy Duck fans on the road it was hard not to imagine something gruesome happening to them all. Really, they were asking for it!)

I wrote earlier about the cross genred author, and I think I'd like to have a story that didn't involve tragedy and dereliction, but somehow, my mind always comes back to that. I like romance, I like happy endings and I like to laugh. I do incorporate all of the above into my work, but it's definitely secondary to mutilation, torture, blood and guts. (My English teachers would have been very concerned.)

So, tell me if you think my pe-occupation with death and dying is weird, I want to avoid a genre type-cast, so please throw me a bone and help a girl out! Now, I must jot down some notes about some really killer story ideas!

Till next time.
Lori~