This is a behind-the-scenes look at why it took me so long to finish my newest novel:

Some of you are familiar with my fourth novel, Vast, a far-future, slower-than-light, space-based story that is probably not like most other novels you’ve read. At the time, I felt it was the best thing I’d ever written–basically the fulfillment of the reason I’d started writing science fiction. It took everything I had and then some to write it, and when it was done, I remember thinking Never again! I had no intention of ever writing anything else in that story world. It was just too exhausting, and the market for it wasn’t there.

For years, when people asked about a follow-up to Vast, the easy answer was some version of Nope! But as time passed, I started to think “Well, maybe…”

Oh, the folly of forgetting!

A few years ago, I realized — should I ever want to write a follow-up novel — I knew how to start it and what the basic plot would be.

With that in mind, I suddenly had this great idea, an actual publishing SCHEME…

I decided that before beginning another near-future, high-tech novel along the lines of the Red trilogy or The Last Good Man, I would go “back to the (far)future” and write that novel I said I’d never write.

The structure I had in mind meant this book could become the first of an open-ended series. So with that in mind, I resolved I was going to write two novels, but I would write them fast. After all, I didn’t have to spend time inventing a new story world, and I was planning to keep them short. I wanted both to be around 75,000 words, which is close to the length of my Puzzleland novel Hepen the Watcher. In this business, it’s critical to get new work out, and this scheme would give me a chance to get two books out in 2018.

This was a really good plan, at least on paper. But there was one major drawback — for a long time, my heart just wasn’t in it. In recent years I’ve been far more interested in exploring this world we actually live in, rather than far-future space opera. As a result, book 1 took me ages to write. Hours at the computer often produced only a few hundred words. But I kept at it, and by last March I finally had a first draft and it was close to the 75,000-word length I’d been aiming for! Hooray!

I started on book 2 right away, hoping to get a draft of that done before sending the first volume to my freelance editor. Progress was better on book 2, but I was still only partly done when I sent book 1 out for editing in late May. I wanted to publish the first volume in September 2018, with book 2 following a month or two later, so I contracted for cover art.

The cover art came in on time. Due to a series of truly unfortunate circumstances the editing took longer than expected and when I did get my editorial letter and in-line comments, well… “Harsh, but true” was the phrase I used at the time.

I knew the novel had issues, but this edit forced me to acknowledge how deep those issues ran. My heart hadn’t been in it, and that was quite obvious to my editor.

So I put the partial draft of book 2 aside and went back to work on book 1. I outlined the major changes I wanted to make, and understood that even though the basic plot would stay the same, I needed to do a complete rewrite. The cool part is that the more I wrote, the more my heart was into it. I was eager to get up at five in the morning and get to work, which is a terrific feeling. And I think all that work paid off.

Yes, my plan had failed. Neither novel was published in 2018 and book 1 grew far beyond the 75,000 words I’d planned. In the end, it turned out to be 120,000 words. Oh well! It’s done. The first beta reader to get back to me opened his comments with “Now this is science fiction! …an amazing book.” 🙂

If you’ve never read Vast, hey, now’s a good time! 🙂

That said, it isn’t necessary. The new book is meant as a new entry point into the Nanotech Succession story world.

I’ll be posting title, book description, and cover art later this weekend…

And I’m already back to work on book 2!

For the past few years I’ve made it a habit to post, on January 1, my writing goals for the year. I decided not to do that this year…and then immediately changed my mind. 🙂 This list serves as a great reminder for me of what I had in mind to do, and lets me assess what I did with my time. But I’ll keep it short!

1. PUBLISH THE NEWLY FINISHED NOVEL. I’m looking at a publication date of April 2, which gives me time to try to arrange some pre-publicity. I’m presently in the process of setting up preorders. Once those are ready to go, I’ll introduce the new book here. So check back!

2. FINISH THE SEQUEL to the novel in #1. I’ve got around 70,000 words, which is more than halfway. Hopefully I’ll have a draft by the time book 1 publishes. (Hopefully this isn’t me being overly optimistic again.)

3. PUBLISH THE SEQUEL as soon as it’s ready. Right now I don’t see any reason to do another three-month publicity blitz.

4. START A NEW NOVEL.

That’s it! Anything else will be bonus points.

In the non-writing (publishing) end of things, I’d like to “refresh” all three of my fantasy novels. The Puzzleland novels sell notoriously poorly. I really like these crazy books and would love to see them do better, so I may try to get new covers, or re-publish them together as a two-novel omnibus. My other fantasy novel, The Wild is presently unpublished. It used to be available only through my website store (now closed). I want to take the time to give it a complete read-through and then publish it at all ebook vendors.

Those are my plans. What do you have in mind?

For the past several years I’ve put up a blog post in January listing my writing goals for the coming year. At the end of the year, I check back to see how I did — and that’s the subject of this post.

