Writing Update: Integration

Today, at precisely 9:04 AM, I typed the words "THE END" onto the first draft of my recent manuscript. My sci-fi short story Integration is now complete. For the last month and a half, I've been hammering away at this story almost every day. As of completion, this draft numbers 21,767 words over 51 pages.

Some of you might be wondering why I've said so little about this, or decided to only now make an announcement. Well the reason is simple, ever since last October when I penned off my piece of flash fiction The Disappearance of Wilson I've been hammering out other short stories either for practice, or for hopeful submissions to publishing houses. In creating this story I had set for myself a goal of writing at least 20,000 words, and I had determined not to say anything about it until I actually properly finished the piece. Now that is done.

Now I am excited to share with you my sci-fi short Integration and my plans for it. I had already been punting around in my head a story set on Earth far in the future, but not one that dealt with the difficulty of adapting to a new life. Reading the story, The Hummingbird decided the issue for me.

Writing this was a challenge to complete a work by a deadline and now I have completed the first part, and now I will be submitting it to beta readers while editing the first draft. It is for submission to the Tor slush pile which opened to accept short stories of between 20,000 - 40,000 words in the science fiction and fantasy categories. My goal is to have a complete and edited submission forwarded in the next ten days.

The story itself is following Faisal Williams, who has settled on the edge of the badlands in Old Texas. He has a troubling past, and it seems to be creeping up on him. Meanwhile, he deals with internal conflict over his religious views and the struggles of his one good friend, a recovering soldier, with nightmares of his own past. They all collide one night in Texas and Faisal must make a fateful choice.

With this story submission I will be making my first submission to a professional publishing house. While I don't expect much to come of it, it will be an accomplishment to have this story complete, and submitted to someone.

I'm told this process will take over six months, so it will be a while between submission and any news of progress on this story. Until then, the early draft is finished, and now for the editing to commence!

Other news revolves around two other stories I'm working on, with the intention of self publishing in October.

The first is called Priests of the White God set in a fantasy world where a nautical chase takes place between two factions. However, things are far darker than a simple naval action on the high seas as both parties become desperate.

The second is called Finiphobia. Two authors are trapped in a high school during an outbreak of a terrible epidemic, and to pass the time collaborate on a story between them. Jealousy and paranoia however, begin to take hold among them as they disagree on how to complete their story.

Hopefully I can have more regular updates for you on those stories as the next month progresses. In the meantime, the editing commences in a pell mell rush to meet the submission deadline!

So until next time!

A New Year

This is a follow up to my own short post welcoming the New Year back in 2017. Now I have flown some 16,000km to return home, readjust to how cold a Canadian winter after experiencing some Australian heat (during a cold snap no less) and have to adjust to my writing once again.

2017 was, thankfully, not like the Year of the Reaper that was 2016. It contained many highs, and many lows. On a personal level I know I can say that easily, and for a certainty many others can as well. No doubt many of us are glad 2017 is over, and are hoping 2018 can bring bigger and better things.

Like my new Hunter S. Thompson look.

Now what can I say about 2017 personally?

Well I have published, for free, my own short story here, and will hopefully be able to publish more in 2018. That was a big step for me as now hundreds have read my little story and I hope more will (if I can advertise it enough) as time goes on. I aim to publish another short story for 2018, or maybe two, and hopefully get a little short story collection put together for self-publishing, either this year or in 2019.

In blogging I've gotten back on the horse (so to speak) and have been able to keep the views coming and manage this blog with some interesting comments and reviews, and I hope I can do more of that. Thankfully I've been able to do reviews for people I know, and some new and old authors that I love. It is nice to see the indie authors I know publishing and being published, and it is also nice to see this blog grow as I go.

My Facebook page has actually grown too, which is wonderful. I've learned that thanks to some less than savory practices, it is less useful for garnering attention, but what can one do? I intend to keep it around so people who do find it can like it and see what I post and share when I choose to.

I also joined Twitter this year.

It was more in response to recent events, but I've found its a useful platform to follow fellow bloggers and authors I like, while keeping myself mildly up to date on what goes on in the world. My mornings now usually consist of trawling Twitter to see the news while also examining the BBC over a nice cup of tea. Helps me keep informed in the world and start my mornings right.

The plan for 2018 is to keep this blog alive, write, and hopefully make headway in my personal and professional life. How successful that will be, well who knows? Hopefully you will join me in this endeavor and read the insightful insipid nonsense I enjoy posting on here and maybe you'll enjoy it too!

Facebook page

So some of you may have noticed my new header which leads to a Facebook link. In my efforts at networking and getting known I have established a Facebook page which will be hosting a link to my blog, updates and samples of my writing in time to come. As well I will post the usual funny images, links to interesting articles I stumble across and so on.

I'm hoping it can generate some interest and revenue on the web and hopefully lead to some attention from other sources eventually.

A bit of a shameless advert I non-the-less hope people will like me on Facebook. Please feel free to browse it at your leisure.

In the meantime, happy internet trails!