What Am I Doing: June 2023 Edition

Pride: Gay Space Elves Breaking the Block

What Am I Doing: June 2023 Edition

It’s update time again. All three flavours of news this week, plus a little something extra.

The good: I had another short story picked up. By which I mean a very long story – by which I mean, not that much shorter than The Fire Within, and that’s a whole book. As usual, I’ll make a full song and dance about it once it’s actually coming out and I’m allowed to tell you when and where – but I’m rather pleased with this one. Without giving away that which I’m not allowed to, it’s a big deal.

The usual: Boiling Seas 3 progresses, though I’m getting a bit worried about the word-count and my inevitable diversions from the original plot structure as I think of interesting things with which to pepper the narrative. I’ve got a couple of weeks off work coming up, so when I’m not gardening, I think I’m going to pause actually advancing the manuscript, go back and start editing what I’ve got so far into something more coherent. Normally I’d finish the full draft first, but I think this will be a better approach. Means I’ll be going into the final stretch with something much more streamlined to work with, which should make the second round of edits that much easier. It’s bloated, and there are definitely things I can excise – and definitely some emotional moments I need to add in throughout. I’ve been steaming ahead with plot without paying enough attention to how my three loveable rogues are feeling about all this – all of that’s in my head, but not yet satisfactorily down on the page.

But ultimately, the book is coming along nicely, and though we’re halfway through the year I’m definitely more than halfway through the book, which is a good sign.

I do need to start looking at the cover, though. Looking for human stock images in the current AIpocalypse, hooray…

The less good: had a few short stories rejected, too. It’s par for the course, as I’ve talked about before, but it always rankles a bit – especially as one of the stories is historical rather than straight fantasy, which limits me a little more in where I can submit it again. If anyone knows any magazines that like a bit of slightly fantastical historical fiction, drop me a message!

Another of those rejected stories, though, was a micro piece for an incredibly specific competition – Apex’s Strange Machines anthology. Writing user manuals for twisted sci-fi machinery is a great idea, and I had a lot of fun putting my entry together… but I think it unlikely that such a specific prompt will come along again any time soon.

So I figured I’d put it up here. It’s only a page, so give it a read – won’t take long. And as I said, it was a very fun prompt to think around.