Happy New Year!

Back in 2011 I started posting an annual list of writing goals that I would try to accomplish in the ensuing year. “Goals” in this sense are things that I can accomplish through my own efforts and perseverance, as opposed to “dreams” which require the cooperation of others (for example, writing a novel is a goal; having a novel sell madly well is a dream).

So here are my writing goals for 2015:

1. Revise and polish the third novel of THE RED trilogy so that it’s ready for publication. (The first draft is already done.)

2. Write at least one novella set in an existing story world. I really want to write a novella, though I’m not sure why. Maybe because it feels like a novel, but doesn’t take so long? 😉

3. Write at least two short stories unrelated to anything else I’ve done. (One story is already commissioned, so I have an extra incentive to meet this goal at least halfway.)

4. Write at least three nonfiction posts that I feel comfortable marketing to high-circulation websites. (I copied this one from last year. Maybe this year I’ll do it.)

5. I almost forgot this goal: WRITE A NEW NOVEL. But I’ll go easy on myself and call this goal fulfilled if I have a new novel planned and well begun by the end of the year.

I should be able to do these five goals. Right?

At the beginning of the year I published my writing goals for 2014. Now it’s time to assess how I did. And in short… I made very few of my goals. But you know what? I’m giving 2014 a big thumbs up anyway, because it turned out to be a positive year for my writing career in other ways.

So here’s how I did on my planned writing goals for 2014:

1. Revise and polish the existing first draft of my next novel, The Red: Trials. Publication is tentatively scheduled for May.

Well. I did revise and polish it, and I had it all ready for publication…and then I sold the entire series to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. So The Red: Trials, now The Trials, will be published in 2015. Oh. And I also revised it one more time.

2. Write and finish two more Zeke Choy stories, bringing to an end the cycle that began with “Nahiku West” and continued in “Out In The Dark.” If I can pull it off, the last story will be long, maybe a novella.

Uh…nope. Didn’t even start on this. I think I’ve put this off for three years now, because all my writing time has been going to commissioned stories and novels. Expect to see this one reappear in my 2015 goals.

3. Write the initial draft of another novel. I’ve been debating what that novel should be, and though I haven’t decided yet, it will almost certainly be a sequel to something.

That was written by my younger self… and apparently I hadn’t decided yet if there was going to be a third novel in THE RED series. Well, younger self, there is indeed a third novel and I DID write an initial draft, and I am presently in the process of making that a presentable draft, so this goal gets a thumbs up.

4. Write at least three pieces of short fiction that are not part of the Zeke Choy cycle.

Nope. I wrote one short story at the beginning of the year and I did not like it. I refused to submit it to the requesting editor. 🙁 And the rest of the year went to novels. Well, I had a nice three-year run of short story writing. I was more prolific in 2011, 2012, and 2013 than I have ever been. Hopefully I’ll return to that in 2015.

5. Write at least three nonfiction posts that I feel comfortable marketing to high-circulation websites. (Nonfiction is very hard for me.)

Hmm…wanders off to check files…nope. No. I don’t think I wrote ANY. What was I doing with myself this year?? Oh, right. Working on three novels in various degrees of completion.

In summary, while I didn’t do everything I’d hoped, I’m pleased with what I did accomplish.

How did you do with your 2014 writing goals? Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s my first status report from the end of November.

When working with a traditional publisher, the basic stages of revision are:

1 – an editorial letter in which the editor requests changes in plot or character, or better explanations of motivation or background, etc.

2 – Once the final manuscript is accepted, it goes to the copyeditor, who goes through the manuscript in close detail, correcting spelling, hyphenations, punctuation, and noting inconsistencies. The manuscript then goes back to the author giving us a chance to un-do some of that careful work if we don’t agree with it, along with a chance to correct the inconsistencies. This is also a chance to make more minor revisions. Huzzah!

