Hello, dreamers. It’s the dawn of a new day: I’ve begun working on a new project.

The Ursa Frontier is now largely behind me (for now, at least). Though I still have to revise my query materials and prepare for the next round, actual writing and editing has ended. That’s a wrap.

Now, I’ve entered the transition phase. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be neck-deep in research for my next novel, Aquarius 1. I have a lot of reading and notetaking ahead of me, but things are already off to a better start than I’d expected. I’m happy with what I’ve done so far, and the direction of this project. But it’s still very early. That said, here’s what I’ll be focusing on this week:

Aquarius 1

It’s strange to not open one of these posts with The Ursa Frontier at the top. But times change. I officially have a new work-in-progress.

Midway through last week, I began work on Aquarius 1. Readers who’ve been around for a while may remember I was hard at work on Aquarius 1 late last year, before I put work on hold. This time, however, that decision wasn’t motivated by a lack of direction. Rather, I wanted to devote my full attention to querying The Ursa Frontier. And I dare say that attention paid off.

Regardless of the reasoning, however, whenever I abandon a project I naturally end up with a vague sense that it was deficient somehow. But as I began reviewing what I’d written so far, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I’d say that at least through the first few chapters, this is good. Really good. I’d expected to have to just crumple everything up and start over. But I really like what I have so far. The interiority plays well, the dialogue is great. So far, the only major changes I’ve needed to make are regarding a character swap. And if anything, that’s just made what I have so far even better.

Diving back into the pages helped jog my memory. The problem on this second draft of Aquarius 1 was never the dialogue or the characters. That was great. Nor was there any problem with the plot, which is well-mapped and sound. Rather, I found myself facing the opposite problem from what originally stalled The Ursa Frontier, years ago. Back then, I had a thoroughly-researched and well-constructed world, but the prose was slushy, cinematic. With Aquarius 1, I have an excellent plot and great prose. But I haven’t done enough research in worldbuilding.

So I’m now giving this story the “Ursa Frontier treatment”. I’m going back to initial research, learning more about the tiny water world I’ve now named Fatima. This week I’ll be resuming my weekly “WIP Wednesday” posts (now that I actually have a WIP again). In this week’s post, I’ll be discussing my first research topic: mass extinctions.

Short Fiction

As of this writing, I’m still slowly working my way through Distant Music. It’s been slow going so far, likely due to the extreme heat. But over the past few nights as the temperatures have dropped (slightly), I feel like this story has finally hit its stride.

The first project, of any length, after a novel is always rough. I find it hard to work into a rhythm. And to be honest, I’ve considered abandoning this story once or twice. But I’m committed to sticking with it. I think, in order to move forward, it’s important to actually finish a story. Otherwise I could end up spinning off another half-dozen unfinished projects. And I have more of those than I’m comfortable with as it is. With any luck, I’ll be able to knock this story off by the end of the week, and move on to another.

I also received some encouraging news this week: my latest entry into the Writers of the Future short fiction contest was awarded a Silver Honorable Mention. As readers may remember, the story I entered last quarter received an honorable mention. The Silver Honorable Mention is awarded to stories that, while they may not have placed or been finalists, were regarded by judges to fall within the top two percent of entries. As the contest is estimate to receive 3,000-7,000 entries per quarter (the actual number is kept secret), this represents another step forward for me.

I’ve already submitted another story for the current quarter, which I expect to hear back on sometime in late September. Currently, I have four active short fiction manuscripts; that’s up from three last month, as a new target opened for Prishelets. Casual Brutality, which won the Silver Honorable Mention, is currently with Analog, and I expect to hear back from them sometime next month.

New Content

Rejoice, readers: I’m back! This week, I finally returned to form with my posting. While my weekly feature was preempted by my announcement that I’m returning to Aquarius 1, the features will resume this week. On Wednesday, I’ll be resuming my weekly “WIP Wednesday” posts. This week I’ll be focusing on ongoing research for the biosphere of the water moon Fatima. And after this week’s Friday Feature, next Sunday watch for a new “Dear Sir or Madam” post about the latest twists and turns in my querying journey.

Lastly, a note on short fiction. As I’ve said recently, given the rash of online literary piracy to feed AI, I’m unwilling to post any further free short fiction here on this website. However, I really, really want to share my work with my readers. And I can think of only one truly safe way to provide free fiction content: a mailing list.

So, over the coming week I’ll be working on building a new mailing list. Once it’s complete, I’ll be providing a monthly newsletter to subscribers, which will include short fiction. Stay tuned for updates, and as always, dare to dream. – MK