So 2018. It’s been a long year for a lot of reasons, but today I’m just going to focus on writer things. Since I don’t want to bury the lede, I’ll start with the big one:

On July 31st, my debut novel Planetside came out from Harper Voyager. It seemed like forever, waiting those last few months, though I had tons of writing to do for publicity. I had some nice spots on the blogs of John Scalzi, Chuck Wendig, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Jennifer Brozek. I wrote essays for military.com and Unbound Worlds, and I got a lot of really nice reviews, which you can find links to on my book page, if you’re interested.

The next big thing was turning in my follow-up novel, Spaceside, which comes out in July of 2019. Most authors will tell you things about writing book two. Most of those things won’t be good. Most of those things will, however, be true. It’s a hard thing, and it’s quite a bit different from writing the first one. In the first one, you can go anywhere you want. In the second, you have to do it again, keeping it somewhat similar, but at the same time completely fresh and new. On a deadline. I made mine with at least 12 hours to spare, and then took a nice, long break over the summer while I waited for edits.

I wasn’t completely dormant. I came up with the idea for a new book–something SF, but completely different from Planetside–and I worked on that some. I drafted four chapters and wrote a 3000 word outline, plus did about ten pages of science and math to get some of the world building right. I even put in an emergency email to the physics teacher at the high-school I work at (He’s a former Naval Officer and total SF nerd) for some help on the power plant on my spaceship I designed.

In writing related things, I joined the leadership committee for Pitch Wars, and also signed on to mentor again with my partner in crime, Dan Koboldt. We got close to 200 submissions and went through all of them, narrowing them down to about 20, and then ultimately to one. We sent Chris Kerns an edit letter, and the results have been fantastic. I’m doing a second read now, and while I’m only about half-done, this book is special.

In between I did edits on Spaceside and continued to develop new projects, which I’ll talk about in just a bit. I attended World Fantasy in Baltimore, at the beginning of November and Atomacon, in Charleston in early December. They were very different experiences–both good, but on different scales and in different ways.

So what’s on tap for 2019?

The big thing, of course, is the release of Spaceside, which is currently on tap for August 27th. RC Bray is on tap to do the audiobook again, which is great. Beyond that I don’t have a ton planned, though I’ll be starting work on my promotion schedule pretty soon. The one thing I have booked is an appearance on the Write or Die Podcast hosted by Claribel Ortega right around the time of release. She and I have been talking about me doing the show for a while, and we decided to put it on the calendar. It should be fun, and if you haven’t checked the podcast out in general, you should. It’s great.

So what else? Well…I don’t really know. Which sounds ridiculous, but here we are. I was on a two book contract, and with the acceptance of Spaceside a couple weeks back, that’s fulfilled. So now we wait and see. Of course we don’t really just wait. My contract has an option, where my current publisher gets first crack at my next book. I send them a proposal, and they either decide they want it or they cut me free to pursue other options. Never one to do something half-assed, I have three proposals, and we’ll probably send them all.

I have a third Carl Butler book outlined. Don’t get me wrong…Spaceside definitely ends that story. But Butler is a resilient bastard, and he could come back for a totally new adventure.  I have another military SF book with mystery elements that’s pretty similar to Planetside in genre but with an entirely new world and cast. And then I have the more ambitious thing–a multi-pov story told in third person with lots of science and politics and space and stuff.

Truth be told, at first I was kind of excited to write one but not the others, but as I’ve developed them over the last few months, I now really want to write all of them. That is, however, impossible in the short term. Given my day job, I can write one of them this year and have it ready to turn in by the end of September at a quality I’m happy with. So for now, we wait and see which one somebody wants. Of course the longer it takes to figure out, the less time I have to write, so there’s some uncomfortable time pressure building. I’ll probably start writing in February even if I don’t have an answer. I’ll just pick one and go. Being honest, I’ll probably start Planetside 3, because I think we can find a home for that even if the publisher turns it down. Planetside has done really well and I’ve got a great idea for a third book, so I think there are a lot of potential ways to go with it. But we’ll leave that up to my very competent agent to figure out for sure. I have a ton of faith in her, and ultimately I’m going to write the project she tells me to. But I’m not going to lie…I’m ready to draft *some* new book, and I’m going to do that sometime soon, whether I know where we can sell it or not. A writer’s gotta write.

I have two conventions scheduled so far for 2019. I’ve applied to ConCarolinas, in Charlotte, for June. I haven’t heard back from them yet (their application window is still open) but I expect they’ll take me. And I’ll be at Atomacon again, where I’m in charge of the literary track this year. It’s going to be great. We’ve already booked Guest of Honor Myke Cole and Author Special Guest Faith Hunter. Gail Z Martin will be back, as will John Hartness and the Falstaff team, plus we’ve added Harper Voyager author T. Frohock and Tor author Michael Livingston. There will be more to come. I’m open to other conventions. The big ones (World Fantasy, Worldcon, Nebulas) are all really hard for me from a travel perspective (2 in California, one in Ireland) and the timing isn’t great on any of them given my school year. So I’m trying to figure out which other con(s) make sense for me. I’m already late to apply to most of them, which is a factor as well.

Lastly, on somewhat of a down note, I’m going to step away from Pitch Wars in 2019, at least for the year. I’ve mentored the last three years and loved it every time, and I know I will miss it next year, but the time pressure is just too much and I feel like with trying to get a book finished, I won’t have the tens of hours I’d need to dedicate to Pitch Wars in order to do it well. I may apply again in 2020, or I may look for less time intensive opportunities to mentor throughout the year. We’ll have to see what the schedule looks like (and who would have me).

So there you go. That’s this year and next year, summed up in about 1300 words. I’m sure a lot of it will change. I’ll try to put out updates as it does. I hope you have a great remainder of 2018 and go into 2019 full speed.