Hello dreamers. It’s been a while. Let’s get started.

Obviously, everyone’s feeling a bit…disrupted…right now, and I’m no different. In anticipation of a stay-at-home order (which has since come to pass), I’ve left my beloved Cincinnati to spend the next few weeks in my hometown, with my parents. I’ll head back to Cincy once all of this has blown over and we can get back to normal. Until then, like you I’m staying in, washing my hands, and keeping up with friends as best I can through social media. And if you are not doing that, you should be.

These last few months have been emotionally and mentally draining for me. In a way, it’s almost fitting that the latest and most dire global crisis has forced me to sit down in front of my computer. No work. No going out. No distractions. No excuses. As many on social media have been saying, now is the time for creators. Our society, our sanity, is depending on it. And though it’s hard to get back into the creative frame of mind right now, I plan to do my part to generate new content, in hopes of making my readers’ next few weeks of isolation at least a little easier.

It’s back to work. Back to being a writer. At the moment, and for the near future, I have nothing else to do. Nothing standing in the way, nothing to hide behind. So, that said, here’s what I’ll be doing this week:

Back to the Grind

First things first: I need to get back into the writing mindset. And that means a return to my daily sketches.

As my more seasoned readers know, part of my writing diet is my sketches: daily, off-the-cuff short fiction pieces. I start writing, with minimal pause and little or no research, and see how far I can take it. Some days I manage only a sentence or two. Some days it’s a paragraph. Others I’ll crank out an entire short story before work. But the whole point is that it’s spontaneous: I have to think of something on the fly, and then run with it. It bears noting that nearly every short story I’ve posted to this website has begun as one of my daily sketches.

My attempt at writing one today was…less than encouraging. Three sentences. But it’s a start. I may make another attempt later, but most likely I’ll do what I normally do when a sketch fizzles: wait until tomorrow, then try again.

It’s frustrating, and if any of my long-time readers are seeing this, no doubt they’re frustrated knowing that new content may take a few days. Please, be patient. It’s important not to rush into things like this. All things in time. Time and patience.

Content

In the meantime, to start the ball rolling I plan to look over, revise, and re-post some of my past short fiction pieces over the coming days. It’ll help draw readers back while I work on new content, and will at least provide everyone with some reading material, which none of us can get enough of right now.

So keep an eye out for revised versions of some of my best stories in the coming days. If all goes well, I hope to have a new short fiction piece to post by Friday, if not before. I’m also considering additional, non-fiction content over the coming week, including the potential return of my “Reading Day” posts, a return to Short Fiction Saturday, and more.

Dawn of the Pioneers

With the ongoing COVID-19 quarantines, needless to say I’ve postponed my planned querying of The Pioneers indefinitely. However, as I’m always saying, the work of an aspiring writer is never done. So, starting later this week I plan to resume work on the novel’s planned sequel, Dawn of the Pioneers.

My frustration with DotP is a big part of what led to my long, unplanned hiatus from writing. And the more I read it, the more I feel much of the story isn’t even salvageable. I had worried I was rushing into it; after all, I only wrote The Pioneers after years of plot and character development and tons of research on everything from evolutionary biology to nuclear fusion. Now, I don’t think I need years of development work before I can take another stab at DotP, but I need to pause until I have a clear path forward.

Later this week, I plan to do something I almost never do: outline. I need to get a better idea of where this story is going, and where it needs to go. The more I think about it, that was the big problem with DotP: it lost its way. Near the end of Phase 1 (much of which is actually pretty good), somehow I seem to have forgotten where the hell I was going. And so I and my characters began to wander aimlessly through endless side plots and ultimately useless information.

Now, to an extent, the dead-end plot must remain. It’s part of the story: much of the plot of phases one and two is a feint. I want the reader to feel as shocked as the characters when their entire reality changes in an instant, and they’re forced to adjust to…

You know, as I’m writing this, it’s suddenly occurring to me that there has never been a better time to write this novel. At its core, DotP is intended as a transitional story, showing how suddenly shifting circumstances can cause paradigm shifts in societies. It’s moments like this that demonstrate what humanity is really made of. Heroes are born at times like these, and all of us are forced to choose a side, and accept the consequences of our actions.

At times like this, no one is unimportant. All of us, whether we like it or not, have become part of something bigger than ourselves. When we stay at home, avoid contact with others, we are making a choice to place the good of our neighbors, our community, our nation, and our species above our own. And it’s not easy, but sacrifice never is.

This isn’t as glamorous as most other watershed moments in modern history. There are no guns or bombs or enemies to fight, and the ideological differences are more abstract, and not constrained by borders. But this is, in fact, a watershed moment. For my part, I’ll do what I can to provide fictional escapes every day, and shed some light on all this darkness. All I ask of you, my readers, is to keep reading, and stay home. Curl up under a blanket, make a cup of tea, and give yourself a few days, or weeks, to breathe. And as always, dare to dream. – MK