Just taking a few days to relax (as best I can), stepping away from most of my tech and all of my responsibilities until… tomorrow? Probably will get back to writing as of tomorrow.
Here’s hoping each of you are having a fantastic holiday season, surrounded by those you care about and, ideally, those who care most deeply about you.
Gentle Snow
I’ve mentioned (many times) how I don’t like the cold. I accept that it will be cold for about 6 months of the year, due to where I live and the way both “geography” and “weather” work, but I don’t like it.
That stated, today is a chilly day and there is gently falling snow. Fluttering? Big, slow flakes that don’t “fall” so much as they twist on slight breezes and air currents to eventually land on the ground.
It’s actually quite pretty. The world is rendered almost monochromatic, making the occasional flash of colour from lights or birds all the more impressive. It’s nice.
Would I rather be warm, someplace sunny? Or even warm in someplace that was raining (but it was still warm)? Yes. A thousand times yes.
But since I am not there, and I am here… I can at least appreciate the weather for what it’s worth.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
But Baby It's Cold Outside...
I know that not everyone likes that particular Christmas song. I’m of two minds about it… I like the tune, and I think there are some killer performances of it, but I don’t like some of the more questionable elements told by the story of the song? And yes, I know there is a big back-and-forth about whether the song is liberating for women (she’s deciding to stay!) or oppressive for women (he’s forcing her to stay!), but art is always viewed through the lens of the consumer, so that’s nothing new.
For me, I kinda like it. But it’s not my favourite (although I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite carol… I have a least favourite, which is Silent Night).
But I’m not here to write about the song… it is legitimately cold outside today! The weather in Southern Ontario has been full of big swings the last few days… really cold, then shockingly warm (and raining), then another cold snap and snow, and then windy but mild… it’s unpleasant, to be sure. No matter what weather you like, you’re getting a fair amount that you won’t enjoy, almost no matter what! Such is life… the winters here are inconsistent, but I’ve never liked the cold so that’s not a huge surprise.
At least I have plenty of writing to do! Gives me something to focus on other than the weather!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
A Nice Short Story
I’m currently writing a short story to give away to people who sign up for my email newsletter. I mentioned the email before, and I think I mentioned that it is considered “traditional” to offer something to those who sign up.
Most websites use coupons or discounts of one shade or another. Since all of my books are sold through Amazon, I’m not sure how I would even set that up, and besides, anyone who signs up for my newsletter probably already owns the books I have released that they are interested in… hopefully they pick up my future releases and dabble in my back catalog, sure, but a coupon is of limited use when you only have 8 books to sell!
So instead, I’m writing up a short story about Terrence Yao, a sensor operator on the starship Ignoble Retort. Yao feels a heavy, dark, cold weight in his stomach which has bothered him for days, but the doctor doesn’t find anything so he has to carry on knowing that something terrible is going to happen to him but nobody seems to care. And then the ship is attacked and… well, it’s going to be about 5K words, so not much more than that, but I’m really happy with how it is shaping up!
It’s unfortunate that I can’t work on it and my next novel at the same time… I do a little, but getting into one headspace kinda precludes doing the same in a different universe. But I should be finished the first draft of the story today, and then I’ll edit it in a few days, send it off to my editor for a final coat of polish, and then be back to my novel before y’all know it!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
So Many Projects!
There are several things I want to get done before the end of 2025.
The biggest, most pressing one is a short story as a reward for people who choose to sign up for my email list. It’s about… 1/3rd done? If I had to guess? I’m hoping to get the first draft 90% done today, if not completely finished (that, obviously, would be ideal).
Then there’s a podcast that I’m 85% of the way to building the foundations for. Nothing fancy, just sci-fi stories through a different format, and I have a bunch of episodes done already. Just need the time and energy to start recording and touching up the audio (and then tracking down music). I have a few volunteers who want to help with the project already, and that’s great, but I need the time and space to get everything set up now so that when I get started it will be as smooth and consistent as humanly possible.
