Science Fiction and Fantasy Author
Here are the current panel discussions I’ll be appearing on during WorldCon 75 from August 9-13 in Helsinki, Finland.
If you could come along to ask questions or just to say hi, that’ll be awesome. This is my first con and first panel discussions ever, so I’m super stoked and very much looking forward to seeing you in Finland!
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deliberate care not to retread themes, characters and narrative templates I’ve worked with on other novels, even ones unpublished.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.
If you didn’t see my raging howls over social media, it’s that I NOW HAZ A LITERARY AGENT.
I am now represented by John Jarrold of the John Jarrold Literary Agency, and my film/TV rights represented by Julie Kane-Ritsch of The Gotham Group. John Jarrold picked up my space opera/murder mystery noir novel called THE ROGUE GALAXY, with a strong blend of Scandinavia noir and a body count in the triple figures.
John Jarrold edited and acquired novels by Michael Moorcock, Iain M. Banks, and Robert Jordan, and his current clients include John Gwynne, James Bennett, and Melinda Snodgrass, who I now share an agency with. He also represents Adam Nevill, whose novel The Ritual is releasing as a feature film this October.
It’s not about rubbing shoulders with the big folks (well, maybe a little), but more about the assurance that someone who’s worked with these giants know their stuff, and that you and your project be in good, safe hands.
I spoke with John Jarrold over the phone and felt he was the best one to represent my work. I had interest from other agents, but went with John in the end. But these other agents were so gracious and polite, some telling me that while they didn’t think they had the right contacts to sell it, or didn’t connect with it entirely, they were fans and couldn’t wait to pick it off the shelves one day. There’s so little indication if you’re Doing It Right, and it’s a relief when you get picked up.
But yeah. Agent! We’re going to start doing edits soon, and then it’s off to publishers and I’m absolutely over the moon about this. Thanks again to everyone who beta read the novel, helped revise the query, gave me advice, or just cheered along from the sidelines. It all helped and I’m very pleased to be here now.
Just after a few weeks of it being accepted, my story “When There’s Only Dust Left” has dropped in Nature magazine, my fourth with them (I’m still reeling over how I managed to get my greasy paws inside the magazine at all). It deals with war, AIs, reality, and had a very strong dose of horror in it, maybe more than most of my other stories do.
The art is amazing, as always. The guy that did the art for this story did the art for Alien: Covenant on Empire magazine’s cover, which is super cool. I invite you to check out his (Jacey’s) portfolio).
Anywho, you can check out the story here, or pick up a copy of Nature’s May 11, 2017 issue from your local retailer, if they have it. Hope you enjoy it.
I start almost every blog with: it’s been a while. I should blog more. So that’s what I’m doing.
As some of you know, I finished a novel last week. It’s sitting aside while I work on other projects, including polishing up my query letter and chapters for my previous novel. Again. But that’s the way it is.
My story “System Reboot” landed itself a Polish translation in the magazine Szortal alongside Jarosław Grzędowicz, who’s (almost) the Polish George R. R. Martin. Nice to know folks in other countries are reading your work. You can check that out here.
And finally, I sold another story to Nature, which should be appearing this Thursday, I believe. I’ve also got two invitations to anthologies, one of which is paying pro-rates, so I’d best be working on that one. Ain’t no rest for the wicked.
My spacepunk novel about drug cartels, alien narcotics and fanatic cults is complete at 113,000 words.
It’s the first adult novel I wrote in first-person, and it’s also the very novel where I put the characters first. I’ve always included character arcs and backgrounds, but this is the first time where the characters and their voices drove the story. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write another way. Whereas my last novel taught me about world-building and scene-setting, this one taught me so much about characterization and voice and agency. I learn with everything I write, and this one certainly has, too.
I wrote the novel I wanted to write. It took six months because of editing my other work and restructuring, but it’s done and I love the end result. It’s gonna need edits, and beta-readers. But I haz another novel and I am very excited about it. I almost didn’t want to finish it, because I love these people and this world so much, but that’s what a dozen rewrites and rounds of edits are for.
But for now it’s done and I hope to bring it to you guys someday.
So 2017 has been busy in a lot of ways. We’re already one month down and halfway into the next. Could thing is I’ve kept pretty busy.
