Hello, dreamers. A near year has begun, rife with potential. I have a busy first month ahead of me, but I feel ready to take my next step as a writer. Another busy week coming, so without further ado, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Querying Pioneers

I did it. I finished work on Pioneers. There may be more work ahead. As I progress through the query process, there’s a good chance I’ll end up making more changes. But for now, I’m ready to say that this is as good as I can make it.

That means it’s time for editing. I plan to begin the final edit of Pioneers today. Given all the time I’ve spent on it, I expect this process to go swiftly, and so I’m going to combine that with research and notetaking in preparation for my query letter. I’ve spent months listening to podcasts that have provided a wealth of information, to the point where I’m confident I can do a good job of selling what makes this story unique. Over the coming two weeks or so, querying is going to soak up the vast majority of my time. But rest assured, I’ll keep you posted, dreamers. Here we go…

Short Fiction

After New Years, my first writing activity each year is going through the previous year’s daily sketches. I sort through all the sketches I’d written over the previous year, sorting them based on what I can expand into a short story (or already have), what I’d like to keep whether I can expand it or not, and what really doesn’t matter.

Every sketch represents an effort, and progress. But not all of them will become short stories, and not all of them can. More often than not, when writing a daily sketch, I write until I’ve either run out of time or story. What’s left is what’s left.

So, last week I broke down my daily sketch file from last year, and started fresh. I already knew at least a few stories I hadn’t written out had potential. But I was surprised at how much of the remainder was salvageable. This is particularly good given my intention of focusing on short fic over the coming months. I’ll have no shortage of material to work on.

New Content

As I get back up to speed in writing, my posts will likely be sporadic. But this week I’ll be making the promised next “Self-Pub” Sunday, where I’ll be talking more about the upcoming second installment of When We Left Earth, as well as announcing a January book sale. So keep reading, and dare to dream. – MK