And then, of course, there’s the stop motion. Gosh I wish I had more time to do stop motion. I really enjoy it! It’s neat and systematic and fun! Like writing, but more! The problem is the editing… that’s a time-sink and a half. But even then I think I can handle that if I had the time to devote to it.
And lastly is the novel. Which isn’t “lastly,” it’s kinda a big deal for me, being a novel writer and all, but that won’t get finished in 2025 almost certainly. I have 2 weeks of vacation from work starting on the 22nd, which is nice from a time perspective but not great from a money perspective (although because of the 2 stat days, a little less awful than I was thinking it would be). But 14 consecutive days is a LOT of arts n’ crafts time, and I’m really optimistic that I can get a lot done in there. Including finishing reading Accelerando by Charles Straus… it’s proving a struggle, but not because it’s bad. It’s just jargon-dense and the story is a bit hard to follow at times. But I will get through it!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
The Joys of Tech Support...
Really, today’s post should be called “The joys of assumed knowledge,” but that’s kinda the same thing. I’ve been trying to figure out how to set up my own email newsletter list, not because I want to inundate people with more ad copy, but because I want to know who really wants a copy of my book, and this way I can let them know.
A few very close friends have expressed surprise that my newest novel has released. I’ve announced it through all the social media I still use (which, admittedly, is much reduced from most people), I had a relatively successful ad campaign I ran… but people still don’t know that I wrote a book and that it’s available in both ebook and print formats. Having an email list would mean I can let these people know, quickly and easily, each time a new book releases.
So I get that it’s important. What I kinda knew, but still surprised me, was how much of a pain in the butt it was going to be to set up. It’s already cost me an extra $25 for my domain email address (which… fine… I like Gmail, but Gmail doesn’t let you do this so… whacha gonna do…), and now integrating it with this-here Squarespace website is going… okay? I hope?
So today I’m going to do more of that. Fun.
ANYWAY! But in better news, I am also writing a short story to give away to free to anyone who signs up for the email list! And that’s been neat. I used to hate writing short stories, but honestly? I think I’m gettin’ pretty good at it…
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Email Newsletter
So I have been told (indirectly) about the importance of having an email newsletter.
Again.
It’s constant advice. The problem is that it’s expensive and very fiddly. Finding an email service that works with Squarespace that I can use that doesn’t cost a gosh-dern arm and a leg…
But I think this may be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back. I think I am going to devote the majority of today towards finding and using an email service that I can integrate (however crudely) into my website to get a newsletter started.
It’s gotta be done. It’s another “Not Writing” thing I need to add to my list that will, hopefully, allow me to write, which is what I want to do.
Wheeeeee…
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Returning to "Normal"
Well, my momentary spike of popularity that was coming from the “Far East” has dwindled, and while I am still unsure what exactly caused it in the first place, I’m a little relieved to see it go.
Not that I don’t want to be popular around the world. I do. Or, more accurately, I don’t really care where I’m popular as long as I sell enough books that I won’t starve to death. Popularity has never really been “a thing” that I pursue, so let’s call it “financial stability.” I’d like that, please.
Regardless, the numbers coming back down probably means that whatever event triggered people accidentally stumbling into my website has probably ended. And while I remain blissfully ignorant of it, that’s probably okay.
I managed to get a fair amount of writing in over the weekend (up to over 5K words for the novel), but this weekend approaching is looking like it will be absolutely packed. Including today. So I had better get back at it!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Focusing on One Project
I know it’s true for a lot of creatives, but I often find myself struggling against the desire to do many, many things at the same time.
Like, right now behind me I have all the tools for another stop motion movie. I even have the script and the storyboard all done! I think I finished them in late 2024! I could just… do that right now… but instead I’m going to try and finish at least a chapter in the novel today. Maybe after that…
See? I’m already thinking about how I can work on a different project, despite not having even started today’s work on this project. And, to be completely honest, while I’m writing this blog post I’m also bouncing around, messaging some friends for board games tonight (Sidereal Confluence, a great space-themed trading game!), checking my email, and queuing up videos to watch!
Focusing is hard!
