Like usual, my own plans have fallen to the wayside out of a combination of business and laziness (I promise it’s 80/20). That said, I’ve done a LOT over the past few months.

Here are the highlights:

Aiko’s Choice Release – Aiko’s Choice, the sequel to Aiko’s Dive, released on February 24th! While I didn’t get a chance to do a release party, I did post about it a lot online and got some great initial feedback from ARC readers. While more than a few people who read the book said it worked well as a standalone, I’m really hoping I can help both books find their audience this year. This duology is a labor of love, and I want many more people to have the opportunity to read it! Pie in the sky (and I mean really up there in the clouds): it gets picked up by a production company and gets turned into a pair of movies.

Bayou City Book Fest – For the second year in a row, I attended the Bayou City Book Fest on February 28th in Houston, TX. I absolutely love this event because of how energetic it is. This year, there was a lot more space for authors to spread out, which gave readers a lot more room to browse. Looking forward to the next one, which may even be later this year!

Indie Science Fiction Author List – Last night, I updated the Indie Science Fiction Author List with a bunch of new authors, bringing the total to 135. I’m extremely proud of how far this list has come, and I’m dreaming up ways to push this beyond just a simple collection of sci-fi authors. In the short term, I’m thinking of doing monthly highlights. And I have a few ideas for the long term as well that are a lot bigger picture. Stay tuned as I figure out what’s possible!

Upcoming Projects – Of course, and as always, I’ve been writing!

My current WIP is a near-future cyberpunk dystopian called Infringement. It explores a future where memories are subject to copyright law and will appeal to die-hard cyberpunk fans. To get myself in the right mindset, I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Titanium Noir before starting the manuscript. And at ~92,000 words in, I’m really happy with the state of draft one. I hope to be done very soon!

Once I’ve set aside Infringement to marinate a little, I’m going to turn my attention to a YA dystopian thriller I wrote a few years ago called The Ones Inside. This story imagines a future where AI development and corporate exploitation have developed to their logical conclusion. At the time, no agent showed interest in the book, so I set it aside for a while. But I wholeheartedly believe in this story and think it would be especially worthwhile to get it out into the world now, at the height of the AI boom. My plan is to do an initial readthrough of the manuscript before sending it out to beta readers. If their feedback is positive, I’ll decide what to do from there. No option is off of the table, however.

Future Publishing Plans – I have one final bit of news that’s less and update and more a point of uncertainty. My editor has departed Vulpine press, and I’m not really sure where that leaves me. I don’t know who my new editor is going to be, and if they don’t like my work I might not be working with them anymore.

That said, I’m exploring all of my options moving forward, including both traditional and self publishing. Considering the amount of control I prefer to have over my projects, I’m leaning toward the self publishing route. It’s a harder path, and much more expensive, but it allows me to micromanage every aspect of the publishing process and would open up many more sales opportunities. I still haven’t made a decision, but you’ll be the first to know when I do.

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As always, thank you for your patience as I muddle through. I appreciate your support. It makes the journey I’m on that much easier.

More soon!