Hello, dreamers. It’s been four weeks since I sent out my first round of queries for The Ursa Frontier. That means I’ve reached the next milestone in this process: the earliest point at which I can expect to receive responses.

Beyond the query process, things are moving quickly. We’re now in April, which means I’m pivoting to novel projects. I’m currently working on multiple novel projects for the first time in years, and for the first time ever in spring. There have been a lot of twists and turns, but I’m enjoying the process. That said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Children of Other Earths

It’s been about three weeks since I started writing a new novel, and about two since I realized I was actually writing a novel. Which is the sort of thing that happens to me from time to time.

The sudden realization that Children of Other Earths was a novel and not a collection of short fiction basically caused my entire world to explode. So, reluctantly, I feathered the brakes and stepped back. Short fiction is easy; characters can be created on the fly, since most of them will ultimately be throwaways. No need to help the reader figure out the life stories of each supporting character, since they won’t stick around long enough for it to matter. There’s just not enough real estate. But in a novel, readers will have time to get invested. They’ll want to know more about these people. That means, effectively, the cast of my production must grow.

Step one in writing a novel is organization. Luckily, as the concept for this work was already pretty well covered, through the original idea as well as loosely-related background work (mostly for the now-shelved planned second novel). However, by necessity I needed to flesh out an underlying greater plot that ties it all together.

Much of my initial work over the past week dealt with timeline issues. I already had the overall timeline of the series mapped out, so this was more a matter of placing the events of the novel in their correct places along that timeline. That…turned out to be more complicated than I’d expected. The original concept for this work (when it was still a short fiction collection) mostly revolved around Holmes. When redirecting it into novel format, I’d figured I’d intersperse Holmes’s journey with brief glimpses into the lives of William Ford and the other colonists on Samarkand.

But the timeline had a few things to say about that. Ultimately, I decided to make the first chapter about Ford, not Holmes, because it worked better with the timeline I’d set up. One thing led to another, and the concept diverged. Now, I intend for this story to be mostly dual POV, following Holmes and Ford pretty much equally.

It makes good sense from the story perspective. As most of Holmes’s story will deal with him coming to grips with Nina being gone and ultimately recovering, I feel Ford’s story will be more dynamic and compelling. Further, this will allow Ford to be the reader’s eyes on what’s happening on Samarkand, following the development of the colony and setting up the events of subsequent novels.

Thus, while I’ve already written the first two chapters involving Holmes, those have been set aside for later. Instead, most of my writing over the past week has dealt with Ford’s initial chapters. I’ve been enjoying this, mostly because it’s giving me the chance to write about an event I’d originally intended to gloss over. I’ve also introduced my first major new character, who I’m planning to weave into the plot going forward.

Querying The Ursa Frontier

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve arrived at the four week mark: the earliest point at which I may receive a reply. I’d expect one no earlier than tomorrow, and even that is unlikely. Unfortunately, as I’ve said before, at this juncture no news is good news. As with submitting to literary mags, when submitting queries a swift response is typically a rejection. Agents who are intrigued by my work will take longer to consider it. Those who quickly decide it’s not worth their time won’t waste mine.

Of course, these are just my first five queries. A single full request would fulfill my loftiest expectations at this juncture. I fully expect five rejections, though it may take months to get them all. And until I’ve heard back from all the round one agents, I must preserve my manuscript in its current state. But that doesn’t mean I’m just sitting idle.

Late last week, I began work in earnest on my audacious “Castle Bravo” project: splitting the novel in two. I’ll discuss this at length in this week’s “Pioneer Sessions” post, but I’ve decided to tackle this in two stages. First, I’m going to focus on interiority. My plan is to stretch out the pacing, reintroducing some of the rich interiority I’d shed in past edits. I want to dig deeper into the crew as well, helping the readers connect with these characters. Once that’s done, I’ll check the word count and then dig back into the pacing. I’ll likely expand several of the action sequences, and may add one or two if I feel things are dragging too much.

It’s strange: for years I’ve been trying to pare things down everywhere I can, cramming all the story I can into the modest word count agents will likely find acceptable from a debut author. Now, I find myself with ample real estate to really make this story what it can be. It may all be for naught; there’s always the possibility that one of these first agents will jump at my novel and offer representation. If that’s the case, all of this will likely amount to little more than a “What if?” thought exercise. But the chances of that happening are remote. So I’m pressing forward.

New Content

On Wednesday, I’ll be discussing both the new novel and the Castle Bravo project. Also, watch this Thursday for my next “Science in Fiction” post. Until then, dare to dream. – MK