I have a busy week ahead of me.  After last week, I’m on a roll, and I really want to keep the momentum going and get back to where I once was.  I feel very good about what I’ve accomplished in the past week, but as I always say, the work of an aspiring novelist is never done.  Thus, while I can take a moment to appreciate the work I put in last week, a moment is all I can afford.  Now is not the time to slow down.

Here’s what’s coming this week:

Samarkand

Once again, much of the coming week will be devoted to expanding and refreshing my concept notes for Samarkand.

For at least the next few days I will continue to focus on character development.  While I’m happy with what I’ve done so far with the members of the Samarkand Administrative Board (SAB), before I move on in my notes, much less resume writing, I need to flesh out the initial cast of characters.  My next task in that regard will be working out the members of the crew.

The crew of the Susan Constant will be vital to the early phases of the story.  Unlike the colonists, the members of the ship’s crew aren’t there as settlers: their job is merely to see to the operations of the ship, deliver the colonists to their destination, remain in orbit for two years providing material support, and ultimately return to Earth.  Thus, the crew will play a major role early on, as the colonists’ ability to carry out their objectives will depend greatly on the crew’s ability to assist them.  While I’ve already written out scenes in which the crewmembers interact with one another, I’m not fully satisfied with the dialogue, in part because while writing that dialogue I had no real idea of who these people were.  As such, the dialogue reads exactly as one would expect an envisioned conversation between people one does not know to turn out.

One of the more interesting character sketches I’m looking forward to is one I only came up with today at work.  Upon landing on their new planet, the colonists soon encounter one of the planet’s more dangerous life forms.  Eventually termed Yutyrannus Xinghong by the colonists, the “Jing” is a medium-sized tyrannosaur partly covered in brilliant scarlet plumage.  Generally a solitary creature, the jing is an apex predator, and soon after landing an initial scouting party led by Holmes discovers that their landing site lies within the territory of a particularly large male jing.

This discovery leads quickly into a scene I’d already written, in which Holmes and his scouting party encounter the predator shortly after it ransacked their camp.  Originally, I’d planned to have Holmes fell the beast with a few shots from his rifle, but upon further reflection I’ve instead decided to end the encounter with Holmes wounding it instead.  Over time, this wounded jing, subsequently nicknamed “Scarface” by the colonists due to the injury inflicted by Holmes, will play a major role in the story, as the colonists learn to coexist with their new environment partly through learning how to safely coexist with the predator that calls their new forest its home.

Pathfinder

Though it’s been back-burnered for the time being, I plan to continue refining my concept notes on Pathfinder.

As I’ve said, regardless of which one is finished first, Pathfinder and Samarkand need one another to exist.  Thus, I feel that continuing to work on Pathfinder, if only the concept itself, will aid me in my writing of Samarkand.

This approach also involves continuing to work on the various pieces of short fiction I’ve set within the universe of Pathfinder.  Speaking of which…

Short Fiction

After a great deal of thought, I’ve decided to post my latest work of short fiction, Here with Me, on the website, rather than converting it into manuscript and sending it out looking for publication.  This was a calculated move, based partially on the story’s overall death of dialogue, which I fear would likely work against it when seeking publication.

Also this week, I plan to revisit and resume work on several short stories set within the Pathfinder universe.  These include SILOS 47, which follows the pilot of a short-range interplanetary freighter (SILOS 47), Ganymede, which revolves around a researcher who’s light aerial vehicle has crash-landed on the surface of the eponymous moon, and Poseidon, which is set aboard a Poseidon Deep Space Vehicle: an enormous spacecraft driven by solar sails, designed to ferry supplies and personnel to and from research outposts on the moons of the outer planets.

Changes to the Website

Lastly, this week I plan to begin the process of redesigning my website.  As I said in last week’s Week in Review, this change has been a long time coming, but will ultimately be for the best.  At some point this summer I plan to purchase a domain name, which will be the final phase of recreating my site as a conduit for my writing, rather than the focus of my writing itself.

While I’ve put a lot on my plate, I truly believe I’m capable of not only accomplishing all I’ve set out to do, but much more in fact, before the week ends.  I have a lot on my plate, but for the first time in a while I find myself looking forward to a full slate.  Keep reading, and keep dreaming. – MK