Ah well. For the most part it’s okay… I know I’m bad at multitasking, so I can usually hunker down and get one thing done (or a lot of one thing done) before I mentally switch to the next task. But there are days that are more difficult, no question.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
The Importance of a Good First Chapter
I’ve rewritten the first chapter to the new novel three times so far. I suspect it will get overhauled at least twice more before the first draft is fully done (although I think I will leave it as it is for the time being). Maybe a few tweaks, but overall I think it’s in a pretty good place.
The issue, of course, is that your first chapter has to be strong enough to kinda sell the book on its own. It tells the reader about your strength as a writer, and gives an overview of what they can expect in the coming pages. Scalzi, one of my favourite authors, is exceptional at first chapters… they tend to be a little funny, a little thoughtful, and very sharp. They give you a great idea of what the book is about, the tone of the book, and whether you’ll enjoy the rest of the work or not (which I almost always do).
My first chapters these days tend to be on the stronger side (not as good as Scalzi, but then again, he’s been doing this for decades), but they’re not as sharp as I would like. The stakes don’t usually get raised until chapter two or three, so you’ll get an idea of tone and pace for the coming story, but you might not know why the protagonists are involved just yet. And I have to work on that.
Anyway, the chapter is about half done at this point (pirates just walked into the bar!), so I think a bit more polish and I can move onto the chase scene through an asteroid.
Gosh it’s fun to write sci-fi.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Start Novel 9!
So I spent a few weeks working on a rough outline for what’s going to happen in this next story. That includes a day to read my previous book that this book is a sequel to.
I’m sure there are writers out there smart enough to keep all their characters and universes clean and clear in their minds. I am not one of those.
Anyway, the rough outline is now roughly done (there are still a few pretty significant holes I am going to have to fill!), which means it is time again to get down to writing. And so I did! On Monday I started writing Chapter 1 of the new Caitlyn Morcos novel!
And then on Tuesday I deleted everything I wrote and started over.
And today I’m pretty sure I’m going to delete most of what I wrote and start over. But that’s okay! Getting the first chapter perfect is very important to me. It sets the tone for the entire novel, after all, and is often the length of time a potential reader will give you to hook them. I mean, really, the first paragraph should be perfect-perfect, but I will work on refining that once I have the rest of the novel sorted.
Exciting! I’m estimating two months to finish the first draft? Maybe optimistic, but I have time on my side!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Hey China... 'Sup?
So for a few weeks now, I’ve been getting a significant amount of traffic from China. Nowhere in particular, and as far as I can tell completely incidentally (almost all of the hundreds of visits last less than a few seconds). I can only assume that I wrote something that flagged somebody toward my site for some random reason?
It’s a little weird. Not disturbing or anything like that, and hey, if my fiction is popular in China, amazing. There is some really fantastic Chinese sci-fi… I’m not a fan of the “Three Body Problem” series because the author’s outlook on the universe is too bleak (and the ending of the first book is very deus ex machina), but that aside, there are still some great works coming out. I’ve read a lot of short stories by both Chinese and Chinese-American writers, and gosh some of it is really good.
But I doubt that my books are very popular in China (if they are, they’re pirated). Just a weird little trend recently. But the upside is that my website is starting to get a more respectable number of weekly visits… no longer just 1 or 2 visits a day. And it’s nice to see that trend, even if I know it’s not for anything that I’m doing at the moment.
Who knows. Maybe someday people will visit my site for the books! A guy can only hope.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Good News on the Short Story Front!
I may have sold another short story! Yay!
Way back in April I submitted to a science fiction publication (a niche one, not one of the Big publications). Yesterday I heard back… the editor really likes my story, and had a short list of editing changes they wanted me to make.
I finished them up that day and sent it right back… hopefully this time it won’t take as long to get a response. But this is great! I’m super excited to have my work published, AND that they liked my story! I’m hoping to fire off a few more before the end of the year, now that I know their turnaround is on the longer side.
I might submit two… or even three stories at the same time. We’ll see!
