© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

As you can see, compared to 2021 and before, my productivity this past year has waned considerably, at least of you count actual, published short stories and novelettes. Of course, I had two of those novelettes published in the same year by the same publisher for the 224-verse. Most of the other short stories, except for the one I have featured in “Shoot the Devil” were published the previous Spring.

So what have I been doing?

Starry Eyed Press, for which I wrote my two 224-verse novelettes, wanted a sequel to The Fallen Shall Rise which ends somewhat incomplete (apparently, they’re adverse to ending stories this way). I agreed but when I saw what it would take to resolve the situation I created, I realized it would either be a series of novelettes, which was unsatisfying, or a novel…my first novel.

I actually got it written and edited the daylights out of it. But authors are not their own best editors. Another author volunteered to beta read my work and that he did, providing me with a number of suggestions.

So it’s back to the drawing board. Well, not completely. Most of the novel will remain intact as is, but he had a number of very helpful pieces of advice, so I do have to change things around quite a bit.

In my novel, my protagonists have to stop an interstellar war before it gets really started. It has cold war elements, totalitarian regimes, plots within plots within plots, a wide cast of characters (which I understand is a problem) across hundreds of light years of space and at least six star systems (more if you count those we experience from 3,000 years in the past relative to the events of my book).

There are also the dynamics of teenage girls, a master of disguise, biological weapons, assassinations, and the threat of genocide on a planetary scale.

That’s a lot to get right and put together in a way that is digestible to a reader. Here’s hoping.

But while I’m working, I’ve still got two accepted short stories that will be published in (hopefully) early 2023. If you’re curious about what’s been going on in 2022 and want more detail, visit my publications page.

Happy New Year and may good blessings always be at your side.