Hello, dreamers. It’s now been three weeks since I sent out my first round of queries. Not that I’m keeping track or anything.

In the meantime, I haven’t been idle. I’ve kept working, plunging ahead with new projects and ideas. And through it all, something unexpected happened: I realized I was writing a new novel. After years of frustration trying to figure out where to go next after The Ursa Frontier, it was a welcome change of pace, and I’m eager to see where this new project takes me. With that in mind, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Children of Other Earths

When you’re a writer, I’ve found a lot can change in a week. And it’s been a while since that’s been thrown into such stark relief for me.

So last week, readers may remember me mentioning I’d begun work on a series of short stories, titled And Every Day After. The plan was for this project to take the form of a group of loosely-related short pieces following the lives of individuals living on various terraformed planets across Earth’s interstellar neighborhood. I intended to include a number of short pieces I’d written previously, most of which would be expanded for the purpose of inclusion in the collection. And I did intend for at least one story to feature Randall Holmes on his journey through the colony worlds.

But as the week went on and I began plotting out the collection, I began to notice something. The stories followed a clear timeline, arranged sequentially. The few that hadn’t already been placed on the timeline could easily be slotted in. And while I’d originally liked the idea of skipping around to various new characters, my recent work on interiority in The Ursa Frontier left me more interested in following Holmes, and reintroducing characters from the novel. So I had a clear timeline, a concise group of POV characters, and a cohesive plot that bound it all together.

Suddenly, I realized I was writing a novel.

From the start, my plan had been to have a significant time jump between the first and second installments of the Pioneers series. I’ve always liked time jumps in sci-fi novel series, and was eager to try it myself. Perhaps too eager, in retrospect. And I’d had the idea cemented for so long that I never even questioned whether or not the next novel should occur decades after the first. But lately I’ve been forcing myself to reconsider everything regarding the overall course of this series of novels, taking into account what I learned (and changed) while writing and editing The Ursa Frontier. So, the plan has changed.

My plan now is to have the next novel begin five years after The Ursa Frontier, rather than more than thirty. The new concept features a lot of basic elements I’d planned for the now-shelved next novel: a longer timeline, multiple time jumps, characters split up on different planets separated by light years of space. But this new idea solves a lot of problems that had plagued the next project for a long time. Rather than necessitating significant amounts of new research, I’m writing in a framework that has been well-thought out for some time.

The new novel will still present significant challenges. I’m going to be covering roughly thirty years of time in my fictional universe, hopping between planets and characters, showing the passage of time and how it affects them and their lives. But so far it’s been going surprisingly well. I’m writing with my hair on fire again, loving a new project again. And I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.

Querying The Ursa Frontier

As I said, it’s been three weeks, not that I’m keeping track. The waiting is maddening, but I’m still a week away from the earliest point at which I could receive a response from any of the first round queries. And unfortunately a swift response will surely be a rejection. So a part of me would rather be kept waiting.

But as I keep saying, I’m not content to rest on my laurels and just wait. I have a lot of work to do, and I’ve got big plans, the biggest of which is now underway. And it began when I first sat down to write my query letter.

One of the first pieces of advice that really stuck out to me was in an article where an author said that if you can’t adequately summarize your novel within a query letter, there’s probably something wrong. Though there’s no hard limit per se, it’s understood that a query letter should be no longer than around 500 words. If you’re reading this and wondering how long that is, I passed the 500 word mark about six paragraphs ago. Take out the requisite front matter (comps, word count, etc.) and bio at the end, and you’re left with around 300 words to describe the plot, characters, setting, and general feel of your book.

After a lot of hard work, my best effort at a query letter thus far clocked in at around 470 words. Even then, I felt like I was rushing to get it all in, to fit all the rich plot of the book into what amounted to a three-paragraph blurb. For some time now, that’s been a nagging concern for me. The fear I’ve inadvertently written two novels masquerading as one.

Now it is entirely possible that agents won’t see it that way. That they’ll be happy with the pacing of the novel. But I find myself less and less satisfied with it. I worry that, in my rush to fit all that plot between the covers, I haven’t really done this story justice. I’ve been haunted by the feeling that one of the first criticisms agents will give my work is that they think I’m trying to do too much in one book.

To that end, I’ve been toying around with the idea of splitting The Ursa Frontier into two novels rather than one. When I first got the idea, I hated it. I couldn’t imagine ending the novel after Phase 2. But as I’ve opened myself up to new ways of doing things, new possibilities, I’ve become enamored with the idea. So, I’ve begun work on splitting the novel up, in a project I’ve been calling “Castle Bravo”.

The idea is, to say the least, in its infancy. And if I get a positive response from even one of my first round query targets, it’ll stop dead in its tracks. But the more I look into it, the more I’m convinced this is the right way to go. The pros vastly outweigh the cons.

New Content

This week I’ll be returning to my “Pioneers Sessions” posts on Wednesdays. In this week’s I’ll be discussing both the new novel and the Castle Bravo project. Also, watch this Thursday for my next “Sci-Fi Reviewed”, where I’ll be talking about Rogue One in advance of the second season of Andor. Until then, as always, dare to dream. – MK