Writer’s Desk

Hello, dreamers, and welcome to what may be the busiest month of my writing career thus far.

My May will be dominated by Writers of the Future, Vol. 42. Over the coming weeks I’ll have book signings and be speaking with at least one group of aspiring local speculative fiction writers. But that’s not all. I also have five active short fiction submissions, two agents I’ve nudged, more short fic coming down the pipeline and a novel I’m working on.

And somewhere amid all of this I expect to sleep, eat, and maybe breathe a little. There’s a lot going on, so without further ado, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Writers of the Future, Vol. 42

First of all, an important announcement: for a limited time, the eBook of Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 is available from Amazon for only $0.99! If you haven’t bought your copy yet, you’ll never get another opportunity like this. And if you have, it’s a great chance to get a copy of the anthology you can take anywhere on your phone! Click here to buy. I promise you, this anthology is now the absolute best value in genre fiction on Amazon.

Also, don’t miss my appearance on the latest episode of the Writers of the Future Podcast. I appear alongside Bafu, the winner of the Golden Brush (the illustrator counterpart of my grand-prize Golden Pen). This was the first interview I did the day after winning the grand prize, and Bafu and I talk about our experiences with the contest, the thrill of winning our respective grand prizes, and what’s next on our journeys as professional creators. Bafu is a delightful young man, earnest and kind, and it was a privilege to do this podcast alongside him.

Click here to listen on the Writers of the Future website. Or you can find it on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Moving on, I currently have two book signings scheduled here in Cincinnati. On Saturday, May 23, I will be signing books at Joy and Matt’s Books in downtown Cincinnati from 12-4 PM. If you live in the Greater Cincinnati area, drop by to say hello and get a signed copy of the anthology. You’ll also have a chance to meet my illustrator, the incomparable Nathan Deiwert.

The following week on Thursday, May 28, I’ll be speaking to a writing group at Tome and Novelteas in Anderson Township, which will be followed by a book signing there on Saturday, May 30.

I’m still working on several additional signing events, so check back for further updates. There are still plans to add an “Events” section on my homepage, but more on that later…

Querying Seven Days on Samarkand

As I mentioned in yesterday’s “Dear Sir or Madam”, I did in fact send out two nudges to agents I’ve queried last week…and one of them has already responded. That response marked a major milestone: for the first time, I have confirmation that I’ve made it into an agent’s “maybe” pile.

I’ll explain more about the “maybe” pile in this week’s “Dear Sir or Madam”, but suffice to say for me this is very positive news. Given the length, genre, and market positioning of Seven Days on Samarkand, I knew going into this process that an outright acceptance was a long shot. Rapid (or even relatively quick) acceptances generally happen for shorter, more commercial, more readily-marketable debut novels.

That means that my query is built for the maybe pile: not hyper-marketable, but good enough and intriguing enough to make agents take a second look. I’ll admit I needed this. Over the past month I’d started wondering if I needed to make sweeping changes to my manuscript before moving forward with another round of queries in the fall. That still might happen, but at least now I’m more confident that I’m on the right track.

Aquarius 1

At last, I’ve progressed from mere review and test writings to actual work on my beloved work-in-progress. Last week, struck by a wave of inspiration, I made some long-overdue changes to the opening pages of Aquarius 1. The changes were minor, but did a better job of establishing the character of one of my protagonists and teasing the overall plot of the novel.

Among the things on my current to-do list is further work on the opening chapters. I plan to tighten things up, taking the lessons I learned from Seven Days on Samarkand and getting to the initial tension faster. The goal here is to make the book more query-friendly, by ensuring that the opening tension will be introduced within even the shortest potential sample sizes (in other words, within the first five pages).

That said, while this is on my to-do list, my to-do list is long and continues to grow faster than I can knock items off of it. And given that I don’t plan to resume principal writing until August at the earliest, this one is pretty far down on that list.

Short Fiction

As of today, I currently have five active short fiction submissions, and I expect to hear back on at least two of them this week. Another of them has no timetable, but the anthology automatically subscribed me to their newsletter, which has been at least slightly informative despite being otherwise an unwanted intrusion.

In any event, over the past week I’ve finally begun stretching myself back out again. I’m now consistently meeting or exceeding my 1,000 word daily goal. That means I’m almost ready for a “struggle story”, which may come as early as this week.

While I’m happy to be actively writing again, I’m not in any serious hurry to jump into a new project. Over the past few weeks I’ve devoted most of my writing time to editing and critique, both of which I’ve been lax on over the past couple months. I’ve racked up a few rejections since then, which means many of my active manuscripts are due for another round of deep editing. Plus, I’m having endless fun reading the latest from my fellow WOTF42 winners.

To anyone who’s ready the anthology and is eager (as I am) to see more work from these fabulous people, rest assured: the best is yet to come.

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.

Hawkeyed readers may have noticed that I’ve completed a long-overdue website redesign. It’s generally understood that websites should be fully updated at least once every two years, to keep up with changing trends in web design. I’d been stubbornly clinging to my previous design for years now, mainly because I really liked it. But the time had come for a change.

The new theme hews more to the current fashions in web design. It’s sleek and minimalist, optimized for mobile viewing, and meant to function less as a homepage for a blog than a landing spot to generate subscriptions and book sales. I couldn’t have timed it better, either: thanks to my appearance on the Writers of the Future podcast, which generated the biggest spike in traffic I’ve seen since the day my first-place win was announced last year.

Unfortunately, one of the first things I learned on this go-around is it’s a lot harder to redesign a website that’s experiencing high traffic. As of this writing, the redesign is still underway. Please pardon my dust as I remodel.

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

Tuesday: “How I Did It”

If you’re looking to enter the Writers of the Future contest this year, this is the post you’ve been waiting for. Learn more about the contest, what I think helped me win it, and how you can follow in my footsteps and launch your professional writing career.

Friday: “The Cutting Room: Lasting Impressions”

Available on Substack

Go long enough without reading a story, and details blur. In the end, you’re left with only an impression of the piece as a whole: it was good, or it was bad. In this month’s tales from the cutting room floor, learn why trusting those impressions can help a writer up their editing game.

Sunday: “Dear Sir or Madam”

Amid my recent nudges, I’ll be continuing my posts on my querying journey for at least a few more weeks. This week, find out how things are going for me, and just what the heck a “maybe pile” is.

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