So how did I do in 2018? TERRIBLE! I didn’t complete any of my goals. Here’s what I didn’t do, with the goals I set for myself in January in boldface. 😉

1. Finish the NOVEL IN PROGRESS and get it published…

I DID finally finish this novel. I finished it yesterday. Actually, I revised it a bit more this morning. I’ll have a lot more to say about why this one was so long in coming, but that can wait until after New Year’s.

2. WRITE THE SEQUEL to the novel in #1. Bonus: Publish it by the end of the year.

Hey, at least I was ambitious. I did make a good start at writing the sequel. I’ve got about 70,000 words on the first draft, which is a very nice chunk. So while I didn’t finish the sequel, the situation is not hopeless.

3. RETURN TO MILITARY FICTION by getting started on a novella or novel. I don’t expect to have this one finished at year’s end, just well started.

I did not even make a start on this. It’s not going to happen until novels 1 & 2 above are done.

4. Finish a NOVELETTE I’ve already started. I’m 9,000 words into this one, so I ought to be able to finish it. If it wants to grow into a novella, that’s fine.

I have not even looked at that novelette since I put it aside. You may be getting the impression that I am a slow and inefficient writer. I would not argue with such a conclusion.

5. Write a hard SF short story, 7,000 words or less.

I spent two or three weeks trying to write this story, and finally gave up on it in early December. Maybe the magical writing fairy will come sprinkle pixie dust over my head this weekend and I’ll suddenly be able to finish it in great style. Or not.

6. Write another short story, science fiction or fantasy, in an existing story world or not.

Ha ha. Nope. I’m done with short stories.

******

Okay, so what happened? Well, it wasn’t a lack of time, or of time spent in front of the computer. In large part I think it was a lack of belief.

I’ve written a lot of novels, many of which have garnered praise, but none that have done well in the market. I’ve never gotten a royalty check on the Red trilogy. The Last Good Man did pretty well by my standards, but not by the standards of actually successful writers. I was proud of these novels, and felt they had all the elements to be commercially successful, and yet they weren’t, and I don’t why.

So, not for the first time, I found myself at a point of reflection, wondering: Why am I knocking myself out to create the best novels I can, when the market clearly isn’t interested? My answer to that, which I only came up with late in the year, was “screw the market.” From now on, I’m writing for myself.

Honestly, that’s what I’ve always done, but simply changing my outlook, accepting the fact that I will never be a popular writer, has made a real difference for me. As an analogous situation, I can work very hard in my gardens, enjoy the work, and create something beautiful that means a lot to me, and do it all just for the pleasure of creating something. When I started thinking about writing in those terms, and stopped worrying about the marketplace, I became far more productive.

I think this is why I had such a hard time with that short story that I never quite wrote. I didn’t want to write it, and I knew that writing it would earn me only a few hundred dollars and wouldn’t help my career at all. So on a subconscious level, I began to think, “Why bother?” I just don’t have the necessary enthusiasm for that sort of challenge anymore.

I don’t mean to imply by all this that money doesn’t matter. I’ll be heavily marketing the new novel. Like anyone else, I do need an income. I just need to learn to separate the “Why bother?” bit from the creative process.

Anyway, I’m pleased to have finally finished book 1, above, and am looking forward to completing an initial draft of book 2.

Onward.

First, a progress report on the novel…
The manuscript for my next novel is now in the hands of beta readers and editors. I’d originally planned to re-read and do a light edit before sending it out, but decided against it. Better to hear the criticisms first, address those, and then do the final polish.

In the meantime… that short story I’ve mentioned before still needs to be written. I’ve got all the elements — characters, story world, plot, theme, emotional arc — I just need to sit down and do it.

I’m stepping back from short fiction.
This story will be the last short story I’m planning to write for the foreseeable future. I think I’ve done some good short fiction over the past several years, but I’ve reached the point where the creative effort needed for each story far exceeds the returns — both emotional and financial.

Despite the short length, every story is a lot of work. Two fairly recent ones — “Diamond and the Worldbreaker” and “Longing For Earth” — plus the one I’m working on now, have led me to create entirely new future worlds.

Three new story worlds, that I may never write in again! That doesn’t seem very efficient.

I may get one more story out of the “Longing For Earth” story world, since I have a 9,000-word draft sitting on my computer that I may finish someday. That was my first attempt to write something for the Infinity’s End anthology, but the story grew too long, so I had to start over.

Anyway, even though I’ve been writing only one or two stories a year, it still feels like a distraction when I’m trying to get the next novel done — and of course the income from it isn’t much.

All of this would still be okay if short story sales helped me to sell more novels, but in my experience and that of other writers I’ve talked to, that is not the case. Many of you who read my novels like to read the short stories too, but very few of those who meet me through the short stories go on to look for the novels. I think short story readers are mostly a separate audience without a lot of crossover.

