Hello, dreamers. With query prep well underway for Seven Days on Samarkand, by necessity I’ve moved Aquarius 1 to the back burner. My current goal is to begin querying on August 25, so hopefully at that time I’ll be able to resume work in earnest on my work-in-progress.

But that’s not to say I’ve been idle on this project. Writing is a funny thing: a breakthrough can come from the most unexpected places. And just as I took a huge leap forward in writing with a story about Soviet scientists contacting aliens, this week I inadvertently made a breakthrough on my querying journey…

Aquarius 1

Hawkeyed readers will have noticed I completed the revamp of my “Books” page, now titled “Latest Works”. The new page is geared more toward my identity as a querying writer seeking traditional publication. As such, it showcases the novels I’m currently working on. Obviously, that means I needed to write a blurb for both Seven Days on Samarkand and Aquarius 1.

I’d figured that, since I’d actually written Seven Days on Samarkand already, it would be easier to summarize. But when I began writing the blurb for Aquarius 1, something seemed to click. It just flowed, effortlessly. It took only a few minutes, and when I sat back and looked over what I’d written, I realized it wasn’t just a blurb.

I’d written a query letter.

Honestly, it made me angry. I almost stopped writing for the evening. Not because it was bad, but because as far as I could tell it was good. Somehow, I’d been able to swiftly jot out a quality QL for a novel I haven’t even, strictly speaking, written yet.

Now obviously I’m not about to start querying this novel. I’ve barely written a quarter of it, and much of what I have will need to be reworked. But after the shock faded, I realized I’d provided myself with a template. I’m really close to Samarkand. I’ve been working with the story for years, and even after the sweeping changes I’ve made over the past year I know it by rote. Perhaps that’s why I’ve had such a bear of a time writing a query letter for it. I’m trying so hard to shoehorn in all the major plot points, the juicy character relationships, all the worldbuilding and cool science and I keep tripping over my own feet.

If nothing else, this experience got me to think of Seven Days on Samarkand differently. I need to zoom out, and focus on exactly how I’d explain this story to someone without giving them a thirty-minute blow-by-blow synopsis. I may not have finished Aquarius 1 yet. I’m not even close. But already this story is making me a better writer. And when the time does come to pitch this book, at least I know that’s something I’ll be able to do. – MK