Update: January 2023

The holidays are over, a new year has arrived, and I have a ton of news to share in this monthly update!

[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://austinworleywriter.files.word..." data-large-file="https://austinworleywriter.files.word..." src="https://austinworleywriter.files.word..." alt="" class="wp-image-976" />Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

On the writing front, I’ve been more occupied with the business of writing than actually writing. Stuff like prepping for tax season, updating the spreadsheets I use to keep track of my publications, backing up files on my new flash drives, expanding my social media presence, and general self-promotion. As anybody who follows this blog probably knows by now, I received release dates for Fantastic Detectives (March 31st) and It Takes Two (May 9th). Both of those anthologies are also available for preorder, though not in all formats. Only Kindle preorders are currently up for Fantastic Detectives, while only print preorders are live for It Takes Two.

If you missed the announcement posts for either of those books and would like to check them out, here are a couple links:

Fantastic DetectivesIt Takes Two

In other happy publishing news, I’ve returned my signed contract with Worldstone Publishing and received payment for the reprint of Lightning Between Your Fingers, so pretty much everything is on track at the moment. The only thing I’m waiting on is a paper contract from Adekon Publishing to follow up on the less detailed one made through Upwork, but this one isn’t super pressing given they’ve already paid me for A Helping Hand. Hopefully I’ll have a release date for you before long!

Given how much attention all this demanded, I haven’t written much in January. After finishing the first scene of “The Martyrdom of the Blessed”, I decided the plot needs a serious rework to maintain the proper tension throughout the story. Changing the main character from Arlise to another Watcher is also something I’m considering, as is changing when the story takes place.

While I weigh these changes, I’ve decided to dabble in some flash fiction. Iron Faerie Publishing has a flash fiction anthology that accepted a reprint of “Decisions” back in 2021 and still needs stories, so the piece I’m currently working on is a bit of weird fantasy delving into the fall of the Tyrian Dominion. Hitting exactly five hundred words is a challenge, but I’ll be happy to finish my first story of the year.

I’m also in talks with a client to write a sci-fi flash piece for her magazine. Depending on its final length and the contract we agree to, this could be my first pro-rate sale. This one will take place in the same world as A League of Honor and The Captain and the Crown, following a captain in the Eleutherian League Navy at the start of the war with the People’s Republic of Nebesa, so just a couple years before The Captain and the Crown.

Over the past week, I’ve also begun pondering whether I should adapt “The Gale at Quiet Cove” and “Enough” into a fantasy romance novel centered around Arlise and Earc. Ever since I first started writing her in 2015, I’ve wanted to feature Arlise in a novel, but I kept putting it off in the hopes of getting enough experience to “do it right” first. Perhaps it’s a good thing I did; those early ideas were a mess. But now seems like it might be a good time to make a serious attempt.

The only thing giving me pause is how to craft a satisfying HEA/HFN ending for them that fits with “Rekindling”, but I’m sure I’ll be able to untangle that knot whenever I get around to outlining the adaptation.

If you’re wondering what spurred me to start thinking about fantasy romance, well, look no further than T. Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series. I read Paladin’s Strength over the holidays, and it might just be my favorite romance novel ever. A perfect blend of romance, action, humor, and immersive worldbuilding. Paladin’s Hope has been pretty good as well–a good chunk of the book is basically a dungeon crawl, which is a pretty unique premise for fantasy romance–though I’m not quite finished yet. I cannot wait for the other books in this series!

One thing I’ve really enjoyed this month is astrophotography. Between my smartphone adapter and a new long-relief eyepiece, I’ve been able to take some really nice photos. On the left, you can see Venus (the little yellow dot). Notice the planet isn’t a perfect sphere; that’s because it has phases like our moon. This shot shows the waning gibbous phase.

Speaking of the Moon, there it is on the right. And with actual detail! This one was tricky because clouds were rolling in, so I had to wait for a gap to snap the picture, but it turned out almost perfectly. The only adjustment I needed was a filter to tone down the brightness because it was only a couple days out from being full.

The next few weeks look to be pretty cloudy, so I don’t know if I’ll have any new astrophotographs to share in my update next month, but we’ll see!