Hello again, dreamers. As I’ve said, it’s been a slow process working my way back into writing, but I’m starting to feel it. I’m getting a better feeling of where I want to go next, and I must say, it’s gratifying. It’s been tough, getting back into the swing of things. But I believe in what I’m doing, and now more than ever, I’m convinced that is enough. With that said, here’s what I’ll be dealing with in the week ahead:

The Pioneer

After a comprehensive read-through, I feel the time for major revisions of my latest work has come.

As I’ve said, the experience of writing The Pioneer differed greatly from my experience with Wide Horizon. The most stark difference, of course, was the time it took to complete the first draft. Overall, I’m happy with the time frame: it was gratifying to find myself with a complete draft in only six months. However, the compressed time frame also marked a departure from my established process. I was less deliberative with The Pioneer, and made fewer revisions during the process, choosing instead to push ever forward, even when I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how things were turning out. Thus, while I completed the first draft in record time, I feel I have a lot more to do than I did after finishing Wide Horizon.

Thus, the read-through represented a vital first step. I needed to know exactly what I needed the change, and where. Over the coming month or so, major changes will be made. This will likely begin with a major expansion of my concept notes: during principal writing, I frequently added major plot devices on the fly, and I need to explore these concepts better in order to create a more immersive experience.

Most likely, major revisions will begin following Phase 1, which is to date the most thoroughly-revised portion of the story (having been completely rewritten already). Several characters will also change, and I plan to introduce more technology (and explanation of said) as well.

There is much to do, but I feel I’m up for the task.

Wide Horizon

I also need to devote some time to my previous novel. As of now, I’ve sent out two rounds of query letters, and while that only totals 15 agents queried, I’d decided prior to the last round that if I didn’t at least garner some interest that time around, I would commit to a major overhaul. So, here we are.

While I still have a few ideas on changing my manuscript, given the interest I received during Pitch Wars I’m still loath to make any significant changes without further feedback to suggest it. I feel that, overall, my manuscript speaks for itself. The trick is getting an agent to the point where they actually read it, which has been the problem to date.

Thus, while I’ve already made a slight change to the first chapter, condensing things to make the opening more eventful, for now I’m holding off on other possible changes. Instead, I plan to focus on reworking my query letter and synopsis. I didn’t like my first pass at my query letter, and after reworking it I disliked it slightly less. I still feel I can do better, and judging by how things have gone thus far, I need to. That, unfortunately, means poring over countless articles on constructing query letters yet again, trying to form some synthesis of widely disparate, and often contradictory, advise. If any fellow writers out there have any experience with query letters, their advise would be greatly appreciated. To say I’m growing frustrated would be a terrible understatement.

Beyond The Pioneer

I’m still struggling with the idea of where to go next in terms of a work-in-progress. At this point, my biggest hangup is my latest story idea.

As I mentioned previously, over Easter I began tossing around an idea for a story involving humans aboard a space station who manage to escape Earth’s solar system while our planet is being invaded. So far, I’ve done a lot of work with the concept, including character sketches, extensive notes, dialogue, even a bit of related short fiction. The thing is, I really like this story idea. However, I’m not sure I’ll be able to write it, at least not right now.

The thing is, I feel that I’ve hit on something big, something vast. In a fairly short time, I’ve created a rich universe of interesting characters and settings, bound together by a curious mix of hard and soft science fiction, which could appeal to a broad spectrum of sci-fi fans. But the more I get into this concept, the deeper it gets. I’m starting to feel that, to do this idea justice, I would need to devote the full breadth of my creative capacity to an effort that would likely span years. And, given my devotion to When We Left Earth, I don’t see how that would be possible.

Perhaps I can seek out a co-writer, but even that could prove too great a distraction from my core mission. For now, I’ve made the difficult decision to shelve the idea, but I have to admit, I’ve had a hard time shaking it.

As for my next work-in-progress, I will likely try to refocus on resuming work on Pathfinder, but we shall see. Committing to revising The Pioneer will at least buy me some time to make a decision on my path ahead.

Short Fiction

Sometime this week or in the coming weeks, I do plan to get back to short fiction. But I brought it up here to share a recent experience, and perhaps provide a warning to fellow writers of speculative fiction.

I have found that one of the challenges of writing science fiction is the dearth of respectable literary journals that publish it. When shopping around a sci-fi short story, one is presented with a painfully small number of receptive submission targets, and as such one must always be on the lookout for more. Some time ago, I submitted one of my latest short stories to Galaxy’s Edge. I try very hard not to disparage any publication, agent, or publishing company here on my site, but my experience in this case warrants it.

I submitted my story to Galaxy’s Edge in mid-February. Their website gave a maximum turnaround time of about four weeks. As it turns out, I received a response last week, nearly three months after my submission. I had come to assume I would receive no response at all, and having received one I would rather they have simply ghosted me. The rejection email was brief yet managed to be remarkably condescending, informing me that my writing was no where near the very high standards of their publication (for the record, neither Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, nor any of the other venerable sci-fi journals I’ve submitted to have ever said something so judgmental). I might have been deeply hurt, had the response not been so poorly-worded and misspelled.

Rejection never stops being painful, but while the other journals mentioned above have all rejected my stories in the past, I maintain the utmost respect both for the publications and the editors who work for them (especially C.C. Findlay, editor of F&SF, who provides personalized feedback). But I mention this because over several years of writing, I have never received such an insulting and unprofessional response to a submission.

The week ahead will present many challenges, but I feel I’m finally ready to face them. For now, keep reading, and as always, dare to dream. – MK