Hello, dreamers. My busy month continues. As of this writing I have four active short fiction submissions, and I’m hoping at least two of them will be resolved in the coming week. But short fiction is taking a back seat right now. Query Season is here.

My query prep is nearly complete, and this week more agents should be opening to queries. That means the second phase of my query mission is about to begin. Add that to my upcoming projects, and I’ve got my work cut out for me. So here’s what I’ll be working on this week:

Querying Seven Days on Samarkand

At long last, more agents are reopening to queries, and not a moment too soon.

Over the past week, I edited the new passages I’d written and added them to the manuscript. After some continuity work to make sure everything fit with the new material, I completed my final editing pass. From there, I created a new “clean” file (without all the metadata from critique feedback), which surprisingly did not, as it usually does, cause Google Docs to crash on me. The final version clocks in just south of 104k words. Since this is a multi-POV work of hard science fiction, I’d say that’s right around where I want to be.

As I’ve said in my “Dear Sir or Madam” posts, when it comes to query revisions the MS always comes first; by nature, the story itself informs all query materials. Since creating the clean file I’ve revised my samples and changed my synopsis to reflect the new material, as well as updating my increasingly formidable bio. Next step: my query letter.

Faithful readers will recall the Query Nightmare that was my August, when I literally spent an entire month writing query letter after query letter. After, I’d conservatively estimate, the hundred and eighteenth draft, I succeeded in writing a suitable query letter in all of about twenty minutes. It goes without saying that I am…er, reticent to simply throw out all that hard work. And the feedback I received in my first round suggests the QL isn’t a problem. But as I’ve said before, it’s good practice to revise everything after every unsuccessful round. So, over the next several days I’ll be reopening my query letter to see if I can find ways to strengthen it.

May whatever god you believe in have mercy on my soul.

Barring any extreme changes to my QL, I expect to be ready to query by midweek, but there’s still work to be done. I’ll be keeping a close eye on QueryTracker to see what agents open up before the end of the week. When I go to query an agent, I put together a customized “query packet” in its own file on Google Drive. That way I have all the requisite materials, including the agent’s personalized query letter, ready to go when I submit. That can take time to put together. As one of my target agents has actually closed to queries since the start of January, I’m considering a hybrid approach for this round: submitting my first five queries this week and another the following week, or possibly staggering two ten-query rounds mere weeks apart. In the end, my approach will depend on how many agents reopen this week.

As if all that weren’t enough, #QuestPit is coming on January 30. By the end of the autumn query window last year, I’d resolved to be more intentional with my pitch event participation this year. #QuestPit will be my first event of the year, and one of probably only four or five I will take part in. So I’m going to want to make every appearance count for something. I plan to begin prep this week.

Beyond Sanctuary Valley

Of course, at any given time I always want an active writing project. And after the work I’ve done on SDoS over the past few weeks, I’ve decided I’m going to forge ahead. This week at some point I will begin work on the sequel to Seven Days on Samarkand.

As I’ve mentioned, over the past year I’ve begun selecting novel projects strategically. Last fall I began work on Aquarius 1 as a way to hedge my bets; if SDoS strikes out in querying, I’ll need a new project to query with. Now that I’m querying again, however, and given the positive feedback I received from my first round, I’ve decided it makes sense right now to plunge right into the next book, and continue work on subsequent installments, as well.

I’ve made this decision for several reasons. For one, Seven Days on Samarkand is currently fresh in my mind. I’m fully immersed in the characters and their story, and over the past week I’ve begun taking increasingly detailed notes on what I want to do with the sequel. For another, I’ve been thinking about The Expanse. The first two novels in the series, Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War, were released only a year apart, while the third installment (Abaddon’s Gate) was released two years after the second. That suggests to me that the writers known as James S.A. Corey probably had the first two books written before the first was published.

As I hope SDoS will launch a series (and the novel’s ending clearly sets up the next book), I believe having the next book either finished or at least well underway when I begin querying will strengthen my case.