I’ve seen a number of films this Oscar season, including La La Land, Lion, Split, Hackshaw Ridge, Arrrival, (loved them all) Passengers, Live By Night, Nocturnal Animals (didn’t think too much of ’em) and read a few books here and there, including Stephanie Garber’s fabulous Caraval. But I’ve been pretty busy with my own work, including the space opera/murder mystery that’s been eating up my creative time since April 2016. I got further feedback from narrators that required some major structural edits in the first crucial third of the novel, which cut a pile of pages and unnecessary words and made the novel much sharper. It’s in the absolute final polish now with the query and synopsis being written and polished in tandem. I’m incredibly happy with it and hope that it finds a home.
But then it’s back to my other novel, which I halted at 50k to edit this previous one. I haven’t written many shorts in this time, which is going to change once I get some novel work done. Although I do have a (great) part time job, earning some dough from fiction never gets old, and so sketching up a cool cool 4,000 words at pro rates is something I’d like to do. Plus it gives me a great chance to experiment with areas I’m weak with or themes and characters I’d like to explore but not willing to donate an entire novel to. So I’m doing that soon.
But something pretty cool is coming: just a week ago I interviewed Colin Gibson for StarShipSofa. Name sound unfamiliar? But you know his work: he was the head production designer for Mad Max: Fury Road. The man designed and built the weapons, the sets, the look, the aesthetic, and all 150 cars for the film. He also got to work on the background, the storyline and the world-building for one of the most striking and critically acclaimed documentaries films ever put to screen. This guy won an Oscar for his work, beating out Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, and the Martian.
I’ve met him a number of times in person outside of my work for StarShipSofa and spoken to him at length about Fury Road and the industry (and got shown a few things related to the film that I can’t actually reveal or talk about). I told him about the podcast and he agreed to be interviewed. So I interviewed him about this fantastic, insane monstrous of a motion picture and how he helped bring it to life in all it’s Australian glory. It’s going to be out soon and I do hope you’ll check it out then!
Say one thing about 2016: it’s been one interesting year. I graduated from university (still haven’t found a job in my field, though) officially moved into my own apartment, and started really living on my own accord. It was also the year where I trudged through the last 1/3 of a novel hating every word of it, splashed out on a 125k epic space opera (currently on draft 8 of it) and wrote 45k of a new month within one month. Not bad, I think. I managed this partially because I’m only working three days a week (my current job is a laborer, so work begins and ends at the jobsite). Between cooking, cleaning, housework and General Life Nonsense, writing is what I do. I don’t get up and watch films or play games on my days off, although I very well could. But I sifted through more than 200,000 words in novels alone this year because I made myself have a schedule and I stuck to it, vicariously. ADHD doesn’t make that easy, but sometimes you have to shove a 12-guage in its mouth, pull the trigger and get back to work. And work I did.
From this point on it’s safe to say that novels will be my focus. The sort of material I want to write and my style of writing just doesn’t jive with the shorter form. Short fiction is economic, tight and demanding, and the top markets even more so (along with finicky and very specific in what they want. Quality is top notch, some of the best SF/F material you’ll find. It’s just not what I’m writing), and novels give you that 100,000 words of leg-stretching smoothness and room to write a character arc worthy of a HBO show (looking at you, Boardwalk Empire). I’ll still be writing short stories, but they’ll be quick desserts between the main meal that is a 130k word chiwawa killer.
It’s also the year that I didn’t sell many original short stories. I had quite a few published from 2015 sales, most noticeably one story that was reprinted six times, including in audio, in Flame Tree Press’s Dystopia Utopia hardback anthology, and in China’s SF World magazine. But I got my first anthology invitation, which netted me my longest sale at 7,000 words, which is also my first non-flash, original pro sale.
In 2014 and 2015, I’d churn out a swathe of so-so stories and scattershot them until I got a sale. This year I’ve been deadshotting each one: didn’t have many sales, but almost all were neither to major venues and projects or at pro rates. Pretty happy there.
Anyway: this is what I had out:
FICTION:
The Galaxy’s Cube – published in print at Abyss & Apex and in audio at The Overcast.
Walls of Nigeria – published in Nature
Skies of Sand and Steel – published in Fantasy Scroll Magazine
The Bronze Gods – published in Dimension 6 (website appears to not be working?)
Last Age of Kings – published in audio at Fantasy Scroll Magazine
(All are short stories)
NONFICTION:
We’re Going Places – published in Lightspeed’s People of Colour Destroy Science Fiction
Five Slavic SFF Novels You Should Have On Your Shelves – published at Tor.com
I’m also eligible for the John W. Campbell Award and for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. And of course, as an editor the podcast I edit, StarShipSofa, is up for Best Fancast at the Hugos. If any of these strike your fancy, you’re more than welcome to throw my dottings on your ballot pile.
Onto next year!
JEREMY SZAL 