Update: June 2023

June came and went so fast! It feels like just last week, we were still in May, and now June is simply…gone. Maybe that’s because it was a really eventful month.

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First, I actually finished off the superhero erotica story! Now entitled “Good Boy”, its final word count sits at 2,360 words. Enough for Nobilis Erotica, where it’s currently under consideration, but still short enough finding other markets for the piece if they reject it will be difficult. Nevertheless, I’m glad I saw this story all the way through.

Since “Good Boy” is finally done, I’m turning my attention to the future. One of my goals this year was to write at least the first draft of a novel or novella. There are three obvious candidates: my enemies-to-lovers military sci-fi romance The Captain and the Crown, the novelization of my superhero romance novelette “Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill”, and a fantasy romance starring Arlise that would weave together “The Gale at Quiet Cove” and “Enough”.

Of these, The Captain and the Crown seems the most straightforward. It looks like either a long novella or a short novel, and I started revamping my outline and character sheets for it this week. Bits of my original, abortive draft from last fall are still usable, but my vision for the opening scenes is different. Since this story was originally conceived as a novelette, that draft uses less subtext and faster pacing than this version needs.

Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill doesn’t need anywhere near as much prewriting, since the story is already laid out in broad strokes by the original novelette, the old character sheets are still good, and entire scenes can probably carry over into the novelization. However, I do need a deeper plot running through the second act. I also want to do more research and bring in some consultants/sensitivity readers to ensure the depiction of Topsannah’s Comanche culture and background is accurate. Also, this will definitely be a full-length novel. It’s a lot of work, so tackling a smaller project first might be better.

The fantasy romance with Arlise will be reimagining “The Gale at Quiet Cove” more or less from the ground up, and I’m currently overhauling my old worldbuilding notes to align them with my current vision for the setting. Of these three, it needs the most work, so I think it makes sense to push this one onto the backburner.

I do intend to tackle my other military sci-fi romance–tentatively entitled A League of Honor–at some point, but with The Captain and the Crown being shorter and taking place earlier in the setting, it seems natural to write the latter first. Maybe League will end up the second book in the series.

Amid all this prewriting ahead of me, a fantastic idea for a flash fic hit me yesterday. I may try to multitask and write it while outlining just to keep my skills sharp, but I don’t want to stretch myself too thin and end up bogged down for months like with “Good Boy”

On the publishing front, “Lightning Between Your Fingers” received its latest reprint in Summer of Sci-fi & Fantasy: Volume 2. Only the Kindle version is out right now, with the print edition releasing tomorrow. Stay tuned for release day posts about it and “Decisions” getting published in the July issue of The Lorelei Signal.

No updates when “A Helping Hand” will be published in Brief Encounters, though there’s obviously been schedule slippage. I’m trying to get in touch with Adekon through Upwork and will share further details as soon as I learn more.

On a brighter note, I’m submitting Folk of Rock and Water again. This publisher seems promising, so hopefully one of my future blog posts is the announcement of my first novella being accepted for publication.

I’ve been so busy writing and brainstorming I haven’t read as much as I should’ve in June. My focus is split between His Sacred Incantations, the fun little romance Red, White & Royal Blue, and my contributor’s copy of Fantastic Detectives. My TBR is a mile long, so I’m hoping I can find more time to read in July.

The Lunar TerminatorSaturn

As promised last month, here are a couple of the astrophotos taken through my Apertura AD8. Seeing so much detail on the Moon or Jupiter and Saturn is truly breathtaking. Afocal astrophotography is tougher with deep sky objects, but visual observing is fantastic. Just this week, I caught my first planetary nebula: M57, in the constellation Lyra. When the skies are steady, you can resolve individual stars in globular clusters, especially M13.

I’ll leave you with a few more of my best shots.

JupiterVenus

Hopefully the writing–and the stargazing–goes even better in July!