Austin Worley's Blog: Writing, Reading, and Living with Austin Worley, page 11

Update: August 2022

Summer vacation is drawing to a close, which means I’ll have the house to myself for the first time in roughly two and a half years! Hopefully that means I’ll have no trouble making real progress in the months ahead, but let’s focus on this month for now.

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August has been entirely consumed by work on my outline for A League of Honor, which currently stands at just over 8500 words. Combined with my worldbuilding, my pre-writing work on this project totals somewhere between 20,000 and 23,000 words. But it is finally done!

Figuring out the character arcs for my leads–and especially how those arcs tie into the Third Act Breakup/Dark Night of the Soul–was by far the toughest part, but things have come together nicely.

Commander William Reeves doubts anybody will ever be attracted to who he is as a person rather than his genetically engineered appearance, while investigative reporter Gianna Venizelos holds a real grudge against the star nation and navy he serves. Not to mention she’s understandably wary of unnaturally good-looking men after her last boyfriend cast her aside without a thought to advance his career. So when her news agency embeds Gia aboard the destroyer Will commands, sparks definitely fly.

A League of Honor won’t lean quite as heavily into enemies-to-lovers as some other military sci-fi romances like Games of Command or Warleader, but I think it fits the trope more than a lot of other stories marketing themselves this way. Hopefully this unique premise and plot help the book find an agent and publisher without much trouble.

Although pre-writing is done, I don’t plan on starting the novel yet. Partly because I feel a need to ease myself back into writing prose after three months of nothing but taking notes or editing, but mostly because I just picked up a lucrative contract to edit at least one novel–and maybe more–for a self-published author.

I don’t know how long this will take, so I’ve set aside the rest of the month for my client. Meanwhile, I plan to work on a flash fiction piece for Troopers, a new military sci-fi magazine opening for submissions this week. This is going to be a prequel of sorts, following the adoptive mother of my male lead in A League of Honor. Flash fiction seems like a good way to ease myself back into writing and into this new setting.

In other writing related news, a surprising acceptance landed in my inbox this week: my fantasy erotica short story “Rekindling” will be included in It Takes Two, a couples erotica anthology from Cleis Press! The editor is a really big name in erotica publishing, so the fact she accepted my second-ever attempt at the genre is incredibly flattering. Erotica isn’t something I ever expected to publish, but exploring postpartum body image issues and how a couple keeps their love life alive after becoming parents was a really interesting experience. Expect an announcement post sometime this week!

Aside from finishing off Organic Ink: Volume 5, most of my August reads have been comp titles in the space opera romance genre. First up was Jessie Mihalik’s Polaris Rising, which offered more depth to its politics and worldbuilding than a lot of other books in this subgenre. Right now, I’m about halfway through Michelle Diener’s Dark Horse. This one also offers a fair bit of worldbuilding and intrigue, though I’m not so fond of the way it follows the “advanced aliens, modern humanity” trend so common in sci-fi romance.

I’ve also been digging into my contributor’s copy of Murder and Mayhem: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology. Only two stories in and I’m over a third of the way through the book!

Things have been busier than usual in August, what with the return to school and all, so of course now is the time strain my back, right?

If you’ve ever been told not to think of pink elephants and then you think of them, that’s pretty much what happened to me. The garage door opener has been acting up, so it has to be lifted manually. I told myself “Don’t life with your back” and ended up doing exactly that. Fortunately, things seem to be healing well enough a visit to the doctor isn’t necessary, but time will tell.

On a brighter note, I recently returned to playing Conan Exiles. The game does an excellent job of making you feel small and vulnerable, from nights so dark you can barely see more than a few feet away to lost cities that feel so ancient and eldritch they’d be right at home in a story by Robert E. Howard. I find myself tempted to start working on one of my fantasy narrative poems again.

I’ll see you guys again in September for another update and the release of Fantastic Detectives!

Author Interview with Austin Worley

Dragon Soul Press

Dragon Soul Press sat down to interview Austin Worley, an author in the Murder and Mayhem and Organic Ink: Volume 5 anthologies.

