The Pioneer Sessions: Week 3

Hello, dreamers. First of all, my apologies for this post being a day late. I’ve been absorbed with TBRCon, in which I appeared yesterday on the panel “Writing Fear on the Page”. However, the Pioneer Sessions have been well underway, and this year’s iteration is drawing to a close.

I knew from the start that this plan for my overarching storyline would be the work of a lifetime. At times it can feel daunting, looking over all my plans for novels, series of novels, short fiction collections, all spanning centuries of fictional future. All likely to take years of my life to write. But I end this year’s Pioneer Sessions with a new direction. One that surprises me.

Return to Samarkand

After much consideration, much deliberation, I’ve decided that it’s time. I’m going back to Samarkand, to finish this initial story of Randall Holmes and his fellow pioneers.

The fact is, there’s one major problem that’s kept me from finishing Aquarius 1 thus far: research. Seven Days on Samarkand was such an incredible novel because of all the months of research I put into it. Building a planet, a complete alien biome, then allowing my human characters to discover and interact with it. Aquarius 1 deserves the same care and planning. I owe it to my future readers, and myself, to make it every bit as immersive and believable as SDoS is. So perhaps now is not the time to write this novel. Soon, but not now.

And there’s another big reason to finish what I started on Samarkand: querying. Last year at this time I was gearing up for my first round of queries, and frankly I was shaking in my boots. I knew a story like Seven Days on Samarkand faced long odds as a debut novel. I knew there was a very real chance I’d strike out, no matter how hard I worked on my query materials.

I suppose, looking back, it felt good to think I had another option. A sort of safety net, to catch me when I inevitably fell. One year on, though, the fall hasn’t come. Not yet, at least.

Now, at last, I’m confident I can make it as a debut author with this story. And what better way to grease the wheels of the literary industry than to have a second novel all written up and ready to go?

It’s been a grueling couple of years for me, particularly in writing. I think it will be good to dive into a project that’s already at least halfway to where it should be. There will be plenty of actual writing, but a lot of what I’ll be doing is just expanding interiority. And I’ll be able to turn the second half of this story into what I’d always wanted it to be: a means to set up all that is to come. A launching pad for what I hope will become my life’s work.

At long last, I think I’m ready to return to Samarkand.

What’s Next

Over the past week I’ve used my daily sketches to begin test writing for the next novel, which I’ve tentatively titled In Sanctuary Valley. I’m pursuing a darker, moodier tone to go along with the changes I made last year to Seven Days on Samarkand. And more and more, I believe I can do this.

Next week will be the first week of August, which means the start of query prep for the autumn window. For me, that process always begins with reading my manuscript. This time around I don’t have a lot of prep to do, but I’ll still be reading SDoS, in order to slip back into this fictional future I’ve created.

The forests of Samarkand are calling to me again. I can’t wait to go home. – MK