Hello, dreamers. The editing pass through Aquarius 1 continues apace. As of this writing I have two chapters to go, not including the one currently in progress. It’s going well, but decision time is fast approaching, and at this point I know which way I’m leaning. That said, here’s the latest on my current work-in-progress:

Aquarius 1

I’ve reached the point in the story where my recent writing has diverged dramatically from my previous attempts at writing this story. After some deliberation, I elected to include a subplot I’d cut during my initial draft. As such, the two POV characters are currently separated: Karen remains on the ship, studying their first scans of the ocean moon, while Anita has taken a small team of engineers to attempt a daring repair on a malfunctioning probe.

As I’ve said recently, I’m facing a decision: do I forge ahead with this story, or set it aside in advance of query prep, instead devoting the coming weeks to short fiction?

The hell of it is, I can still feel this story. I know where I’m going with the coming chapters, and can clearly see the path ahead. I love the way the characters are developing, and I’m eager to see where they lead me next. But it’s December. Query season is just around the corner. The clock is ticking. And while anything can happen in the coming days, at the moment I’m strongly considering stepping back for now.

It’s not entirely due to outside pressures. I do wonder if some additional deep research would be advisable before I continue on with this story. I finally feel really good about the direction it’s taking. I want to do this story justice. There’s no law that says I must wait until fall to work on a novel project. After all, last year by mid-February I was hard at work on phase one of my rewrite of Seven Days on Samarkand. And since I’m confident now that I will not be making further major alterations to that story by late winter, that stretch of the year is wide open. Rife with potential.

For now, though, I’ve largely narrowed my decision to whether I want to finish the current chapter, and possibly write on until the end of the current action, or step back now and leave things where they are. I anticipate being done with this editing pass by Thursday at the latest. More than likely, I’ll devote the weekend to short fiction while I mull this over. – MK