Either way, this is great news. The pay is pretty good (for a short story… I don’t think anyone can make a living off of just short story submissions these days… I mean, it took 7 months for them to potentially accept this one!), and just in time that I can turn this story into a bunch of presents for the holidays. Hopefully! I’ll definitely post here if they do decide to buy the story!
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
New Ad Campaigns
In order to try and sell my books, I advertise through Amazon. It makes a sort of sense… that’s where my books are available, that’s where I should advertise them.
My success has been… limited with ads. They tend to cost me a very significant sum of money, and I’m doing my best to try and limit the amount of money I spend on ads that don’t covert into sales. That has proven… tricky. There’s a real art to doing proper advertising, and I don’t really have the brain for that kind of art. I’m a writer, not a sales person… in fact, even when I worked in sales, I always took the approach of trying to talk people out of buying stuff they didn’t need or would enjoy, rather than trying to talk people into buying stuff. I dunno, I guess with how tight money has always been, it’s just kinda the way my brain works.
But I’ve had to put more time and energy into this. If I want to be a successful author (spoilers: I absolutely do want that) then I have to figure out a way to not only get my books into people’s hands, but also to make money while I’m doing that. My 5-to-10 books a month isn’t cutting it, and writing more books of the quality that I’m satisfied with takes too long for success to find me that way alone. Gotta figure out the ads.
Part of that is going to be redoing a few covers. Now that I have a cover I really, really love… it’s making me question some of the other covers I have. The Queen of the AIs, in particular, I’ve never been a fan of (but it was the best I could get at the time)… but that’s a future-me problem. Current-me is just trying to figure out a way to nudge my ad campaigns away from “This Costs a Fortune for No Sales” into “This is At Least Cost Neutral for a Bunch of Sales.”
Baby steps. We’ll get there, I hope.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Managed to Get Sick
Nothing serious, I hope, just a cough/cold thing that’s filled my brain with mucous for the last week. Made it very hard to do much of anything. But I think the worst has passed… I first had symptoms on Saturday, so almost a full week of nothin’. Not how I wanted to start my November, but it is what it is.
Ah well. These infrequent “No, Seriously, You Need to Sleep” moments help keep me grounded. As much as I want to finish my outline and get writing, I need to remember that I’m only mortal, and if I keep pushing myself, eventually some part of me is going to push back.
But since I am feeling better, and since I just got an estimate for the new bathroom we want to put in the house (spoilers: expensive AF), I’d probably better get back to it! Books aren’t going to write themselves!
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Book Promoter
Yesterday, for the first time since I’ve become an author, I was approached out of the blue by a book promoter.
They had an interesting pitch, basically I would pay them to send copies of my book to a bunch of people who might leave reviews for it.
They phrased it better than that, but that’s the fundamentals. I pay, with some luck I get a bunch of positive reviews for my book. And not my newest book, either! They were pitching for The Hunt for the Wind’s Howling Rage, which is my third best selling novel (although Caitlyn Morcos is my best by a fair margin, doing better than the next two combined).
I was kinda sad that I can’t afford a service like this. The idea of having a bunch of people who love sci-fi and would be willing to give reviews is great! But the price… oof. That’s just too much money. Ah well.
Semi-related, I’ve been looking into reviewers and podcasters that I can send my books to in the future to try and get some feedback and buzz before I release the next novel, but it’s just not what my brain is good at. I can do it, but I’m not wired for marketing. I’m a writer, I just want to be writing.
Speaking of which, I should get back to writing!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Paperback Available, Back to Work
So the paperback (with a small tweak to the cover) is now available through all the usual Amazon-affiliated channels.
Which is to say… Amazon. It’s available through Amazon in whatever local flavour you shop.
With that headache out of the way, it’s time to get back to writing. I’ve almost hashed out the rough outline of the next novel, which means another day of work there and I can actually put quill-to-paper starting this week. That’s so gosh-darn exciting!
This will be the first time I’m writing a sequel to one of my books since the Tintian series. Caitlyn Morcos is my best selling book and has sold 1/3rd of my total book sales (out of 8 books!), and I’m hoping that a sequel will help people who already enjoy the character pick it up again, and bring visibility to a fun little space western. I’m proud of that story… although I think A Desperate Path Through the Stars is probably a little stronger overall, Morcos is real good.