3 – The manuscript goes back to the publisher, the changes are added to the master file, and the manuscript is then “typeset” for ultimate printing. This is the stage when the pages look like book pages. A PDF file is generated and these “page proofs” are sent to the author, who gets to read the whole thing one more time — and make minor changes … which we do. But that’s it. This is the last chance to fix things up.

So where am I?

Book 1: I finished going over the page proofs a few days ago, and will be sending my changes back just after the New Year, when it’s back-to-business in the publishing world. And yes! I made some changes, despite that this book has already been published, reviewed, award-nominated, and re-revised. Writers are never satisfied. But the changes are minor and go mostly to clarifying and making this book consistent with the next one.

Book 2: Yesterday I finished my final read-through of the manuscript after addressing the editor’s requested changes and making a few of my own. The revised manuscript will go back to Saga Press on Monday, and if no more changes are requested, it will go to a copyeditor.

Book 3: The first draft is done and I already made a start on revisions, but now I’ve got only five weeks to turn in a reasonable draft. So it’s back-to-work on this one. (Must write faster…)

We took an overnight trip to Honolulu to share Thanksgiving with family there — and that is the last trip currently planned. I’ve really enjoyed our travels this year and I’ve been lucky to be able to go, but traveling while trying to meet writing deadlines is a little stressful. At this point, I’m eager to just settle down and focus on writing for a couple of months — which is convenient, because I have a lot of writing to do. The two big projects are Book 2 of The Red Trilogy, and Book 3 of The Red Trilogy.

* Status of Book 2: The Trials — I just received the editorial notes from Joe Monti at Saga Press. I haven’t even gone over Joe’s comments yet, but this has become the top priority.

* Status of Book 3: For the past few weeks I’ve been working on the second draft. There is much, much, much more to do. This is second priority, but still critical.

When all of this is done, I want to get back to writing shorter fiction for a while, but that won’t be until February at the earliest. I am definitely not going to meet my short fiction goal for the year. Oh well. We do what we can. :-/

It’s getting closer!

Back in July I posted about the anthology Operation Arcana, edited by John Joseph Adams. It’s an all-original anthology of military fantasy forthcoming from Baen Books and due out in March 2015 — and yes, one of the included stories is mine. That story is called “The Way Home” and it was a favorite of mine among the stories I wrote in 2013.

Details are below, but here’s the final cover art. The artist is Dominic Harman, with cover design by Jason Gurley.

Cover Copy

In the realms of fantasy, the battlefield is where heroism comes alive, magic is unleashed, and legends are made and unmade. From the War of the Ring, Tolkien’s epic battle of good versus evil, to The Battle of the Blackwater, George R.R. Martin’s grim portrait of the horror and futility of war, these fantastical conflicts reflect our highest hopes and darkest fears, bringing us mesmerizing visions of silver spears shining in the sun and vast hordes of savage beasts who threaten to destroy all that we hold dear.

Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is sounding the battle cry and sixteen of today’s top authors are reporting for duty, spinning never-before-published, spellbinding tales of military fantasy, including a Black Company story from Glen Cook, a Paksenarrion story from Elizabeth Moon, and a Shadow Ops story by Myke Cole. Within these pages you’ll also find World War I trenches cloaked in poison gas and sorcery, modern day elite special forces battling hosts of the damned, and steampunk soldiers fighting for their lives in a world torn apart by powers that defy imagination.

Featuring both grizzled veterans and fresh young recruits alike, including Tanya Huff, Simon R. Green, Carrie Vaughn, Jonathan Maberry, and Seanan McGuire, Operation Arcana is a must for any military buff or fantasy fan. You’ll never look at war the same way again.

Table of Contents (more…)

This list is posted for those of you who like to nominate for the annual science fiction and fantasy awards, including the Nebula and Hugo awards. At the start of this year I expected to have a novel, two novelettes, and two short stories on my 2014 list of award-eligible work. As it turns out, I have only two (very short) novelettes and one short story.

What happened to the novel?
I had originally intended to publish the sequel to my Nebula and Campbell nominated novel The Red: First Light on my own, but plans change and The Trials will now be published in 2015 by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The third short story will also see publication in 2015.

