The sun is out, the sky is cloudless, and you can feel every grain of sand between your toes. What better time for a little... writing?! Yup! As we come upon the hot and heavy dog days of summer, I've been working in as much writing and planning as I possibly can. Between camping trips, beach days, and barbeques, I'm pushing forward on a number of my writing projects!
Here's a chance for me to take a pause and get everyone caught up on what I've been up to:
My collection of dystopian short stories that each ask "What if?" has had a good 2012 so far. After finally completing the collection of 15 stories late last year, I've been submitting each of the 13 unpublished stories to online and print markets that specialize in speculative fiction. In January, "Across the Metaverse" was published in the online magazine MindFlights, and in April, "Your Stock is Rising" was published in Static Movement. In the coming months, "The Monarchs" and "The Hunt" will also be published online — keep an eye out for those announcements soon. "The Lost Memory" and "Modus Operandi" are, of course, free to read and download, and I'll be working to have the final 9 stories published during the rest of the year.
If you've been keeping up with my "Writing a Novel Series", you'll know that my experience writing 151 has been quite an adventure so far. I've learned a lot, from initial planning and brainstorming, mapping out the elements and key scenes of the story, and of course the writing itself. With the final draft of this sci-fi Young Adult adventure complete, I'm now at the querying stage, where hooking, positioning, and then selling the potential of the manuscript plays an incredibly important role in winning the attention of a literary agent. My "hunt" for an agent continues, and I've learned quite a few lessons from some of my earlier queries that will help me make my next round even better. Stay tuned for updates!
A New Novel
While the short stories of In-Futura and 151 have been making the submission rounds, I've been very eagerly planning and brainstorming my next novel. At first, after receiving an inspiring bit of fan mail from a reader of Part 1 of "Once in a Blue Moon", I was moved to pursue a science-fiction/espionage thriller in the vein of "The Bourne Identity" and "Minority Report" called "Switchers". It was the reading of a recent astronomy article, however, that inspired me to look to the stars for my next project. Combining the hero's journey of the classic myth "Jason and the Argonauts" with the space opera "A Princess of Mars", this new novel will take readers on an epic journey to another world. More on this to come!
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Bye for now,
John