The Pioneer Sessions: Week 2

Hello, dreamers. It’s week two of the 2026 Pioneer Sessions, and things have taken an unexpected turn.

Longtime readers will remember that last year’s sessions were derailed when I found myself writing what will ultimately become the third installment of my Pioneers series. This year’s turn hasn’t been quite as extreme. But nonetheless, it’s seen me shift direction yet again.

Here’s what’s been happening:

Zooming In

Last week I did, in fact, begin working out a comprehensive outline for this series of novels. However, I got hung up with the planned sequel to Seven Days on Samarkand, when I realized I couldn’t fully summarize the novel. Because the plot was most certainly going to change, if only slightly.

First, a brief refresher course: arguably my biggest single writing project last year involved splitting my beloved novel in two. I did this upon realizing that,

1) I couldn’t adequately express the overall plot in a query letter of reasonable length, and

2) There was so much to the novel that I couldn’t infuse it with the sort of rich interiority that has become the hallmark of my writing style.

Long story short, I decided I’d unwittingly written two books as one. I found I could easily split the novel into two parts, giving myself ample runway to dig deep into the characters’ thoughts and motivations (and add more dinosaur attacks).

What followed was an exhaustive process in which many pieces of the novel were rearranged. I moved the endpoint of book one multiple times, several sections of part two were relocated to part one. In the end, I found myself with a reasonably-long first novel…and around 50k of a second. Roughly half. And even now, the master file for part two still contains several passages (and at least one entire chapter) that are now part of the first book.

As a result, while the split gave me enough room in Seven Days on Samarkand to greatly expand interiority and add some cool dino scenes, it’s left me with enough room in part two to radically change the plot. If I want to.

And really, I do.

The bulk of part two (originally part three of the initial novel) is fairly slow and low-stakes. The primary plot revolves around a colonist taking an alien dinosaur hatchling as a pet, before it’s inadvertently poisoned by ingesting soybeans. Originally that was meant to be a subplot, but amid word count constraints I ended up pushing the more important plot elements into “mentioned by never really dealt with” territory.

I’ve long been self-conscious about that, but I’d ignored those concerns because hey, nothing wrong with this latter part of the novel slowing down a little. But finally I have enough space to air things out and make this story what it deserves to be. I have plans to greatly expand this part of the book, among other things making it match the new tone of Seven Days on Samarkand, which over the course of last year’s work became a more deliberate, brooding, darker piece.

What’s Next

While I’d originally looked at the remaining bare bones of part two with apprehension, I find myself feeling more and more excited about this. I’m fleshing out the picture of what this new version of the book will be: something slightly darker, wider in scope, that does a better job of tying things up in the end. Now, the question looming is this: what do I write next?

For the past two years, my decisions on what novel project to work on have been increasingly informed by my overall career strategy. Last year at this time I was gearing up for my first round of queries for Seven Days on Samarkand, and I wasn’t feeling overly optimistic. So it made sense at the time to work on Aquarius 1: a novel that takes place within the overall continuity of SDoS, but is not directly related. Something that could stand on its own, giving me a ready-to-go manuscript to query when my first novel struck out.

That was then.

This is now.

As prep for the fall query window approaches, I find myself with two query rounds under my belt. Those queries have resulted at least one definite “maybe pile”, a full request (which remains active), and a surprising amount of very positive feedback. So I’m facing a difficult decision: do I return to Aquarius 1, or strike while the iron is hot and finish the sequel to Seven Days on Samarkand? The latter would be beneficial if I land an agent with this novel. I’d have book two ready to go, parts of books three and four. It could vastly increase the value of the novel on the open market.

For now, in terms of actual writing, I remain focused on stretching myself out. I’m working on a new short fic piece, and would like to write one or two more. However, if all goes well, by the time query prep rolls around next month I should be ready for test writings. Stay tuned, and dare to dream. – MK