Hello again, dreamers. It was another busy week last week, and I have another busy week ahead of me. Work has slowed, but mainly because of the sheer amount of research I’m doing for this new novel. I’m learning a lot, and moving right along on what may be my most original story yet. There’s still a lot to do, so without further ado, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Aquarius 1

My biggest ongoing project has a new name! As I’ve pressed on, I began feeling Neptune 1 was painfully unoriginal. I also had a hard time explaining the name in-universe, as I’d already established a “Poseidon Programme” run by ESA in the late 21st century, which consisted of using solar sail spacecraft to transport crew and supplies between Earth and the moons of the outer planets. So I decided to go back to Greek naming conventions, and came up with “the Aquarius Programme”.

Those familiar with Greek mythology and/or astronomy will know that Aquarius was the “bringer of water”. Initially, as I was rethinking the name, I’d considered calling this exploration program the “Constellation Programme”, after the abortive initial NASA plan for returning to the moon (which led to the current Artemis Program). The idea involved naming this novel Aquarius, and naming each subsequent novel in the series after a different constellation. Ultimately, I settled on “the Aquarius Programme”, as I realized each mission would have the same overarching goal: to seek out and study alien life. As far as we can tell right now, for complex life to exist, there must be liquid water. Therefore, I felt naming such a program after the “Bringer of Water” seemed sensible.

As of this post, I have completed the first chapter dealing with manned exploration of the surface of the ocean moon. Karen Hernandez, the MC, and several of her colleagues are on the surface, exploring an alien coral reef. Despite devoting most of the past week to research, I still find myself spending a lot of time reading as I write. But it’s coming along. My goal at the moment is to complete Phase 2 by the end of the week, which will be followed by another round of intensive research prior to writing Phase 3.

Pioneers

Given my research over the past week, I haven’t yet begun the process of revising Pioneers. However, that work will likely begin at the end of this week, concurrent with completion of Phase 2 of Aquarius 1. The first step of the process will be a continuity sweep: I plan to make notes on elements of continuity that have been modified by Aquarius 1, and adjust the story accordingly. This will be followed by a “tech sweep”, in which I plan to update several elements of the technology of Pioneers and remove excessive jargon. Then, I will complete a final, general revision pass prior to querying. All told, if I can get to that point by the end of the month, I’ll be impressed with myself.

Short Fiction

Unfortunately, as of now I still have no plans to resume posting short fiction on this site. With Aquarius 1 and Pioneers commanding the bulk of my time and attention, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit in new short fic. Any additional time I might come up with for writing will surely be devoted to continuing the process of revising my notes for the next novel in the Pioneer series. As for the final story of the Beyond Pathfinder series, Fantoms, I did in fact find time to complete another revision pass. However, at present nearly all of my submission targets are closed to submissions. At the suggestion of several friends who’ve read the story, I plan to sit on it for now rather than post it to the site, and wait for new submission windows to open.

However, I do still plan to post revised versions of several existing works. That includes a new story from my collection, which will replace The Envoy. So, if you’ve yet to read it, I suggest you do so before the end of the month, or purchase Unrealized Realities, my collection of short fiction, in which the story appears.

Website Changes and New Content

Amid my research last week, I was unable to resume my weekly flash fiction posts. But a new post will be coming this Friday, so stay tuned. In the meantime, readers have no doubt noticed a new entry in my “Science in Fiction” series. I have resumed the series as a monthly feature. Watch for the next edition on the first Thursday in February.

That’s all for now, dreamers. But the mission continues. So keep reading, and as always, dare to dream. – MK