1. What inspired you to start writing? 

My biggest inspiration to start writing was my 12th Grade Creative Writing teacher, Ms. Sullivan. Before her class, I had never really considered writing professionally. Her encouragement and confidence in my work ultimately led me to take the plunge. And here I am now: a published author and poet.

2. How do you handle writer’s block?

My first method for avoiding writer’s block is to plot out everything before I begin writing, because I find the only time writer’s block is a problem is if I don’t already know where I’m headed or how to get there. When it does set in despite my best efforts, I just push through the block as best as possible. Either the block will…

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Unsheathed: An Epic Fantasy Collection is now on Audible!

Yesterday, I got some really unexpected news: Hydra Publications has released Unsheathed: An Epic Fantasy Collection on Audible. This means my fantasy novelette “Hanging at Crosbhothar” will be my first ever story available as an audiobook!

This is a huge surprise, because Unsheathed came out way back in March of 2018. The anthology has surprisingly consistent sales whenever I check the numbers on Amazon Author Central, but it’s been over four years. I figured Hydra was done with Unsheathed…but I’m happy to be wrong!

“Hanging at Crosbhothar” was my first novelette to find a home, so it’ll always be near and dear to my heart. Selling a major story starring a character I’d poured my heart and soul into was a huge confidence boost ahead of my first stab at writing a novel, and it was amplified by the honor of my work appearing first in the anthology.

If you like fantasy audiobooks with thrilling action and high stakes, give this anthology a look. The entire audio sample is from the first scene of “Hanging at Crosbhothar”

Hydra has great timing, because a supporting character from this story will play a big role in “The Skull in the Tree”, which is only a couple months away from publication in Fantastic Detectives. If you’re looking to catch up on my stories featuring Arlise Dun before then, this is a great opportunity.

About “Hanging at Crosbhothar”

A village of innocents, lynched. Blood magic. Vengeance-obsessed brigands. Ghosts of the past and a demonic pact. Knight-Lieutenant Arlise Dun faces all of these and more as she chases the bandit lord Eoghan One-Ear through the wilds of Vyspa. Can she cut Eoghan down before he becomes unstoppable?

About Unsheathed

Draw your blade.
Fasten your armor.
Prepare for war.

The Unsheathed Collection brings to life nine powerhouse tales of epic fantasy filled with daring duels, gruesome slaughter, and the ringing cacophony of battle.

Table of Contents

“Hanging at Crosbhothar” by Austin Worley

“Retribution by Night” by Chad Vincent

“Where All the Souls are Hollow” by Charles Allen Gramlich

“Switch Blade” by Scott Simerlein

“King’s Road” by G. Dean Manuel

“The Artefact” by Ross Baxter

“Under Locke and Key” by Jay Erickson

“Ransom for a Prince” by Liam Hogan

“Only an Elf” by Stuart Thaman

AudibleKindleAmazon

Update: July 2022

July has been a really eventful month in an even more eventful year.

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On the writing front, my focus has been entirely on character development for the military sci-fi romance novel, which has the working title A League of Honor. My leads–investigative reporter Gianna Venizelos and destroyer captain Commander William Reeves–finally have firm physical descriptions, and I feel like I’ve pinned down the sources and the general shape of their romantic conflict. Maybe a bit of enemies to lovers? We’ll see how much the novel relies on that trope once I’m done with the outline.

Speaking of my outline, starting one is my plan for this week. In fact, I might write two. The beat sheets from Gwen Hayes’s Romancing the Beat seem like a good way to center the romance and piece together the bones of this story before I dive into my typical, highly detailed outline. This will probably take the rest of July and a good chunk of August.

Hopefully I’ll be able to use the rest of the summer to finish off the outline of Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill so I can get down to the business of deciding which project to tackle first. LLW seems destined to be shorter, and much of the novelette can be reused, but I feel more passionate about ALH at the moment. If I learned anything from writing The Silver Shrike, it’s that passion for your work-in-progress is key to finishing.

