Hello again, dreamers. I have another busy week ahead of me, so let’s get to it. Here’s what I’m working on right now:

New Short Fiction

It feels good to be writing again.

I’m pleased to report that my month of short fiction is going well. As I continue to shop The Envoy around for publication, I currently have three short stories in progress, with another several on the way. After years of generating story ideas without any progress, it’s gratifying to finally be making some headway on long-standing projects.

The project I’m most excited about varies by the day, and even I can’t say which will be completed first. Currently, I’m hard at work on the following stories:

Catastrophe

A story about two engineers aboard a spacecraft as it collides with a carbonaceous chondrite in interplanetary space. Cut off from the rest of their crippled ship, with the fates of their crewmates unknown, the two men must make a fateful decision: jettison the forward section of the ship and save themselves, or undertake a risky EVA to determine whether or not any others survived.

Rapture

A story about a quadriplegic whose closest friend, a computer programmer, creates an artificial world in which he can finally walk again. Intended simply as a gift, this virtual space becomes a temptation for the main character, Hale, who must ultimately decide whether to accept his life as it is or surrender his physical form, and exist solely in a virtual world where he can reclaim his independence.

Dead Blow

A story about astronauts on Mars, mining water ice from the polar ice caps. Disaster strikes when their drilling rig hits a pocket of dry ice, and they must determine how to safely vent the pocket without being killed in a cryogeyser eruption.

I’m both surprised and gratified at the recent trend my writing has taken since The Envoy. I’ve begun referring to my recent writings as my “Blue Period”: emotionally-charged stories about ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, in which they make surprisingly human decisions. The characters in these stories aren’t necessarily individuals who readily rise to the occasion, making shrewd decisions under pressure. They are flawed, often struggling against their own selfish interests before reluctantly doing the right thing. These stories also have me exploring the very nature of right vs. wrong, as I challenge the reader to decide whether or not the decisions made are truly moral.

I haven’t had this much fun writing since Pioneers, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.

Querying Pioneers

Life has been pretty hectic of late, but I’ve been making slow headway on my querying. I’ve now narrowed the list of query targets for my first round to ten agents. I plan to spend this week revising my query letter (before converting it into lightly-personalized letters for each agent), and hope to write my synopsis this weekend. After that, early next week I’ll be making one final pass through Pioneers, making some minor tweaks, before converting to manuscript. If all goes well, I’ll be sending out my first queries before the end of the month. Wish me luck.

New Content

Amid my focus on short fiction, I’ve been somewhat lax in posting new content here of late. However, I have several new pieces coming, including reviews of Halo and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I will also be posting my next “Science in Fiction” piece on Thursday. This week, I’ll be exploring the concept of energy weapons, and how the modern science fiction writer can depict energy weapons with an eye to established science.

It’s another busy week, but I’m excited to see where my writing takes me next. So keep reading, keep commenting, and as always, dare to dream. – MK