Hello, dreamers. It’s the start of another week, and I’m looking forward to this one. Last week, I finally got back into the swing of things: I spent the week writing, and made all my regular posts. It felt good to be generating content, and working on both short fiction and my primary fictional universe.

Essentially, it’s good to be back.

But as always, of course, the work of an aspiring writer is never done. I have another big week ahead of me. So without further ado, here’s what’s coming:

New Short Fiction

What a difference a few weeks can make. Since refocusing my efforts, I’ve managed a substantial amount of work on my short fiction. I’m now averaging 2,000 words per day; not my peak, but better than I’ve done since the height of writing Pioneers.

Most of that work has been on two stories: Poseidon and Ganymede. In both cases, I’m closing in on the end of my first drafts. I’d say I’m closer to the end with Ganymede, but that’s owing to several factors, most notably it’s a much shorter, less complex story. Of late, I’ve begun to feel Poseidon may qualify as a novella when all is said and done, both in terms of length and its fairly long list of characters. As my longtime readers will know, with my short fiction I normally like to keep things simple: two named, speaking characters max. So in virtually every way, Poseidon is breaking new ground for me. But I’m thoroughly enjoying the story. Honestly, whether I’m fonder of Poseidon or Ganymede changes minute by minute, and tends to have a lot to do with which one I’m actively writing.

There are many ways in which these stories are new for me, representing what I believe to be a positive transition in my writing. They will likely require far more extensive editing than I normally give my short fiction (I tend to play pretty fast-and-loose), owing to the long hiatus between my initial writing and completion. Both Ganymede and Poseidon are projects of long standing, but both were begun many years ago and hardly touched since. In fact, it’s been so long since I began Poseidon that, in fleshing out my research notes, I came across no less than four separate opening paragraphs in four different files, in which I’d attempted to start the story from scratch. The creative process being what it is, both stories have since evolved, the characters and stories themselves taking on lives of their own. It will take time and effort to fully reconcile the languished opening paragraphs of these stories with the directions they’ve taken over the past few weeks.

One way or another, I’d estimate that by the end of the week I’ll have at least one of these two ready to go. When that happens, at least one of them will end up on this site. The question will be whether or not I wish to shop one of them around for publication. If that ends up being the case, rest assured the other will end up here. Ultimately both will likely end up on this site, as my original intention was never to publish these in journals. So, stay tuned.

Querying Pioneers

With my focus on short fiction, work on my query has proceeded slowly. Over half my original query targets are currently closed to submission, so I’ll likely want to hit the agent listings again before firing anything off. For now, my primary goal this week is to convert my master file to manuscript format, which I’ve learned from experience is a laborious process. But it’s also likely to be the most time-consuming, and I’d like to have a finished manuscript before I start working on the query itself.

Once that’s done, I plan to devote some time this weekend to writing my query letter, with work on synopses shortly thereafter, possibly early next week. My goal as it currently stands is to send out my first batch of queries by the end of next week. Experience tells me that’s an ambitious goal, especially if I intend to keep writing in the interim. But I’ve sat on this story long enough. It’s time to start putting it out there.

What Comes Next

With work continuing apace on my short fiction and the query process for Pioneers set to begin, the time has come to find my path forward.

For me, late spring is a time for decisions: I begin working on notes, and choose my next project. That project will constitute the bulk of my writing work for the rest of the year. For better or worse, my recent flurry of work on short fiction has complicated this decision.

At present, I have two outstanding Dotiverse projects. The Pioneer Era is the current title of the next sequential novel in the Pioneer series, a direct sequel to Pioneers. Pathfinder is a long-standing project originally intended as the first installment of the series. Now, with Pioneers complete, it has become a prequel, with my work on Pioneers having ironically fleshed out the story. Until recently, I’d basically committed to The Pioneer Era being my next project. However, the success I’ve had writing short fiction set during the Pathfinder era has led me to reconsider.

For now, I’ve decided to put off the decision on my next project for at least a couple weeks. That will give me time to focus on querying Pioneers, and see how my current short fiction work plays out. I’m enjoying writing more than I have since I wrote Pioneers, and needless to say I’m hesitant to do anything that might disrupt the flow. I’m having too much fun to risk throwing a monkey wrench into the works.

While important decisions loom on the horizon, for now I’m pleased to be back in my element. I have another busy week ahead of me, dreamers. But I’m looking forward to it, more than I have in years. So keep reading, and as always, dare to dream. – MK