Hello, dreamers, and welcome to Week 3 of National Novel Writing Month.

It’s been a slog getting back into things. I’ve hit a few roadblocks, veered off on a couple side tracks. But as of last night, I’m back at it. I managed about a third of a chapter, roughly 1500 words. And I feel great about what I wrote. That said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Aquarius 1

Last week was frustrating. I spent most of it playing musical chairs with characters, before ultimately putting things right back where they were. But that sounds worse than it is. Because last night, I finally made some headway.

It’s been hard learning to think as Anita Powell. I quickly realized I really didn’t know enough about her to put myself in her shoes. But I’ve fleshed out her character, and now feel good about the direction I’m taking. I’ve only written about half of the current chapter, but it feels a hell of a lot better than my first attempt.

So tonight, I’m going back at it. My goal for this evening is simply to finish the current chapter. But from there, I expect the going to get easier. The next chapter will formally introduce Karen Hernandez to the reader, and I feel more comfortably thinking as Karen. Plus, over the coming chapters, much of the bare bones of the action is already laid out. I just need to put all of it in front of the eyes of one of the POV characters.

For the first time in a long time, I’m looking forward to this.

Saints of Armageddon

I mentioned side tracks earlier. Well, for the second time in as many months, I found a story idea I just couldn’t shake. Amid the wheel-spinning on Aquarius 1 as I dove back into characterization, I allowed myself to follow the new story. If nothing else, it felt good to be actually writing instead of just taking notes.

The result was one of the best stories I’ve written. Saints of Armageddon is a tense story set in a distant future, following a brief but cataclysmic war between humanity and a species from a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. It was a thrill to write, and more than a little emotional. It also represented a stark departure for me.

Normally, I write utopian science fiction. I do this partly because I truly expect the future of humanity to be bright, but also because frankly there’s enough darkness in the world today. But as with Prishelets, for this story I embraced the darkness. And ultimately, I found light at the end of the tunnel. The story ended up being a desperate commentary on the value of reaching out and understanding, and the dangers of simply reacting without knowing all the facts.

The end result of last week was a story that felt more marketable than what I’ve written in the past (at least as far as short fiction is concerned). It has elements of popular sci-fi, lots of interiority and worldbuilding, and sits at a more market-friendly length than my usual fare: a digestible 9k words.

As I’m writing this, the story is on submission with Clarkesworld. I expect a rejection letter as early as this evening (Clarkesworld is known for their quick turnaround, and their roughly 2% acceptance rate). But I do believe I’ll find a home for this one. As with Prishelets, if I strike out with literary mags, I’ll probably look for short fiction contests to submit to.

Querying Pioneers

The waiting game continues, as I watch for this month’s comps special on “The Shit No One Tells You About Writing”. In the meantime, I’ve continued reading Cibola Burn, which has continued to be helpful. I’d also planned to read Strange Dogs, a short story in the Expanse series. Unfortunately, our local book store sold their only copy of the Expanse short fiction compilation Memory’s Legion before I could grab it. So I guess I have something to want for Christmas? My partner will be happy. I always tell her I can’t think of anything I want for Christmas, and the worst part is I always mean it.

In the meantime, however, I’ll probably review my pitch this week, and take a stab at writing a query letter. My recent listening to the podcast has been very helpful, and I can finally see how this will come together. If nothing else, it’ll give me something to do to pass the time.

When We Left Earth

As of this Friday, it’ll be one week until the release of the first installment of When We Left Earth. Endurance will be available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited on Friday, November 29 (click here to see more).

As I said last week, after plowing through Endurance I jumped straight into MERIT 19, and quickly realized I had my work cut out for me. My first indication of problems was when I went to change the main character’s name, and found I’d used it two hundred and forty-six times. For most of the first half of the story, the MC is all alone aboard their spacecraft. So that’s probably a bad sign.

From the beginning, MERIT 19 has been a tough one for me to get a hold of. While my most recent work on the story finally left me feeling there was a good reason to include it, it still needs a lot of work. Part of me is considering simply cutting it, and writing two additional stories instead of one in the coming months. But for the time being, I still plan to revisit MERIT 19 sometime next month. For now, all I can say is don’t expect a pre-release announcement before the end of the year.

New Content

So last week, I nearly missed my weekly posts, as I was absorbed with Saints of Armageddon. But I hope my readers enjoyed my latest “Sci-Fi Reviewed”. Next month I’ll be reviewing All Systems Red by Martha Wells. So keep reading, and dare to dream. – MK