I know this because I re-read it in preparation for writing the next book.
Anyway, I’m excited to finally shift back to the writing part of my job and away from the “Everything Else” part of my job. I wish I got to do more of the Writing part, but until I get an agent and/or a publishing deal… this is kinda it.
Or, you know, I suddenly become super successful through Patreon. That would work too.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Paperback under review!
I jumped through all the hoops and did all the things I think I need to do in order to make my newest novel, A Desperate Path Through the Stars, available as a paperback. I think. I hope?
It’s a lot of hoops. And a lot of things can go wrong. Typos, formatting errors, making sure the pages show up where they’re supposed to show up… just lots of fiddly little things which, again, is not why I’m a writer. I don’t fall asleep at nights dreaming of modifying margins or counting pages.
Alas, such is the life of a writer these days. At least until I can get signed and afford to have a publisher handle all this stuff for me (although I would then lose the ability to pick a cover artist… so it’s not all bad being independent).
The price of my paperbacks has been creeping up too, as Amazon increases the price to get books printed. Thankfully not too bad yet, but it’s something I’m going to have to stay aware of.
Anyway! That was a full morning of doing silly paperwork… time to do some actual writing!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
The Problem with Heists
I’ve talked here before about my deep love for the genre of Cyberpunk. From the classics like Neuromancer and Snow Crash all the way to more modern works like Altered Carbon and Cyberpunk 2077, the stories and worlds these writers craft have been a constant joy in my life.
Which, considering how depressing they tend to be, is a statement.
Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because my eight novel was originally going to be a cyberpunk heist novels. While not all cyberpunk works are heists or murder-mysteries, most are (and all of my favourites are!). But I ran into the trouble that I’m not as smart as my protagonists… I couldn’t figure out a believable and interesting way to make the heist work.
Usually what I do in these circumstances is I dive deep into what other people have done, and then cobble together a solution from the best pieces of other works. The car chase from The Italian Job with the secret rooms from The Da Vinci Code and the emp pulse from Oceans 11 or whatever.
But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t come up with a believable second half to the story. I’ve put it on the back burner for now, I think I’ll revisit it for Novel 10 (Novel 9 is the one I’m working on now, and it’s a sequel).
But the reason I’m bringing all that up now is because Novel 9 is a mystery novel, and I realized that I’m not having any of the same issues!… at least not yet. The pieces are falling into place nicely, the mystery (as a rough sketch) feels satisfying…
All I have to do now is actually write it, and hope that it feels as good in the rough draft as it does in the outline! We’ll see!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Plotting Stories
So as I mentioned, I’ve started work on Novel 9. Right now that involves writing out a rough plot that I’m going to try and more-or-less follow.
I’m an exploratory, “pants”-style writer by nature. I love to just sit down and figure out where my characters want to go, and my job is to both make sure they get there, but also to make sure they don’t get there too quickly or too easily. I have to throw challenges in their way, I have to watch them grow as people.
The novel I’m working on, Caitlyn Morcos Book 2 (obviously not the title), involves characters I wrote a few years ago and so I’m spending my time right now re-reading the book and taking lots of notes. Caitlyn has a nervous tick, she has a favourite drink, she always carries her mom’s old service pistol (although she’s only used it once), that kinda stuff. Things so that if you read them back-to-back the continuity feels natural and flows.
But the plot… what actually happens to Caitlyn and her co-workers… that’s ambitious. I wrote Caitlyn Morcos Interplanetary Marshal Service long enough ago that my feelings towards law enforcement were significantly less nuanced than they are now. It was a very simple story, and although I am very proud of it, I want to bring a deeper level of consideration and thought to this new novel. I want Caitlyn to grapple with many of the issues that I myself grapple with these days.
I’ve got a good rough idea of where the story is going to go, but I need to write it down and, perhaps most importantly, I need to figure out the conclusion. Right now I have an idea of what the final conflict is going to be, but I want it to be as smooth as silk when I get to writing it.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!