Hello, dreamers. A new year has begun, rife with potential. I always greet the new year with optimism, particularly where my writing is concerned. But this year, for the first time, I actually know at least some of what I’ll be doing. This year I will finally become a published author. In the months ahead, I will finally see my work in print. And the world will know I have arrived. And that I’m not done. Not even close.

For me, January is usually a month of scene-setting, as it were. There are preparations to make, both for the upcoming query window and the short fiction submission window that is now open. Though I’ll still be writing this week, I have a lot of editing and prep to do. So with that said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Querying Seven Days on Samarkand

As I mentioned in last week’s “Dear Sir or Madam”, my query prep has hit a slight snag: because the first work day of the year fell on a Friday, most agents haven’t opened for queries yet. This is a problem for two reasons. First, because most of the agents I’d want to query now accept submissions through QueryTracker, until they officially open I can’t see what, exactly, they want. Second, at the moment I can’t be sure whether or not some agents will, in fact, be open to queries.

As I’ve mentioned before, the first few months of the year are called “Query Season” for a reason: there is no other time of year when more agents are open at the same time. However, not all agents will reopen for queries in January. The last thing I want is to spend the next few days or weeks preparing to query agents who won’t reopen at all.

Thus, my prep is on hold until agents begin reopening. I anticipate that happening within the next day or so. After that agents should be updating their Manuscript Wish List pages, and I’ll have a better idea of what everyone is looking for. I’ll probably at least take a look at my current query letter. It’s by far the best I’ve written, but hey…can’t hurt to find ways to improve, right? With any luck, I’ll be able to fire off my next round of queries before the end of the week. However, if things stay as they are, I may push it to next week. This isn’t something I want to rush.

Short Fiction

With query prep underway, my focus in actual writing remains on short fiction. Last week, I did in fact finish the first story of my new Drum series. I think it turned out pretty well, though I know it will take a lot of work to bring it up to my increasingly exacting standards. At over twenty-three thousand words, it’s already the longest “short” piece I’ve ever written, and once I finish editing I expect it will grow even longer. But, I knew going in that this would be a novella, and probably wouldn’t be marketable to literary magazines. It doesn’t need to be any longer. It’s fine exactly how it is.

I hadn’t expected a “project hangover” after writing what I thought of as a short fiction piece, but I have felt a little sluggish in terms of writing over the past few days. I’ve resumed my daily sketches, having completed my annual Sketch Audit on New Years Day as planned. So far the words have been slow to come, and I feel I may end up needing a struggle story to get back on track. Hopefully something will come to me in my sketches over the next few days.

However, with query prep and potential changes to Seven Days on Samarkand poised to consume me in the coming months, for the time being my focus in short fic is on submissions and editing. For the first time in years, I feel no internal pressure to churn out new short pieces. I currently have seven active manuscripts; the most I’ve had since my very first round of short story subs way back in 2017. And I should certainly hope that the quality of these current manuscripts is significantly higher.

At present I have three active submissions, though I anticipate at least one if not two will be resolved within the next two days. And thanks to my research into available markets over the past three months, my current catalog of manuscripts should last a good long while. That’s especially true around this time of year. As with agents, editors of literary mags often begin the year refreshed and open to new voices and ideas. I’ve found submissions tend to take significantly longer to be resolved in January or February. This is probably due to higher volume of submissions, but I also think it’s because editors are considering submissions more carefully.

In terms of editing, I plan to dig into my trunk to bolster my library of active manuscripts. I currently have two stories still slated for heavy editing, and a third I’d love to shop around after substantial rewrites. I still have my short story “On the Wire” to edit, and at some point in the next few weeks I’ll probably be tackling the first story of The Drum.

Despite everything, around this time of year I always welcome new projects. If nothing in my sketches jumps out at me over the coming week, I’ll probably dig into my active projects, or even the long catalog of sketch fragments I’ve amassed over the past several years. Something’s bound to grab my attention, and I’d love to have a few more shorter pieces to shop around in the coming months.

Upcoming Content

Amid some egging-on by a fellow writer who’s made it big, I’m planning to formally launch my Substack in the coming month. At present I’m working on a content strategy, with an eye to making sure what I’m offering on that platform differs from what’s offered here.

As for this site, because I’m not currently working on a novel project, I have no material for my customary “WIP Wednesday” posts. Those will be discontinued for the time being, replaced with periodic standalone features. For this week, however, there will be no further posts until Friday. That said, here’s what you can expect on this site through the week ahead:

Friday: “On Writing: From A Certain Point of View”

Multi-POV fiction. It’s all the rage these days, but to many writers it can appear daunting. To me, however, it’s the only way to write a truly deep, complex novel. In this month’s “On Writing”, I’ll explore the ins and outs of writing from multiple points of view, and why I think it’s not only easy, but the best way to write a book.

Sunday: “Dear Sir or Madam”

In this week’s post on my querying journey, I’ll provide an update on my upcoming round of queries, and look at why word count is so important to querying writers.

It’s going to be another big week. So read on, and dare to dream. – MK