September 2023 in Review

Hello Funny People,

After a blistering, sauna-like summer, things have finally begun to cool off here in St. Louis. Hoodie season has nearly returned, which is happiness for me. And I've still managed to have some fun in my writing life.

Art by Devora Johnson 

Report on the Short Fiction Front

September was indeed an eventful month on the Short Fiction end of things. For one, I had two stories, of which I'm very proud, finally see the light of day.

"Boltstone and the Water Fey," appeared with a number of other stories on the 21st from Cloaked Press.

According to Los Jefes at the Cloak, this year's anthology actually debuted ahead of a compendium of newly collected stories by the late Sir Terry Pratchett. 

That was a touch surreal, but it was also rather gratifying. Of course, I'm sure the success had more to do with the other contributors' efforts and the press's as well at promotion rather than mine. I'm crap at promotion because I HATE advertising (even of my own stuff).

The very next day, on Flash Point Science Fiction, my story "The Culebre of San Moreno," came out on their site. 

Accompanying it was the above wonderful illustration by Kevin Pabst (yes, like the beer, I checked). The skulls, of course, are a nice touch, giving the readers a heads up about the general tone of the story, but the centering of the pan dulce with appropriate pink icing atop it is *chef's kiss* perfect.

Thus far, I haven't heard much regarding how either story has been received. But I do know I gained at least one follower on BlueSky as a result. So, that's nice.

With that, the two stories I'd worked for a year to see into print are at last out there. If any of you reading this have read either of them yet, thank you (even if you didn't like them). If you bought a copy of the anthology or went to the site, guess what? You're helping to support a good midwest-based small press and a still-emerging flash venue based in Tennessee, both of which, I hope, will be around for a long time.

Sadly, September also marked the end of a decent hot streak of short fiction writing. After setting aside a Sword & Sorcery story I'd had high hopes for at first, I managed to squeeze out one last piece, presently titled "Too Much of a Good Thing." It's probably the nearest I've come to writing a hard science fiction story, in the old golden age tradition, ever. Though, I still have some mixed feelings about it. I'm not sure if the ending I gave it is good or justifiable. For now though, it's sitting in my files, along with the other three fantasy tales I managed to finish back in August, all cooling off until I can see them afresh.

That said, I still have a few story submissions out there. One flash piece is now out at one of the two MYRIAD magazine submissions, specifically the one themed DUEL. I also have two pieces out at new venues for me that I'd never submitted to before. And, more recently, I sent out my first cold reprint submission to Imagitopia. Likely none of these will go anywhere, but it's the attempt that matters more than anything.

My short fiction goal of the year: submit stories three more times, which will officially put me over 200 total submissions over the last two years.

#AmDrafting

Having stepped away from short fiction again, I refocused my efforts on drafting this space opera novel that I'd started back at the beginning of August, titled Ideal for the Job.

When I'd stopped to work on short stories, I'd had only 3½ chapters drafted (all amouting to a hair under 8000 words, total), which,  of course, wasn't much.

Now, here at the start of October, I now have almost 18 chapters drafted, which comprises nearly half of the book according to my own internal outline for it. 

Seeing that jump in progress might be making some of you wonder: How the hell did you go from 3½ chapters to 18 chapters drafted in a month? Well, I owe that jump in progress to a colleague of mine.

On September 16th, Jendia Gammon, whom some of you may also know as J. Dianne Dotston, author of The Questrison Saga, the short story collection The Shadow Galaxy from Trepidatio Publishing, and the forthcoming The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern, a YA Lunarpunk novel from the fine folks at Android Press, published an essay on her substack simply titled "Write a Book By the End of 2023."

In said article, Jendia pointed out a simple piece of multiplication. Starting on the 15th of September, there remained exactly 108 days left in 2023. If you wrote 740 words a day, every day, from then to December 31st, you'd end up with a manuscript just under 80,000 words.  (79,920 to be exact.)

I read that piece and thought, "Shoot, I can do that."

So, ever since, I've made it a goal to write 740 words, minimum, on this novel, every day. (For thoss who don't understand word counts, 740 words is roughly equal to three pages.) And if you do that consistently, the words add up. 

This, of course, flies in the face of my usual writing process. I don't usually write every day, nor do I use word counts to measure my progress. However, processes are malleable.

I don't use word counts in my writing—or rather haven't since I was about 25—because I found them to be detrimental to my own mental health. (That whole, if I don't make my word count, I'm a piece of crap thought spiral is pernicious.) And poor mental health, in my case, also makes for poor progress. But so far, this small goal has been helpful. On my regular writing days, I usually make more than that word count (anywhere from 1000 to 1600 words, typically), but on my non-usual writing days (Fri-Sun), I shoot to only make that word count and call it quits. If this process stops working, then I'll got back to what I know does. Until it doesn't though, I'll write on!

My novel writing goal: complete a second novel-length first draft by year's end. Wish me luck.

Miscellaneous

Now that I'm neck deep in writing this science fiction novel again, my reading tastes have swung away from SF and back to fantasy. The one exception to this was Scalzi's Starter Villain, which I read in a day on release day and thoroughly enjoyed, as I'd expected to from the free advance snippet I'd read months before its release. We're lucky to have a comic master like him in the genre space that—sometimes—takes itself too seriously.

At the moment, I'm retreading some old ground while also embracing some titles I've been meaning to read for some time.

For one, I've finally started reading Jade City, the opening volume of The Greenbone Saga. I'm not even halfway through it, but it's already become a favorite of mine. I absolutely understand why it, and Fonda Lee, took home the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2018. Here is an epic fantasy novel set in a modern(-ish) wholly non-western setting complete with cars, airplanes, movies, radio, in-door plumbing, and electricity, but it's still ripe with that sense of awe and wonder those of us who love the genre at its best crave. I agree with Dan Wells that this book will undoubtedly be a trend setter for future books because for the first time, fantasy can be epic without laboring under the trappings of its pre-modern influenced roots. Don't be surprised to read similar books set in worlds based on modern-day Latin America, other Asian nations, or African countries. This is a taproot of epic fantasy's future.

Between that, I'm also enjoying Jonathan Maberry's first Kagen the Dammed novel, Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances, and Gareth Hanrahan's The Sword Defiant. With the exception of the Tchaikovsky, these books fly much closer to fantasy's classic euro-medievalist roots, but they're all still fun and have a nice dark edge to them. I was particularly glad to have found an access point of Tchaikovsky's body of work, as I'd previous bounced off his Children of Time (which I still plan to return to at some point). I'm also surprised at my own timing as Maberry's Kagen trilogy is set to conclude with the near-furure release of the final book. 

Between them, I'm rereading an old YA favorite: Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners Trilogy. I read these books as they were coming out when I was a college student, as my light reading between going through the classics like Moby Dick and To the Lighthouse. Now I'm rereading them as audiobooks for the first time, and it's like meeting an old friend for coffee after not seeing them for years. Pure bliss.

And, as a final button to the month, Todd Sanders, the mind behind Air and Nothingness Press, sent out a small gift to everyone who had the privilege to be part of The Librarian project 👇

The pin arrived the second to last day of the month, and needless to say, it'll be taking a place of honor in my collection of precious objects.

2023 may now be winding down, but I certainly am not. My goals are clear, and I plan to meet them.

— IMC 🙃