The cover of Fantastic Detectives, which will include “The Skull in the Tree”

Most of the other big news this month comes from the pre-publication side of things. As you may already know, “The Skull in the Tree” is looking at a release date sometime in September as part of Fantastic Detectives. But what I haven’t shared here yet is this novelette has the very first slot in the anthology!

Editors trusting your work to shape the readership’s first impressions and set the tone for their entire anthology is always such an honor.

This is only the third time one of my stories ended up at the top of the table of contents in a magazine or anthology, joining “Hanging at Crosbhothar” from Unsheathed: An Epic Fantasy Collection and “An Oath to the Sun” from Murder & Mayhem: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology, so I’m over the moon right now!

Here’s the full table of contents for Fantastic Detectives:

The Skull in the Tree – Austin WorleyThe First Censor’s Statement – Donna RoystonJustice in the Mist – Martin WilseyPerchance to Dream – Reed BonadonnaThis Sword for Hire – Gregg ChamberlainThe Codicil – Shannon TaftTumbling the Lord – David TatumPenance – Emma MelvilleA Madness Most Discreet – Robert FinegoldWorshippers of Baser Stuff – Maria ProkopyevaOut Among the Pecan Trees – Daniel RobichaudThe Cleaner – David KeenerSister Autumn and the Angel’s Blade – Jeff Patterson

In other writing news, my interview with Dragon Soul Press will be published on their blog a week from today. Although it isn’t very long or in-depth, I can’t wait to share it with the world!

For my July read, I finished The Shadow of Saganami and Scatter before opening up Games of Command. Of all the romance I’ve read so far, this book seems like one of the closest in concept to what I want out of my own space opera romance. Maybe a good comp for my query once my novel is finished?

I started Tinderbox by Rachel Grant last night, which is shaping up to be a satisfying military romantic suspense. Also, I’m currently working my way through Organic Ink: Volume 5. Seeing your own poetry in print is such a surreal experience!

Outside of writing-related stuff, things have been pretty quiet around here. The USFL Championship was fun, and we enjoyed the Fourth of July. You can definitely tell it’s summer, though. The temperatures here have been hovered around 100F for a while now, and they look to be pushing 105-110 this entire week. I’m just thankful the air conditioning decided to die last month instead of now. Fingers crossed the repairs hold up!

Stay cool out there, and I’ll see you all again in August.

Cover Reveal and More for Fantastic Detectives

A bunch of new info on Fantastic Detectives landed in my inbox last night, which warrants an update. First, I finally got a look at the cover! Isn’t it a beauty?

Second, the editors have released the full list of contributors and stories. Here it is in alphabetical order:

Reed Bonadonna – “Perchance to Dream”Gregg Chamberlain – “This Sword for Hire”Robert Finegold – “A Madness Most Discreet”David Keener – “The Cleaner”Emma Melville – “Penance”Jeff Patterson – “Sister Autumn and the Angel’s Blade”Maria Prokopyeva – “Worshippers of Baser Stuff”Daniel Robichaud – “Out Among the Pecan Trees”Donna Royston – “The First Censor’s Statement”Shannon Taft – “The Codicil”David Tatum – “Tumbling the Lord”Martin Wilsey – “Justice in the Mist”Austin Worley – “The Skull in the Tree”

Finally, I have a slightly firmer release date: September 2022. This release will include e-book, paperback, and hardcover(!) editions of the anthology, which is so exciting. Keep an eye out for another post once they give me an actual date!

Organic Ink: Volume 5 Release Day!

My poetry has officially been published in Organic Ink: Volume 5, a poetry anthology from Dragon Soul Press!

“Poetry; a unique and beautiful way to express feelings and ideas. Weaving words into perfect poetic prose, these thirty authors remind you of your childhood, bring comfort from the hardships of life, fiercely spur emotions, and tell tales of old. All lovers of poetry will find a favorite here!”

