Hello, dreamers. We’re entering the final full week of March. And while I’ve been busy, it’s been a particularly busy week in the publishing world.

Everyone’s still buzzing about the Shy Girl situation. For my part, I believe I said all I needed to say in yesterday’s “Dear Sir or Madam” post, and feel no need to rehash any of it for readers who no doubt are as sick of hearing about AI as I am. Suffice to say I’m very much human, and will continue producing human work for human consumption.

With all that said, here’s a look at my week ahead:

Taking a Moment

It’s been a full week since I finished a story. Usually I start feeling antsy when I’ve gone this long without finding a new story I can really dig into. But I’ve gradually realized I’ve been suffering from some degree of creative burnout.

As I’ve mentioned over the past several weeks, this is the longest stretch of continuous writing work I’ve ever had. In the past, life got in the way. Now I’m secure in every other aspect of my life, and suddenly realizing that life changes weren’t the only thing keeping me from writing continuously over the years.

Over the past month and a half or so, every story I’ve written (including the one I actually finished) felt like a struggle story. I began to feel like I was just writing to write. Fulfilling my burning need to produce. But creative writing isn’t about output. It needs feeling behind it. Looking back, I see that I lost myself over the past several months.

I’ve always hated it when writers take a “hiatus”. You see it far too often these days. In the end, writing is something I can’t just turn off, even when it’s not going the way I’d like. Since I fully committed myself to writing near the end of 2024, I’ve sworn that I’d never again just step away and stop. But right now I feel it’s time for what I’m calling a “reset”.

So, over the past several days, for the first time in over a year I’ve taken my foot off the gas. I’ve continued my daily sketches, but I’ve stopped trying to compare my recent efforts to what I did last year. With the pressure off, I’ve found the words coming more readily. Yesterday morning, I wrote the first good piece I’d written in what feels like a very long time. It probably won’t evolve into a complete story. Even if it does, it will surely be one of the shortest pieces I’ve written. And you know what? That’s okay.

I’ve gotten so caught up in this burning need to produce new material that I’d inadvertently sucked the joy out of writing. And in the end, writing is supposed to be fun. I still need to write something every day. Every writer should. But each day’s writing doesn’t have to lead to a complete new story.

At present, I have eight active short fiction manuscripts. I have at least three more that could be brushed up with a modest amount of work. In all my years writing, I’ve never had such a large surplus of market-ready material. With the Writers of the Future contest permanently closed to me, Analog set to publish one of my stories, and another having made it through at least a few rounds of reading with Asimov’s, for the first time I have far more completed pieces than available markets to submit to. This is a completely new experience for me. Even if one or two of my active submissions lead to acceptances, I have enough of a backlog to keep submitting well into next year. And I have a novel that’s still going through only its second round of submissions, with another one well underway, awaiting my return this autumn for novel-writing season.

For the first time, I’ve realized I’ve been placing pressure on myself where none exists.

Thus, I’m taking a moment. Giving myself a full reset. I’m letting the words flow each morning, and if they don’t lead me anywhere interesting, that’s fine. I have plenty of editing to do. I have my critique group providing plenty of wonderful material for my review. And I have several books I’m actively reading.

I can take my time getting back to active writing. For the first time, there’s really no rush.

Querying Seven Days on Samarkand

As I mentioned in yesterday’s “Dear Sir or Madam”, though I received a rejection last week, it was at least somewhat encouraging. And I still have plenty of active queries. In fact I have the same number I had last week; on Saturday night I submitted one additional query.

That query, to an agent who’d expressed interest in my work before, will be the final query for this round. Given a variety of factors (notably what I mentioned above), I’ve decided, at least for now, not to rush into a next round of queries. I arrived at this decision in no small part because my efforts to retool my opening pages left me spinning my wheels. I need to get back into active writing before I’ll be ready to tackle major changes to this manuscript.

Over the past few days, I’ve felt the first stirrings. I’ve begun dropping small passages into my notes, and past experience tells me that’s a sign that I’m getting back into the swing of things. With any luck, I’ll be able to get back to rewriting sometime this week. But, as I said, no rush.

