Everytime I write one of these blogs the litany of I should blog more pumps through my head. This time I’m actually making an effort to write about Things That Are Happening, since it would appear folks out there care about what I’m up to.
But the big news: I’m heading to Finland for WorldCon! It’ll be my first con EVAR and I’m crazy excited for it. If you want to hang out, catch up or say hi, please do. I’ll be there as both a writer and editor, and I do believe I’ll be present on a panel, which I’m also looking forward to. Instead of ranting on Twitter about things I pretend to have the slightest clue about, I’ll have folks sitting there and listening to me and the other panelists talk for an hour. It’s a month from today, so yeah. Stoked for it.
Anyway. I’ve finished agent edits on my novel and am busy outlining the next two. It’s much tougher than it sounds, and I’m making deliberate care not to retread themes, characters and narrative templates I’ve worked with on other novels, even ones unpublished. But I’m getting there, and it’s outrageously fun having an entire universe to play around with. But also incredibly daunting. But we’ll see.
Otherwise, I’m busy editing my other novel and will be sending it out to beta readers soon. I’ve had time to catch up on some novels and shows as of late. I read through The Colour of Magic as my first Discworld novel…and it’s looking to be my last unless the other Discworld novels are infinitely better (which, I am told, is the case). I read Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach (I enjoyed it well enough) and am currently working my way through Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton, which 1250 pages (yeah, you read that right) of big, chunky space opera world-building in cosmos scale with at least two dozen characters. If anyone else but him was writing it, it’d be a massive slog. I’m about half way through.
I also wrapped up Better Call Saul Season 3 (amazing, of course) and season 2 of Outlander (also amazing). I also got a chance to complete Batman: Arkham Knight on PS4. The Arkham games are a huge part of my life as far as a games and sci-fi are concerned. I picked up Arkham Asylum when I was 15 or so, and have devoured each title as they came out. The easy mix of sci-fi gadgets, detective noir and some incredibly evil villains have inspired so much of my writing.
But yeah: it’s one month until WorldCon and I have two short stories, two novel outlines and edits on a new novel to wrap up, so expect silence ’til I manage to get some actual work done.
JEREMY SZAL 