Hello, dreamers. Welcome to yet another busy week, following the world’s most masochistic aspiring writer.

Obviously I’m joking (I know far more masochistic writers), but I have another big week ahead. I’m still juggling multiple projects, so without further ado, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Turn of the Century

Amid my recent pivot to short fiction, this has become my primary project: my de facto work-in-progress. Over the past week, I made a few fateful decisions on the long-term future of this project, which I’ll go into greater detail on in this week’s “Self-Pub Sunday”. Suffice to say, for now I’ve determined the overall direction of this project, as well as my short-term goals.

And those short-term goals involve completing the first novella in the series, MERIT-19. Over the past few days, I’ve modified several characters, expanded a few key parts of the story, and added significant background for several of the characters. At present, I still don’t think I’m done. I have a lot of real estate to potentially expand this story, and looking forward to stretching my legs for once. I’m hoping I can knock out MERIT-19 by the middle of the week (in terms of principal writing). That will give me the rest of the week to revise, then I can pass it off to beta readers while I get to work on cover art and front matter.

A lot about this project is still up in the air right now, as I continue market research on sci-fi novellas and series. Keep an eye on my Twitter page over the coming weeks, as I may be seeking reader feedback.

The decision to release Turn of the Century first as a series of novellas, then as a collection, was a strategic one on my part. I very much want to release something to capitalize on the start of summer reading season, and would like to see some of my Dotiverse work out there. However, as of this writing, I’ve only complete four of the planned seven stories (five if you could the currently-planned second story, which is painfully short and skimps on dialogue). This release schedule will allow me to focus on at most two stories for the next couple months, rather than trying to curate a collection by the end of spring.

Wide Horizon

At least part of my efforts early in the week will be devoted to making a final pass over Wide Horizon ahead of the March 15 release. I thought I was done with Wide Horizon. I really did. But after finding several glaring typos while doing “Teaser Tuesday” posts the past few weeks, I feel there’s something to be gained by going back through it.

Last month while editing, I made some pretty substantial changes to the novel (to indulge in understatement). Usually, after making big changes to a story, I’ll take some time away from it and read through it again, just to be sure I didn’t unwittingly create any errors. But as I mentioned in my recent “The Cutting Room Floor” post, editing Wide Horizon was a slog. And after wading through all that nonsense, I couldn’t get away from it fast enough. But after all that hard work, I am loath to put it out there without first making sure there aren’t any typos that will kill an otherwise vastly-improved story.

Upcoming Content

After my recent soft revamp here on this site, I’m finally settling into a rhythm. As part of that, I’m proud to say that I’ve already written and scheduled three of my customary six weekly posts for this week.

(holds for applause)

Thank you, thank you. Now that I’ve nailed down both my weekly schedule and my full slate of monthly “Thursday Features”, it should be easier going forward to write posts in advance, assuring that I maintain my usual schedule and avoid conspicuous silences that can lead to drops in readership. That said, here’s what’s coming on Writing Tomorrow this week:

Tuesday 3/5: “Teaser Tuesday”

Ready for another sneak peek at Wide Horizon? Get a free preview of my upcoming novel, featuring a desperate repair mission in a graveyard of dead ships.

Wednesday 3/6: “WIP Wednesday”

Hard science fiction is fun, but it takes a lot of…well, hard science. Learn more about how science affects the setting of my work-in-progress, Aquarius 1, and how I used it to create an alien world.

Thursday, 3/7: “Sci-Fi Reviewed: For All Mankind

If you haven’t seen Apple TV’s For All Mankind, you should, and this review might convince you. Learn about how Ronald D. Moore and his writers created one of the best hard sci-fi series in years.

Friday, 3/8: “Flash Fiction Friday: Chance“

By the mid-22nd century, humanity is terraforming planets in distant star systems. In the Rasalhague system, a zoologist on an orbiting spacecraft bonds with an animal everyone else wanted to give up on. Start your weekend off right with my latest flash fiction sci-fi story: Chance.

Sunday, 3/10: “Self-Pub Sunday”

Learn more about the upcoming release of Wide Horizon, and why there’s never been a better time to purchase your copy of my debut novel. Also, get the latest on my upcoming novella series, Turn of the Century.

It’s going to be another fun week here on the site. So keep reading, and as always, dare to dream. – MK