Whether or not I do decide to fire off another round of queries this spring, I do plan to participate in another pitch event. As I mentioned earlier this year, I’ve resolved to be more intentional with my participation in Twitter pitch events in 2026. New pitch events are cropping up all the time, and given the need to produce new material for a one-off event, combined with the furious activity of a day pitching (and supporting fellow writers who are doing the same), I’ve learned the hard way it can be exhausting. What’s worse, many of the pitch events going around these days have little industry participation, which means they require massive effort for little chance of reward.

So I’ve decided to focus on the biggest pitch events, and the next of those is coming up. April 18 will see the next iteration of #PosterPit. This event asks writers to pitch their work by designing movie posters for their books. It’s a lot of fun, and tends to be well-attended by literary agents and editors. By the time I heard about the event last year, I barely had enough time to throw together a trio of slapdash posters. With the better part of a month to do it this time around, I’m sure I can do better.

Short Fiction

As of now, I currently have five active short fiction submissions. I received a personal rejection on Saturday night, and responded with another submission. This was yet another sub to a market I haven’t subbed to before.

Having slowed my writing pace, I’ve been doing some much-needed housekeeping. Notably, last week I made a top-to-bottom sweep of my list of short fiction markets. While Submission Grinder is an excellent resource, I’ve found it useful to maintain my own list of potential short fic markets, tailored to my goals and available work. With two of my regular targets currently closed, and two others closed off due to an acceptance and a long-standing submission respectively, it’s more important than ever for me to know where I can send my surplus of short fiction.

It’s particularly crucial at this time of year. As we progress into mid-spring, not only are some markets closing for now, but most others are less receptive. Today, most major sci-fi literary magazines publish bi-monthly, which means they only put out six issues per year. By this point in the year, most are transitioning from actively seeking work to figuring out what stories to publish in each issue. While many markets remain open, they’re far more likely to swiftly reject submissions. This is due mainly to the nature of short fiction contracts, specifically the reversion clause.

A standard short fiction contract will give a magazine twelve months from signing to publish a story in one of their issues. Should they fail to do so, the rights automatically revert to the author, but any money they may have already paid out is still the author’s to keep. Unfortunately, this means that, from the business perspective, there’s an incentive for lit mags to slow-roll acceptances. My acceptance from Analog took roughly six months. I’ve no doubt the delay was simply because, while they really wanted my story, they’d already planned out all their issues through the end of 2025.

The upshot of this is that my window for submitting short fic is already closing. I’ve been keeping an eye on magazines that have been closed to submissions since last year, while simultaneously vetting new potential markets for my work. At this point, however, I’ll likely be forced to sit on all my active manuscripts until subs get rolling again this fall.

Upcoming Content

I have officially launched my Substack: Martians and Lasers. If you haven’t already, head to Substack and subscribe here. It’s free, and you’ll get lots of cool content you won’t find here.

With my recent slow-down in writing, I’ve been casting a critical eye on my platform, as I try to do at least once every few months. And while I’m enjoying the slow buildup of readers on Substack, I feel I’ve sorely neglected this website. So, I’m considering putting up periodic “one-off” posts here. These posts would be of a more personal nature, giving readers a privileged glimpse into my mindset and where I am currently with my writing. Stay tuned.

For the time being, at least, I’ve decided to continue giving readers a schedule of my upcoming content here on this site. All upcoming posts will be available here unless otherwise noted. That said, here’s what you can expect from me in the week to come:

Friday: “Science in Fiction: From A to B”

Available on Substack

In the latest in my long-running “Science in Fiction” posts, I take a look at something seldom addressed in science fiction: travel time.

Space is big. Getting anywhere in space takes a really long time. So, how can we keep astronauts alive and healthy on missions that could be measured in years? Check out this week’s post to learn what science has to say about it, and how the modern sci-fi writer can get their characters to where they need to go.

Sunday: “Dear Sir or Madam“

On Sunday, watch for my latest update on my querying journey, and learn what a “Yes” from an agent actually looks like.

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