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 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...

The latest issue of Cirsova Magazine is here! And it contains a long work by me. In fact, mine is the cover story!

Buy it on Amazon (to give the publisher money). Review it on Amazon (to increase its rank). Read my novella The Impossible Footprint and be amazed by my epicalosity.

Go, now!

So Stupefying Stories was going to shut down after issue #25. As of this past March, two of my stories had been held by them, in limbo, for over two years. There was, let us say, some breakdown in their process. Given the magazine's imminent demise and my disinclination to be caught up in another pointless contract with them, I moved on. 

And so, of course, Stupefying has resurrected itself and has plans to continue indefinitely. They got their act together. Ostensibly. But here I am, out.

Very rude of them.

Just as well, I guess. I understand the root cause of their troubles, but I doubt their time of caprice is over.

Much as I would have liked my two stories to have been published, there's a benefit to their being unaccepted again. I am unlikely to sell them elsewhere but I kind of don't care. I've been putting together volumes of my collected SF stories (for sale) and of course they can't be published using stories that are caught up in exclusivity clauses. Had Stupefying not gone off the rails, both my stories would already be out of exclusivity and available for publication by me. If Stupefying still had them, it might be another year or more before they showed up in the magazine (if at all), and my volumes would be delayed — and I want them all to come out by the end of 2023.

In some ways I've lost interest in getting published at all. I still want to be in Cirsova and StoryHack, but otherwise... eh. I know I won't sell any copies of my books, but I want to try, and I don't want to put them off, and I want the two stories to be included (because they're good).

So Wayward Scarecrow and Banana Man will be "previously unpublished" additions to their respective volumes, and that might even be a bit nifty.

Normally I wouldn't write an SF retelling of a fairy tale, but Shoreline of Infinity put out a call for such stories and, hey, why not? I picked a Grimm staple that was neither obvious nor obscure and sent it along. I titled my tale An Escalation of Wishes but frankly I prefer my second choice of title, Fishes and Wishes. It might get accepted.

If it is, it will come out in their special September issue. In August The Impossible Footprint will be published by Cirsova. So autumn is when I'd like to announce my SF volumes, which will be released on some regular basis over the subsequent year. Strike when the iron is hot! Even if Shoreline rejects me, that Cirsova publication will be significant, since I will be the cover story!

As reported in my previous post, way back in January, I finished the fifth Hamlin Becker story A Devil's Intuition. I'm planning a sixth. The fourth, His Own Ends, has been in the can for a long time, now. I wish StoryHack was active. I'm presuming that these stories will get accepted by StoryHack, which, I admit, is presumptuous; but StoryHack published the first three, so, hope? But the longer StoryHack is inactive, the more it messes with the timing of my volumes, which must include the Becker stuff.

Please, StoryHack... Arise!

I had intended to finish the second Hak Iri story Motive of Man, and indeed started work on it earlier this year. But in general, apart from the silly energy I spent on Wishes, I haven't been too enthusiastic about writing. Or anything.

Anyhow, part of my impetus was to have Motive ready for Cirsova's annual call for submissions at the end of the summer, but I've decided that The Unshrouded Stars would be a better submission. I wrote that for Cirsova in the first place and, fortuitously, Cirsova has a hankering for horror these days. So — perfect!

This relieves the pressure to complete Motive — which, again, was not ripping along — and also frees me up to resume the Becker stuff, which I really want to resolve before I get hit by a truck.

So that's my plan for the summer: (1) Finish Becker #6 and (2) Get ready to launch my SF volumes... which, by the way, are to be called Stellar Stories.

Oh. Some big news I almost forgot. I have fully regained my rights to the three books that Simon & Schuster published in the '90s. Not sure what I'm going to do with that, but it's nice that they're all mine again.