Here’s the full list of my contributions:

AliveBeneath the MistsEarly SpringFour Sorts of LoveIn Praise of the Knight-SisterRepublic in AutumnRepublic Awaiting SpringSaint PatrickSpaceSpringThe TombThanksgivingWispy MemoriesThe SnowmanAfghanistanHoneybeeHummingbirdsYellow MumsHaiku XLIHaiku XLIIHaiku XLIIIHaiku XLIVConjunctionHaiku XLVIWinter WindTerra NovaTypical TuesdayThe Wagon TrainMondayLooking UpDiscordTrapsThe StormHomeworldThe ShrikeRedwood TreeMockingbirdHalloweenRemember ThemEasterIndependence Day

This is a mix of reprints from my social media and poetry nobody else has ever seen. Some of those reprinted poems date all the way back to before I started writing seriously. For example, “The Tomb”, “Homeworld”, and “Winter Wind” were all written as part of assignments for my high school creative writing class, which means they are now my oldest works in print.

Besides my own contributions, this anthology includes the work of Jonathan Pratt, Douglas Allen Gohl, J.E. Feldman, Rebecca A. Demarest, E.L. Summers, Jose Joel Robles, Dana Trick, Neethu Krishnan, Alize Atif, Stephen Schwei, Vanessa Bane, and Matthew Ivan Bennett.

Like I mentioned in my acceptance announcement, this is a very diverse anthology. My poems alone cover everything from nature to holidays and history to religion. Some of them even have fantasy or science fiction themes. “In Praise of the Knight-Sister” is an in-universe poem about my heroic fantasy heroine Arlise Dun, for example.

If you love poetry–or know somebody who does–you can purchase digital or paperback copies from Amazon. Let me know what you think!

Buy Organic Ink: Volume 5

Update: June 2022

Summer has finally arrived, bringing with it quite a bit of good news.

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If you follow me on social media in general or this blog in particular, you’ve probably already seen my latest announcement: my fantasy mystery novelette “The Skull in the Tree” has been accepted as part of Fantastic Detectives, an anthology from Tannhauser Press and Worlds Enough!

This acceptance almost didn’t happen. As I mentioned a couple months back, my initial submission vanished without a trace on the publisher’s end. Their web and email host went out of business during the pandemic, and they’d set up a system to forward submissions from the original email address to their new one. But even though I received a confirmation email, the original address must have decided my submission was spam and chucked it into the junk folder…which emptied after thirty days.

Fortunately, I noticed the announcement from Worlds Enough that rejection and hold notices had been sent out to everyone who’d submitted. After getting in touch with the editors, they invited me and a few other authors to resubmit. “The Skull in the Tree” was the only one of these submissions to be accepted, and for that I am profoundly grateful!

On the writing front, most of this month has been consumed by worldbuilding for my upcoming military sci-fi romance. Everything from the politics and history of this region of space to the technology behind space combat. These notes total somewhere around 13,000-14,000 words. I think worldbuilding is done for now, but I might work on a simple map just to keep the geography (astrography?) straight once the actual writing starts.

My next step is character sheets and an outline. Most of the plot has already taken shape in my head, and I feel my vision of the lead characters is pretty clear. They don’t have names yet–names usually come to me pretty late in the process–but I already know what makes them tick. Still, it’ll be nice to put all these thoughts on paper.

Once all this is finished, I plan on circling back around to complete my outline for Law, Love and the Whippoorwill before deciding which project to write first. Novelizing Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill might be easier in some ways because I can reuse most of the novelette, but I feel like in-person cultural research might be necessary for a deeper portrayal of Topsannah. Research for the sci-fi romance would be much easier, but I’d be starting from nothing.

Right now, I feel more fired up for the sci-fi romance, but only time will tell.

In other writing related news, I recently did an interview with Dragon Soul Press. No release date yet, but we were looking at some time around the end of the month to coincide with the launch of Organic Ink: Volume 5, which will make me a published poet. Keep an eye out here for more details!

My June reads have been a pretty diverse bunch. The Shadow of Saganami for some plot inspiration with its thrilling single-ship action and unique romance subplot, Scatter for both personal enjoyment and my professional interest in seeing how other authors have written superhero romance, and Warleader to check out some military sci-fi romance.

