Hoorah! I finished the second Hak Iri story Motive of Man and submitted it to Cirsova.

I started it near the start of 2022 and stalled at 1k words. I wrote little more until this past May. I had hoped to keep it to a reasonable length of 10k words, but I ended at 14.5k. Cirsova does publish novelettes, so I haven't disqualified myself. 

I'm very happy with it. I managed to give it a decent love element, even if it's primarily an adventure. There's a touch of my usual discursive philosophy, too. The varied aspects do account for its length!

There's even a complete poem (one that uses the rhyme scheme I learned from Pushkin's Eugene Onegin). Including the poem may have been a terrible self-indulgence, but the narrator is ostensibly a poet, so hey. It serves the love story in a hefty way, I think.

Fear not. There are mecha-men with blastors, too.

As I've mentioned before, whether or not Cirsova accepts it, Motive of Man will find its final publication paired with the sixth and ultimate Hamlin Becker tale, in a sort of postscript book to the Stellar Stories trilogy.

My first Hak Iri story was, of course, The Impossible Footprint, published by Cirsova and re-published in my Stellar Stories Vol. 2. When I first thought to continue Nictzin Dyalhis's Venhez stories (see here), I didn't know how far I'd get. Two is more than zero and maybe a third will happen.

I've had fun developing the mythology (the Lords & Ladies stuff is mine, not Dyalhis's) and I've especially enjoyed fleshing out the characters.

The precedent of Dyalhis's purple prose has also allowed me to employ a rather purple style of my own. It's a shame I need the excuse of "precedence," though. Purple is pleasing. But I guess I'll be more restrained in other stories, haha!

While I have an idea for a third Hak Iri story, of course my priority is the sixth Hamlin Becker story. Since that already has the weight of at least a novella, I'm going to write it a little differently.

Thus far the Becker stories have been rather from Becker's POV. There is some divergence from this, but not a lot. In the new story, while I won't be doing explicit POV changes, I will be narrating things that Becker is not a part of. It will mostly be a step up to 3rd-person omniscient, I guess.

I need to do this because so many threads are coming together and situating Becker in every thread would be impossible.

Now I just have to get over my postpartum lassitude from Motive of Man...

From the get-go I've wanted to use different artists for the covers of Stellar Stories. For a while I had a hard time finding the right artist for Volume 3. This week I got lucky. The Fiverr search presented an artist I hadn't seen before. He took the gig and the art is done!

When I got the final art for Volume 2, I didn't have to contain my excitement for very long. I was able to share the art right away, since Volume 2 came out right away. The release of Volume 3 is, for various reasons, months away. You'll have to wait! But trust me: You'll like it.

If you're here you've probably already bought Volume 2 of Stellar Stories. If not, why don't you grab it now? It's really good! Go here...

Milestones aplenty! And a direction set?

Cirsova Spring 2023 has been published with my story "The Unshrouded Stars." Sidearm & Sorcery Vol. 2 has been published with my story "The Baron of Nevada & His Branded Broads." My own Stellar Stories Vol. 2 has been published with... well, a bunch of my own stories.

I've created eBooks and paperbacks for my other previously released books, variously at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Lulu. You can check out My Works page for all of those.

The contents of Stellar Stories Vol. 3 have been set. It will not be released for a while. First, I just released Vol. 2. Second, I have to get a cover illustration. Third, two of the stories are under exclusivity clauses. Fourth, I hope to get one or two more of them published (please, StoryHack, arise!), and that will create more exclusivity delays.

The real significance of Vol. 3 is that, with it, all my extant SF&W stories will have a home. There is nothing for a Vol. 4.

So what are my plans?

I will probably someday publish versions of my two juvenile novellas, The Wrecker and Noah, Penny. I regained my rights to The Wrecker last year. But these are not a priority.

Short-term I am going to finish Motive of Man for Cirsova's upcoming August submission window. Simultaneously I will be ramping up to write the ultimate Hamlin Becker novella, what will technically be #6 in the series. It might even achieve novel length. Either way, this work — and not a Vol. 4 — will be my next book. It is likely that Motive of Man, whether or not it ends up in Cirsova, will be a "bonus" tale in the Hamlin Becker book. To give it a home, you see, since a Vol. 4 will not exist.

It is not impossible that an opportunity for writing another short for somebody will come up and extra bonus tales will manifest. But Motive of Man and Hamlin Becker #6 are my only goals for now.

Long-term fans know that I have an unfinished novel called The Remnant. This has been idle for years, apart from an occasional enhancement. In a hopeful frame of mind I have listed it under my "Other Works" in all my published books. However, it may not be finished before I pass from this vale. Sad, I guess. But who knows? In any event, it is officially not a priority.

Long-term fans also know that my plans never seem to hold, precisely. Yet the completionist feel to Vol. 3 has truly focused me, somehow.

Stay tuned, as they say.