Longtime readers will know that SDoS and its currently unnamed sequel were originally written as a single novel. By the end of December, I was seriously considering rejoining the two books, partly due to concerns regarding the stakes of the first. But my critique group and beta readers talked me down, and my recent additions to SDoS have allayed my concerns. So, the two books remain separate (for now, at least).

The upshot of this is that I already have a lot of the second book written. That’s the good news. The bad news is that A) at present what I have of the second book totals less than 50k words, and B) what I do have now feels low-stakes to the point of being flimsy. When I’d first realized how short the second half had become (passages were cannibalized to flesh out SDoS), I started to twitch. Since then, however, I’ve grown increasingly excited that the sheer amount of real estate I have to play with.

I’ve spent my sketches over the past several days on test writings for the new project. This week, once query prep for SDoS is complete, my first order of business will be to map out a new rough outline for the second book. Thanks to my recent notes, I already have a pretty good idea of where I want to go. Much of what I have currently will become the second half of this novel; most of the first half will be composed of new material. And I plan to get much darker and philosophical. It’s gonna be dope.

At present, I have no clear timetable for this project. I’ll need to start writing before I get a feel for how long it will take to complete. Plus, one of my critique partners will be reading the existing material this week, and I may hold off or at least slow-roll things until I hear back from her. But I’m eager to share this exciting new (and kind of old) project with you.

Short Fiction

Once again, I open with happy news. Last week, I signed my contract with Analog. Given the wording of the reversion clause in the contract, I’d expected it would be some time before I heard anything more from them. But I was wrong; mere days later, I received my galleys.

For those unfamiliar with the inner workings of literary magazines, galleys are essentially the short fiction version of proofs: they show the writer exactly how their work will appear in print. Upon receiving the galleys, the writer is given the opportunity to make any changes they wish. Usually this includes partial rewrites, but I was informed that would not be possible for me; they won’t have time to edit any rewrites before the story is published.

As of this writing, I’m still awaiting formal confirmation, but it seems my story “Casual Brutality” will appear in the May/June issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact.

Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, I now have four active short fiction submissions. With the approaching major project plus querying, I don’t expect to have any new short fiction pieces completed any time soon. I’d begun a new piece I like early last week, but stepped away from it as my mind was increasingly drawn back to Samarkand.

Thus, I’m currently looking at my available completed projects in my editing queue to expand my actives list. One of those stories, “The First Night on Eridani” was edited with the help of my critique group over the past week, and is being submitted to Strange Horizons today. Over the coming week I plan to devote at least a little of my dwindling available writing time to editing short fic in hopes of having more active stories to submit.

Upcoming Content

Amid some egging-on by a fellow writer who’s made it big, I’m planning to formally launch my Substack in the coming month. At present I’m working on a content strategy, with an eye to making sure what I’m offering on that platform differs from what’s offered here. I’m getting close, and will keep readers posted.

Also, hawkeyed readers may have noticed a change to my website: I now have my own domain: michaeltkuester.com is now this site’s address.

Once I’ve begun work in earnest on the sequel to Seven Days on Samarkand, I’ll be resuming my weekly “WIP Wednesday” posts. For this week, however, there will be no further posts until Friday. That said, here’s what you can expect on this site through the week ahead:

Friday: “Science in Fiction: Stayin’ Alive in Space”

Space is the most inhospitable environment known to man. Keeping humans alive in space is hard work, and requires specialized systems to recycle water and air. In this month’s “Science in Fiction”, I’ll be looking at life support: how sci-fi has depicted it, how it actually works, and how the modern science fiction writer can keep their characters alive.

Sunday: “Dear Sir or Madam”

In this week’s post on my querying journey, I’ll provide an update on my upcoming round of queries, and explain what the “invisible work” means in the modern literary world.

It’s going to be another big week. So read on, and dare to dream. – MK