What Am I Doing? December 2022 Edition

I’m in a bit of a blog rut at the moment, because I’m waiting on things. I’m hoping – really hoping – that within the next couple of days I’ll be able to announce the mysterious Next Book I’ve been talking about for the last few months (and which eagle-eyed readers will probably have already figured out the general nature of, if not the details). It’s definitely going to be available before Christmas, even if it is going to be a little bit tight. (But when are my publishing deadlines not down to the wire? I really hope I can get next year’s book out earlier than December. No promises.) But various small things are still to do; formatting and physical proofing and all those fun and frustrating things – and basically, I don’t want to jinx it. Soon. Very soon. I’m really excited to share it.

I’m also waiting on many other submissions. The short story tracker is almost entirely in the ‘active’ column (except the one that got rejected last week), and, excitingly, there’s one hanging out on a shortlist waiting for a second read. Which is very pleasant after quite a lot of rejections along the way. And I’ve still got a thing or two with actual agents that I’m waiting for responses on. So again, unfortunately no news now, but hopefully news… well, maybe not soon, but at some point. Sometimes this whole writing thing moves like lightning, but most of the times it’s like waiting for tectonic plates to shift.

In terms of works in progress, Boiling Seas 3 (please send me owl-related title suggestions) has crossed 10,000 words and shows no signs of slowing down. This is going to be another massive editing job, isn’t it? But I’m having a lot of fun being back with the crew, and they’re already in some very interesting places. I’m also very aware that I need to get back to cutting down and fine-tuning Other Book for a vague future release time, but that’ll almost definitely have to wait until the new year. One project at a time… maybe two.

And now for some actual news of actual progress: Ad Luna has officially done better than last year, and made the quarter-finals of the SPSFC! It’s now up against some pretty strong competition, of course; The Engineer and The Pono Way are both damn good books (though thankfully very different to Ad Luna), and I’m intending to read as many of my other opponents as I can, as they’re presumably similarly high-quality. It was always going to be a hard fight, but getting further than last time is definitely a much-needed confidence boost. Roll on the semis.

That’s pretty much it. Very frustrating not being able to share the new book… news with you yet, but it is coming soon, and it’ll (hopefully) be better for the wait and the thorough checking. I’m not taking any chances, especially as it’s so different to anything I’ve put out before. I really want this one to land as best it can.