Hello, dreamers. NaNoWriMo has ended, but the work continues.

Despite the holiday last week, I managed to finish Phase 1 of Aquarius 1. That’s six chapters down, many more to go. I have a busy week, and month, ahead of me. That said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Aquarius 1

Phase 1 is complete. I fell really good about it, though obviously there will be substantial edits. That’s how it always is. For now, I’m going to enjoy the feeling.

When I’m working on a novel, I always take a brief pause between phases, usually lasting about a week. Afterward, I’ll begin the next phase following a comprehensive edit of the previous one. Ultimately, this means I won’t be working on Aquarius 1 this week. At least not in terms of writing. I’ll probably be immersed in research, revising my notes in preparation for the next phase. But it will be good to take a step back and recharge the batteries.

When We Left Earth

At last, it’s here! Last Friday, I released the first installment of my new book series: Endurance. If you haven’t checked it out yet, click here to learn more, or here to go ahead and buy it on Amazon. For this month only, the ebook is available for only $2.99. BUT don’t forget this book and all subsequent installments of When We Left Earth will be available on Kindle Unlimited. So if you’re a subscriber, you can look forward to binge-reading this and all subsequent books in the series!

Speaking of subsequent installments, for anyone who might have missed it, I’ve already announced the next installment. Facula will be released on Kindle Unlimited on January 25. Taking place several years after the events of Endurance, Facula follows a geologist stationed at Galileo Base on Ganymede. When his floater goes down over one of the slush-filled craters (faculae) on the moon’s surface, he faces a trek on foot across the moon’s desolate landscape. Through it all, his sole companion is a radio operator at Galileo, who keeps urging him onward.

Those who follow my blog closely will remember I’d originally planned for MERIT 19 to be the second installment of the series. But after a great deal of soul-searching, I decided the story just didn’t fit with everything else I was trying to do. I will instead look at concepts for another installment down the road, and may end up including MERIT 19 (in some form) in an eventual collection of all the stories.

Querying Pioneers

Dreamers, it happened. “The Shit No One Tells You About Writing” featured my comps request!

Obviously, I thoroughly enjoyed my eight or so seconds of fame. And while Emilie had a hard time finding comps (she admitted hard sci-fi is well outside her wheelhouse), she did give me some things to look at. Perhaps more importantly, she approved of the comps I’ve already selected. I’m taking that as a green light.

At this point, there’s little point in rushing to start the query process; most literary agents close to queries during the holidays. Even if some of my target agents don’t, I wouldn’t expect them to take time out of family holiday time to give my query a thorough look. That means I’ll be waiting until January.

And that, for better or worse, means this year I’ll be taking my place in the query trenches. For more on that, watch for my latest “Dear Sir or Madam” post later this week.

Short Fiction

The past few months have been fantastic for my short fiction. I attribute that partly to rediscovering an old habit of mine. Prior to Pioneers, even while working on a novel project I kept up with short fiction. And now I’m remembering why.

Writing is like a muscle: to work properly, it needs regular exercise. Far too many times over the year, I’ve hit a patch of creative exhaustion because I was desperately trying to make a project work. I’d focus on it, try to force myself to write it, and end up walking away from writing in frustration. After a month or two doing almost none of it, I’d come back and spend at least a few weeks writing useless drivel until I got back into the swing of things.

So this time, while trudging through notes for Aquarius 1, making constant huge changes, I kept writing on the side. I found I really wanted to write, though I knew I wasn’t ready to tackle Aquarius 1. And as I worked on short fiction, I found myself refining my voice. And that, in turn, helped Aquarius 1.

Thus, this week I may not be actively writing Aquarius 1, but I will not be idle. Given my experiences over the past few months, I’m confident I can write another short story this week. Possibly more than one. We shall see.

New Content

This week, I’ll be giving readers a more thorough introduction to my new book series, When We Left Earth. That post will be coming on Friday, following this week’s “WIP Wednesday” and Thursday’s “Dear Sir or Madam”. So keep reading, and as always, dare to dream. – MK