Update: December 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I’ve been so busy with writing this month that today is the first time I’ve really had a chance to sit down and whip up a blog post, so let’s dive right into things.

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My plan was to tackle that Pied Piper-inspired fantasy story I mentioned in last month’s update, but a stronger sword & sorcery premise walloped me right before I was about to start. “The Martyrdom of the Blessed” follows Knight-Mother Arlise Dun as she tries to take down the mad, sorcerous artist behind the titular sculpture.

This story is set roughly three years after “The Skull in the Tree” and has a wide range of inspirations. My villain draws heavily on Dr. Steinman and Sander Cohen from Bioshock. In fact, the story was inspired by a remark in one of Steinman’s audio diaries that with the biochemical substance ADAM “flesh becomes like clay” and my own realization that blood magic in my fantasy world could do something similar, which opens up so many horrific possibilities.

Some of my other inspirations for this piece are “Rogues in the House” and “The Tower of the Elephant” by Robert E. Howard and “Pickman’s Model” by HP Lovecraft. “Rogues in the House” is probably the biggest one for the overarching plot, since “Martyrdom” is also centered around the infiltration of powerful mage’s death-trapped home.

Unfortunately, writing is going pretty slow. I’m still on the first scene, so I’ll probably need a miracle to hit Die by the Sword‘s deadline on New Year’s Eve. Nailing the horror elements–especially when it comes to describing unnatural, incomprehensible sights–is really tricky. Nevertheless, I’m happy with the quality of the prose and plan to finish the story even if I miss out on this particular anthology.

On the publishing front, there isn’t much to report. Fantastic Detectives still isn’t listed for pre-order, so I imagine we’re now looking at a release date in 2023. I plan on reaching out after the holidays, so I’ll share anything I learn. “Rekindling” and It Takes Two still seem like they’re on course for May. Adekon Publishing hasn’t informed of a release date or issue number for “A Helping Hand”, but payment came through, so I don’t really have anything to complain about.

By far my biggest publishing news landed in my inbox right after we finished opening Christmas presents: “Lightning Between Your Fingers” has been accepted for reprinting in Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy: Volume Two. This will be the second reprint of the story (the other being from MetaStellar back in May), and it actually pays more than the original! Worldstone Publishing is currently looking at a release date in June 2023.

They’re also launching a Kickstarter to raise payrates and otherwise support the anthology, though it isn’t live yet. If you’re interested, here’s a link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scifiandfantasy/summer-of-sci-fi-and-fantasy-volume-2

This month, I’ve been on a fantasy kick. Lots of Conan for reference on both fight scenes and eldritch horror. The fight with Thog in “Xuthal of the Dusk” proved an especially good reference for how to handle weird, horrifying entities who shake your protagonist to their core. I’m only about a tenth of the way through The Blade Itself but enjoying it so far; it’s been a while since I’ve dived into a brand new fantasy series.

Finally, I returned to Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights after watching Dragon Age: Absolution when it launched on Netflix. I’m about halfway through the anthology, which is pretty good for a video game tie-in.

Last month, I mentioned I’d be getting a phone-to-eyepiece adapter for astrophotography and might have some new astrophotographs to share with you. Well, here’s my first one! The fuzzy patch you see in the photo above is the Orion Nebula, one of my favorite deep sky objects because it’s so easy to find even in light-polluted areas. The adapter helped so much with keeping the phone steady. The results aren’t going to knock anyone’s socks off, but I’m proud of how good this first effort looks with absolutely zero editing.

Even aside from astronomy, this month has been lovely. The very edge of that big snowstorm hit us on Thursday, so we actually have snow on the ground on Christmas! Enough melted yesterday that calling it a White Christmas might be a stretch, but it beats last year where we had temps in the 70s.

Hopefully y’all are having a holiday season as blessed as mine. I’ll leave you with a Christmas haiga I made last month with Canva Pro. See you in 2023!