Warleader had an excellent romance, but I couldn’t help wishing the external subplot was stronger. Meanwhile, I’m exactly two-thirds of the way through Scatter and a little over halfway through my reread of The Shadow of Saganami.

Once I finish those, I plan on tackling Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair, His Secret Illuminations by Scarlett Gale, and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. The latter might actually be first, just because I suspect I’ll want to save the fluffier books for after such a heavy read.

June also means it’s primary season here in Oklahoma. I’ll be glad once next week rolls around and we get a brief reprieve from all the campaign ads before the general election season starts. Of course, some of these races seem guaranteed to be headed for a runoff, so maybe we won’t get a break after all.

Speaking of bad news, our air conditioner died earlier this month…right before the summer heatwave started. We’re lucky it turned out to be a relatively cheap and easy fix. Nevertheless, that week was miserable. Hopefully the rest of the unit holds up for a long, long time.

On that note, stay cool out there, and I’ll see you in July!

“The Skull in the Tree” Accepted for Publication in Fantastic Detectives

Those of you who follow me on social media might have already seen this announcement, but my fantasy mystery novelette “The Skull in the Tree” is set to be published in Fantastic Detectives!

On leave after the birth of her daughter, Knight-Mother Arlise Dun just wants to reach Quiet Cove before the first snowfall…until her widowed host reveals a skull inscribed with terrible curses is perched in the tree outside. Her duty is clear: break this maledict and find the vile soul responsible. But when her investigation uncovers something even more sinister, Arlise finds herself fighting alongside an unlikely ally. Can they unravel the curse before more lives are lost?

“The Skull in the Tree” will be my first new release featuring Arlise Dun since “The Gale at Quiet Cove” was published way back in 2020. Being set roughly a year afterward means this happens later in her life than any of my other published stories have ventured so far. Although there are quite a few connections to those stories, this one is just as enjoyable on its own.

Published by Tannhauser Press and Worlds Enough, Fantastic Detectives will feature a dozen tales of crime and magic. There isn’t a firm release date yet–a few issues along the way have put the good folks over at Worlds Enough behind schedule–but the lead editor tells me they’re shooting for late summer. Once we have something solid, I’ll be sure to pass along all the details in another post right here on this blog.

“The Beast of Saltern” is Published!

Another in the line of stories I was commissioned to write for FoxFireFiction, “The Beast of Saltern” goes in a different direction than “Seven Diamonds for Soqqith”. More suspense, less sword & sorcery action. This is very much a cat-and-mouse game between two apex predators.

You can read “The Beast of Saltern” for free over on FoxFireFiction’s website this week. Afterward, it’ll probably be behind a paywall.

https://www.foxfirefiction.com/2022/06/04/the-beast-of-saltern/

Sir Owen Gibbs knows the forests of Tarith like the back of his hand. He’s faced poachers, man-eating predators, and even akor’mari. But nothing in all those years of experience has prepared him for the wickedly cunning monster stalking the coastal village of Saltern. Can Owen outwit the Beast of Saltern before it claims another victim?

Writing this story was hard, but I hope you enjoy the finished product!

“Lightning Between Your Fingers” Reprinted in MetaStellar!

May has turned out to be a really good month for me. On Saturday, I found out my fantasy mystery “Lightning Between Your Fingers” was accepted for republication in MetaStellar. And talk about a fast turnaround: the reprint is out today!

If you missed this story in Broadswords and Blasters #8, now is a great opportunity to check it out. The MetaStellar reprint of “Lightning Between Your Fingers” can be read for free here.

A little teaser if you haven’t heard about this one before:

A young woman slain, apparently by lightning. But she died indoors, and it hasn’t stormed in weeks. Arlise Dun has seen more than her share of strange cases during her service with the Order of Watchers, but this takes the cake. As she pieces together the clues surrounding Emerei Dawson’s death, a sordid tale of vice and corruption takes shape. Can Arlise solve the case before the perpetrators slip away?

Have a happy Memorial Day!