So what’s up for 2014?

In the short story category…
“Codename: Delphi” is my personal favorite of the year. If you have time to read only one of my stories, I hope you’ll make it this one. Besides, it’s easy to read because it’s available online. Find it in the April issue of Lightspeed Magazine.

In the novelette category…
A novelette is defined as a story of at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words, which makes my story “Attitude” a very short novelette. It’s only 7,900 words. Find it in the anthology Reach For Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Update: the anthology Reach For Infinity was nominated for the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award.

And at 7,700 words, my story “Light and Shadow” is an even shorter novelette. Find it in the anthology War Stories, edited by Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak.

Update: for SFWA members, the entire War Stories anthology is now available in the forum.

All three stories are hard science fiction. Thanks for considering them!

It’s awkward to have a post on an expired sale as the lead post on my blog, so I thought I’d write a brief update on where things stand with the ongoing project, just to have something fresh here.

Over the past months — and especially the last few weeks — I have been consumed with writing a first, very rough draft of the third book in The Red trilogy. I’d hoped to finish it last weekend, but alas, no. Then I was sure I would finish it by the end of the week. Nope!

I do have excuses, though. On Tuesday the copyedited manuscript for The Red: First Light arrived from Saga Press. (Read about what a copyeditor does here.) Yes, that book has been copyedited before, prior to its initial publication. So of course the copyeditor only found some stylistic elements to “fix,” right? For example, there was much debate about how to present the initials “L. T.” when soldiers are pronouncing them “ell-tee.” I settled on the solution in the previous sentence, following a reference in the Chicago Manual of Style. Others counseled me to just go with “LT” — and that’s what the copyeditor decided. I don’t have any huge objection to this. I just hope it gets pronounced the right way when people read it.

So, it was all just technical stuff like that, right? Uh, well, no. Let’s just say, “Mistakes were made.” Not many, not obvious, but given how many times the manuscript has already been looked at… ::sigh::

So I spent much of the week processing copyedits and entering the changes into a copy of the manuscript. I’m almost done, and plan to send the manuscript back to Saga Press on Monday, but the process has consumed a lot of time that would have normally gone to staring at a computer screen wondering how to end book three…

Which brings me to the next excuse for not having finished quite yet — a new idea introduced itself, a means to add another level of drama and tension to the last big scene… but I’m still working out the motivation behind one obscure character, and that’s holding everything up. It’s gotten frustrating. To say the least.

At this point, I think I need to write “an” ending and then get started on the revision so that I can ultimately write “the” ending because things do change between drafts. Wish me luck!

War Stories is an anthology of military science fiction. It began as a Kickstarter project, with the ebook released to project supporters earlier this summer. That ebook is now available for purchase from Apex Publications at a cost of $4.99USD.

My story, “Light and Shadow,” is part of War Stories. If you’d like to read the last of my short fiction that will see general publication this year, please go grab a copy. “Light and Shadow” is set in the story world of The Red: First Light although it’s a completely different story, with different characters.

There will be a print version of War Stories (trade paperback). Preorders are being taken now. If you preorder the paper edition, you’ll get the ebook as well, available for immediate download.

…and speaking of War Stories (which I was speaking of in the last post) there is a Goodreads Giveaway in progress. Enter to win. Deadline to enter is August 1.

I have a story in this anthology — “Light and Shadow” — that takes place in the story world of The Red, although it’s not directly related to those books.

It’s still a long way off — not due to publish until next April — but since this blog hasn’t been overwhelmingly busy lately, I thought I’d share the just-released cover of Operation Arcana in which I will have a story.

Operation Arcana is an anthology of military fantasy stories edited by John Joseph Adams. My contribution is a short story called “The Way Home” — and it’s the last story of mine still to be published!** After this summer, I hope to write a few more.

To see a larger version of the cover, and to review the list of contributors,
visit SFSignal.com.

** I have a story in the anthology War Stories, the ebook of which has just been released to Kickstarter contributors, and will be generally available later in the year.