Given that I’m so far behind with the novels I want to write — the two I’m working on now, a military novella, and another near-future epic that’s hardly more than a vague thought balloon drifting on the horizon of my writerly ambition — I need to get serious about focusing my efforts. Once I get this next story done, it’s going to be all long-form, all the time.

Hey, unless maybe I decide to write that screenplay. 😉

Wish me luck!

My newest short story, “Theories of Flight,” is now out in the November/December issue of Asimov’s magazine. This is a big issue with an impressive roster of other contributing writers including Derek Künsken, Nick Wolven, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, William Ledbetter, R. Garcia y Robertson, and more.

Have you read my novel Memory? If so, you’ll want to read “Theories of Flight.” In Memory, one of the important characters is Yaphet. “Theories of Flight” takes a look at his early life and explores how he set out on the unusual road he was destined to travel.

If you haven’t read Memory… why not?! The ebook is only $4.99, and several readers have told me it’s one of their favorite novels. Memory is a far-future adventure set on a very unusual world — and I have plans to return again to this story world very soon. So you need to catch up! 😉 You can read more about the novel here.

If you don’t have a subscription to Asimov’s it might be a bit of a challenge to acquire a copy of the magazine. The website doesn’t offer individual issues. You might be able to find copies on the magazine racks of large bookstores, if you have the privilege of living near such a rare location. If you live in the USA, it looks like you can order the current issue from Barnes & Noble. (Caution! This link will be good only until the next issue comes out!).

Or you can subscribe and support the short story marketplace!

I hope you enjoy “Theories of Flight”!

I have now revised my 84,000-word first-draft novel into a 115,000 word second draft. And I’m not done yet. 🙄

Getting close, though! Goal is to get this draft done by October 31. Then I have to write a short story.

Another week of solid work done! I completely rewrote a chapter. The new version turned out to be far more complicated than the original, so it took some time. I also partly re-wrote and completely revised another chapter.

I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow morning. After struggling with this novel for over a year, I feel like the work is going well at last.

For now, I’ve stopped worrying about marketing my other books, in an effort to focus all my energy on this one. This has resulted in plummeting book sales, but if that’s what it takes to get the next one finished, I’ll do it.

Oh and that short story I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? The novel wouldn’t let me spend more than a day on it. This novel wants to be done. I’ll work on the short story in a couple of weeks.

Please check your voter registration. If you’ve been dropped from the rolls, the advice I’ve heard is to seek a provisional ballot. Please vote!

My story, “Longing For Earth,” is part of this anthology of far-future stories, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

A new review of Infinity’s End just posted today over at Nerds Of A Feather. Joe Sherry praised the anthology while calling out “Longing for Earth” as “a true standout and the highlight of an already strong anthology.” Wow! Read Joe’s full review here.

And by coincidence(?), the ebook edition of Infinity’s End is on sale today for just 99¢. I encourage you to support short fiction and buy it. And if you like it, give it a review at your favorite ebook vendor.

I don’t know how long the sale will last, so go for it now. Here are some links:

Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iBooks

I got through some tough work last week, but by Friday the political situation left me in a dark place. To counter that, I spent Saturday and Sunday away from social media and from news sites. Wow, do I feel better! I also had a productive weekend writing. One more chapter has been re-written and I have a solid plan for how to tackle the next chapter.

Not since my first novel do I remember revising a novel as much as I’m revising this one! And yet the plot is the same.

This draft feels like a “second first draft” if that makes any sense. I’ll definitely have to put it through another draft, but that should be far faster, once I get this version done.

Please check your voter registration, and please vote.

The short version: Progress has been slooowww.

The long version:

My big project this year was to finish writing and then to publish two new novels, conceived as a two book series with potential for more depending on the market. I don’t want to say much about the content at this point, beyond the general description of far-future high-tech science fiction.

I conceived this project as something I could accomplish fairly quickly. To that end, I wanted both novels to be relatively short, because short is faster to write, faster to edit, faster to layout in ebook and print editions.

Well, none of that worked out!

In early July I got feedback on book 1 from my freelance editor — and ouch! Her critique was harsh, but entirely fair. I’ve been revising since then. The overall plot is essentially the same. Mostly I’ve been working on the characters, changing their roles and developing subplots to add interest to the story. I think it’s greatly improved. It’s also a lot longer! And I’m not done with this draft yet. Given that it’s already October, and I need to stop work on the novel to write a short story that’s due all too soon, I’m not going to be able to get book 1 out this year as I’d originally planned. But hopefully it’ll be ready to go early in the new year.

Book 2 is presently an extremely rough first draft around 75% done.

I’ll admit there have been times I wanted to abandon this project. It’s just been so difficult to write — and I’m not even sure why. But I’ve invested too much in it to back out now — and I’ve already got terrific cover art ready to go! — so it will be finished.

Send me positive thoughts!

And do sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t already (the form is over there–> in the right-hand column). That way I can let you know when the the first book is finally out in the world — and I’ll probably do a cover-art reveal for newsletter subscribers, so there’s that.