The second volume of my collected science fiction & wonder stories has been released! Some stories are new. Some have been previously published in, for example, StoryHack and Cirsova.

Available in different formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Lulu. Synopses, samples, and links are here.

P.S. Hey, buy the ebook and the paperback. They're not expensive, as these things go. Buy, read, and be amazed by my masterfulosity!

The second volume of Sidearm & Sorcery is here! And it contains a story by me!

Buy it to give me and the publisher money. Review it to increase its rank. Read my story "The Baron of Nevada & His Branded Broads" and be amazed by my greatillousness.

Go, now!

The latest issue of Cirsova Magazine is here! And it contains a story by me!

Buy it on Amazon (to give the publisher money). Review it on Amazon (to increase its rank). Read my story "The Unshrouded Stars" and be amazed by my brilliatanitude.

Go, now!

Issues and holidays have kept me from proper productivity. There is so little to report.

My submission to Sidearm & Sorcery Vol. 2 has been accepted. I think I mentioned that it is called "The Baron of Nevada & His Branded Broads." I got that title from the cover of a men's magazine from 1962. Surely the original article or story was the usual soft-core adventure. While my story is not soft-core, I did try to present some earnest sexiness. The anthology should come out in the first half of the year, perhaps even the first quarter.

I have worked with an artist to create a cover illustration for Stellar Stories Vol. 2. The illo has turned out really good. I've got the contents formatted and proofread, and much of the promotional stuff staged. I'm targeting publication for the second half of March.

With The Unshrouded Stars coming out in Cirsova this March, early 2023 will be a wee public for me. But that's likely it for the year. Nothing else is in the pipe.

I've done no writing since I submitted Baron. Four months! Typical. But perhaps I'll get on it and be writing stuff soon, not least the final Hamlin Becker tale. I need to write around 20K words to flesh out Stellar Stories Vol. 3. That is, whatever I write in 2023 will have to go directly to Vol. 3, since any intervening magazine publications would push Vol. 3 out to 2025 and I want it published no later than a year from now.

At least it has finally snowed. There was a brief bit of snowfall around Christmas but Michigan has been otherwise miserably dark and gray. Even on a sunless day the snow brightens! So my mood's been OK. Just need to rev up the writing now...

Since about the only posts I make of late are "Mermaids & Termites" posts, I have considered making that the name of the blog. But then all I could talk about would be mermaids and termites, so it's status quo for now. 

While StoryHack the magazine is apparently on a long and indeterminate hiatus (poor Hamlin Becker and his homeless tales!), its publisher is not entirely inactive. The submissions call went out for Volume 2 of the anthology Sidearm & Sorcery. The call was made suddenly on Sep. 2, with a deadline of Sep. 30.

Since S&S's brand of urban fantasy is not my usual mode, I couldn't respond with a trunk story. Luckily, within a day, an idea occurred to me. My existing plans for The Baron of Nevada & His Branded Broads had a fantastical element. Since Baron as SF was going nowhere, I extracted key pieces for a new work, entirely fantasy — and more succinct.

Problem is, as you know, with a quill I am a tortoise. Four weeks for me was a tight schedule. Still, to my happiness, I finished my 4,600-word story, and submitted it on the 27th.

I like what I wrote. It's a little hard-boiled, a little steamy, a little hellish, a little sad. Here's hoping it gets accepted...

Since I like to have hardcopies of my stories (which are, of course, written digitally), I create books though Lulu. Easier and much more fun than laboriously printing with a printer.

It is important to have hardcopies. One continent-wide EMP or one hefty Coronal Mass Ejection and poof! All your digitized life's work would be gone.

Anyhow, my collaboration with Misha Burnett — a novella too odd, a kind of Gothic displacement tale with a male protagonist — needed a hardcopy, so I created this neat little pocketbook. Purely for myself. It should arrive in the mail around Monday.

(Misha is ruminating on an anthology that could be anchored by our novella, but he's also busy right now; and so our low-priority novella is in publication limbo.)

The Impossible Footprint is in print, in the Fall 2022 Cirsova. The Unshrouded Stars has been accepted and will be in the Spring 2023 issue.

Stellar Stories Vol. 1 was released and has sold 22 copies. I also more quietly released a definitive version of Sideways of the Earth (complete with hired cover art) and that has sold 21 copies. The Giant's Walk has sold 25 copies. Granted, 90% of these were discounted sales, but they were sales. I don't know if these are small beginnings or the limits of my appeal. But I carry on.

Stellar Stories Vol. 2 is planned for 2nd quarter 2023. Its actual contents, though not nebulous, are also not fixed. It'll come together.

I'm figuring out my 2024 Cirsova submission, which is still likely to be the 2nd Hak Iri story Motive of Man. I also still need to write the sixth and final Hamlin Becker tale — although, with StoryHack on hiatus, I'd be writing for my trunk. But I do want the tale told.

Probably some other surprise, like the S&S call, will distract and energize me; and that would not be so bad, considering how unmotivated I generally am.