In the tradition of soon-to-be-failing New Year’s resolutions everywhere, I place here in a public place my writing goals for 2021, so that I may be suitably shamed by them if I fail to achieve them.

The Known:

Part of this is easy. I’ve got two books under contract, so unless I want to pay some big corporations back for the money they already sent me (spoiler: I don’t) then I have to write two books.

The first book is MISFITS, with Harper Voyager. This one is easy, because I already wrote it. I should get notes back from my editor in the next month or two, and then I’ll revise it, copy edit it, and help develop the cover and all the other stuff that comes with a book. I don’t have a release date. It could be as early as December, 2021, but if I was a betting man I’d expect it in January or February of 2022.

MISFITS follows a young sergeant named Gas Gastovsky. A member of his squad gets left behind on a combat mission, but the brass won’t send a mission back to look for him. Gas is less than pleased with this decision, so he recruits a band of misfit soldiers to steal a drop ship and find the soldier himself. It doesn’t go exactly as planned…

Second is THE WEIGHT OF COMMAND, with Audible Originals. I’m writing this now, and it’s due on May 1st. I’m a bit behind, so really this is going to be it for the next few months. TWoC is about a young officer who finds herself in command of an isolated brigade on a peacekeeping mission when the rest of the officers in the unit are killed in a terrorist attack. And then the peacekeeping mission turns decidedly less peaceful.

The Unknown:

If you notice above, my last book is due on May 1st. After that, I’m a free agent and I can write whatever I want. Sort of. I do owe Harper Voyager an option book proposal — that’s where I send them an outline of something I want to write and they get 30 days to decide if they want it or not. If they do, we make a deal. If they don’t, then I can send it out to the world.

But I have a lot of flexibility in what I send them, as long as it’s science fiction. And that’s where it gets interesting. My first five novels (3 published, 2 in the works) have all been similar in that they are first-person action stories with elements of mystery. So I could keep writing books like that, and probably everybody would be happy. My fans would get more of what they like, and the publisher would probably come on board pretty quickly, since we’re all making money on these books.

Or I could write something completely different. And right now, that’s where I’m leaning. I have a few ideas, but one that I keep coming back to about a generation ship. But here’s the catch–it’s in third person, and there are four point of view characters. It’s a much bigger book than the ones I’ve written so far. I think it would require a different format (my books to date have been in mass market paperback). And at this point, I don’t know if anybody is going to pay me to write that book.

So why is this a difficult decision? I mean, it should be easy, right? Write what you want and be happy. But it’s not that simple. I guess it could be…I could just write it and worry about selling it later. But here’s the thing: I like working with Harper Voyager. My editor is great, and they’ve treated me very well. And–this is important–they pay me before I actually write each book. The thing about writing what I want and not what they want is that if I want to sell it, there’s a chance I might have to write the entire thing before going on submission. At that point, it might sell or it might not. Even if it does, it could mean three years before I see it in print, with nothing else in between.

So here’s the resolution in all of that: Figure this out by the middle of the year so that I can write *something* during the second half.

Other stuff:

1. I wrote a short story in 2020, and I kind of liked it. It was for an anthology called DON’T TOUCH THAT. It’s a bunch of sci fi and fantasy stories about parents and parenting. Mine is about a former war robot that gets tasked to raise a toddler. The anthology is filled with great writers like Aliette de Bodard, Mike Chen, LD Lewis, KA Doore, Devin Madson, Alechia Dow, and so many more. Not going to lie–I’m a little nervous about how I’m going to measure up with all that talent.
   
   But I’d like to write another short story in 2021. But on the other hand, I’m inherently lazy, and the market for short stories is *really* tough. I feel like it’s easier for me to get a novel published than a short story. There are so many talented writers putting out short fiction, and I don’t currently have what it takes to compete in that market–to write a bunch of stories and query them around in order to sell one. So I’m going to need the universe to drop an opportunity in my lap if this is going to happen. If you hear of anybody who needs a mid-list author to round out their anthology, drop me a line.
   
2. I’m going to try to blog a little bit more. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I’m going to shoot for maybe once a week. I’m sure it will be a variety of things…my own work, of course, but also talking about things I’m reading (and think you should read). I’m not going to do book reviews. I only talk about books that I like and I think you should buy. I’ll also probably do some writing craft posts, as I am wont to do from time to time.
   
   If there’s anything you’d like to see me blog about, feel free to leave a comment. I’m very much amenable to suggestion.
   
3. I’m open to other opportunities. Now that I’m writing full time, I have time to write a book during the year and still work on something else. I have no idea what that might be, but I might look into doing some sort of IP project, if I can find something that speaks to me. Or co-writing something with someone.
   
4. I’m going to work with some other writers. I didn’t do this a lot in 2020–it just didn’t work out. I was swamped with the day job early in the year, and the timing didn’t work in the second half. But I owe several people beta reads on their books–people who have read for me in the past, or people who I want to have read for me in the future. I really enjoy doing this kind of thing, and I want to get back to it this year. (Note: This is not an open solicitation for projects. I’ve got two or three already lined up, and the other slots will happen by referral or by people that I already know asking me).
   
   For those who are interested, I don’t think I’m likely to do Pitch Wars again this year. I love working on the book and working with a mentee, but the part where I have to choose a book is just so stressful to me for a lot of different reasons that I’m not going to get into. I may look for smaller mentoring opportunities that don’t require me to make decisions or challenge other mentors over who gets what.

And I think that’s about it. It doesn’t seem like a lot when I write it out here, but I think it’s going to keep me busy for the year. Tune in later, to see how it has come unglued.