Hello, dreamers, and May the Fourth be with you. Happy Star Wars day to all who celebrate.

May is shaping up to be a busy month for me. I’m going to have book signings, podcast appearances, and all the while I’ll be kicking into gear for my return to novel writing. It’s shaping up to be a busy week to kick off what figures to be a busy month, so without further ado, here’s what I’ll be working on:

Writers of the Future, Vol. 42

It’s official: as of last Tuesday, I am a published author.

The release of Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 went swimmingly. I had lots of fun working to boost the book with my fellow WOTF42 winners, and the anthology has shot up the charts. Not only am I an award-winning author, but technically I’m now a bestselling author (though the literary industry frowns on using that term when you’ve only appeared in an anthology).

If you’ve already purchased the anthology, in any format, thank you for reading! If you haven’t, and you live within the United States, reach out to me through the email on my contact page. For $30 ($23 for the book and $7 domestic postage) I’ll be happy to send you your very own signed copy of my professional debut. And I’ll throw in a bookmark featuring the artwork for my story, too!

Now that the anthology has been officially released, things will eventually slow down for me, but not yet. I plan to make several appearances to sign books at local bookstores around the Greater Cincinnati area over the coming month, and will also be speaking to groups of local spec fic writers about my experience with the Writers of the Future contest.

At the moment, I have a signing at Joy and Matt’s Books in downtown Cincinnati scheduled for Saturday, May 23rd from 12-4 PM, though several more appearances are in the works. So if you live in or around Cincinnati, drop by Joy and Matt’s on the 23rd to meet Cincinnati’s newest published author (and his illustrator – the one and only Nathan Deiwert will be on hand as well).

In the coming weeks, I’ll be adding an “Events” section to my homepage, which will make it easier for readers to know where I’ll be and how they can meet me. I’m always happy to meet my readers. And if you’ve read the anthology, that means you.

Querying Seven Days on Samarkand

Though my latest round of queries is winding down, this could be a fateful week in my quest to secure representation. Over the next few days, I’ll be working on a “no-pressure nudge” to send one of the agents I’ve queried. The agent in question represents one of my fellow first-place Writers of the Future winners from last year, as well as at least one bestselling author associated with the contest.

Following a plan laid out in a Substack I read recently, I’m going to open by letting the agent know I recently won the Golden Pen Award (the annual grand prize of Writers of the Future). I’ll then segue Into name-dropping his client, and telling him his client made him sound like a great agent to work with.

I’d been nervous about this at first, but the more I think about it, the less nervous it makes me. Given how long it’s been, there’s a decent chance this agent had already decided not to respond to my query at all. If that is so, I lose nothing by at least trying to reach out. You miss all the shots you don’t take, after all.

Regardless of the outcome of this nudge, as of this week I’m planning to move off from Seven Days on Samarkand. Over the coming months I’ll be reopening beta reading to see what other think, as well as sending the manuscript as it currently stands to my critique group (and probably my new WOTF42 group, as well). I have some ideas of what I could do to tighten up and rework the opening pages, and beyond that I’m not convinced there’s a lot that needs doing. The overall goal will be to make any potential changes by mid-summer, in preparation for a new round of queries in autumn.

Aquarius 1

So the past week…has been busy. In terms of writing it’s been the busiest week of my fledgling career, and as I said earlier, it’s not over yet. But while it took the better part of the week to ease my way back into actual writing, I have managed a few test writings for Aquarius 1.

These test writings were mostly set during the upcoming chapters, where the crew of the DSRV Challenger finally lands on the ocean moon Thamiyn. Of course, since I’d been largely out of practice (I may need to write one of my “struggle stories”), the test writings were…well, lackluster. But it feels good to be working towards my goal of finishing Aquarius 1 by the end of the year.

At the moment, I’m a long way away from resuming work on worldbuilding. And with everything I have coming up, I’ll admit I wonder whether or not I’ll get there by the end of this month. But I believe in this story, and I feel it’s waited long enough to be written.

Short Fiction

Over the past week, my number of active short fictions submissions grew: I now have six, thanks to my WOTF42 peeps, who clued me in on the Longer Worlds anthology. At least one of them has reached the point, based on info on their website, where my chances of acceptance (or any response at all) are dimming. However, I remain cautiously optimistic about the others.

While I’m keeping my ear to the ground for potential anthologies, for the most part my short fiction efforts have pivoted to editing. Every so often, after a story has pulled in multiple rejections, I “wheel it into the shop” as I say: the story is moved from my folders of active manuscripts to my editing folder for some deep work. I usually perform a phone edit, see if I can shave off enough words to drop the story into a wider market. Once that’s done, I send it off to my critique group for another look.

Thanks to Writers of the Future, I now have a second critique group. I’ve already sent them one of my stories, and have been working through critiques on several written by my fellow winners. It’s our way of sticking together and lifting one another up, and it’s fascinating to see what everyone’s been up to since their winning stories.

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.

Also, lately I’ve been growing insecure about the overall look and feel of this website. Further, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve “outgrown” my current format, and need a site that works better for a published writer with a growing presence on Substack. To that end, I’m going to be exploring new themes and layouts for the site. The new theme will be more visually-engaging and optimized for mobile viewing. And, as I mentioned earlier, it will feature an “Events” section, where readers can find out where and when they’ll have a chance to meet me.

With that said, here’s what you can expect from me in the week ahead:

Tuesday: “The Day of Why”

One week in late September changed my life forever. Learn how this happened, from story to the phone calls to a night in Hollywood, as I finally tell the full story of winning Writers of the Future.

Friday: “Don’t Listen to Me: Staying Honest”

Available on Substack

It might sound paradoxical, but honesty is one of the keys to writing good fiction. In this month’s writing advice article, learn why it’s so important to be honest with your readers, and what that doesn’t mean.

Sunday: “Dear Sir or Madam”

As my current round of queries is winding down, this will be my final “Dear Sir or Madam” post until later this year. Get the latest on my querying mission, and learn why I know that I can’t stop until I find that all-important “Yes”.

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