Writers on the Moon! Happening January 8th

Today I have some news that is literally out of this world! I know, lame pun. But I’m good at those lol.

If you’ve been following me for a few years, you might remember in January 2021, I was offered the opportunity to participate in a project called Writers On The Moon.

And “the moon” part here is not figurative, either. It’s literal. Literally literal. As in the real moon. The Moon moon.

Well, this project is finally happening!

Back in 2020, speculative fiction author Susan Kaye Quinn spearheaded this incredible initiative, securing a payload slot on the Peregrine Mission One lunar lander. The idea was simple but profound: send a digital time capsule filled with indie fiction to the moon! She opened up the opportunity to her network of authors to join her, and I jumped at the opportunity.

This means that some of my books, specifically the first five of the Land of Szornyek series, are part of this project. Plus, I was able to include some 'stowaways'—a few works from my wonderful writing friends, as well as a memorial tribute to a few special souls we've lost.

The launch date is set for January 8th at 2:18 AM EST.

If all goes according to plan, early in the morning on January 8th, our digital payload will take a giant leap for writerkind. (I know, another lame pun!) The payload will hitch a ride aboard Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander, tucked inside a 0.75" capsule, and land at Lacus Mortis—a site carefully chosen for its potential for future exploration. You can watch on NASA TV!

But, as with all space missions, there's a caveat. There's always the possibility of a delay. Malfunctioning equipment, bad weather, and various unforeseen circumstances can push back the launch. It could be hours, days, or even months—space travel is tricky like that! But as of now, everything is set and prepped for launch. We're all crossing our fingers that everything goes off without a hitch!

If all goes well, the lander is scheduled to touch down on the moon on February 23rd. The journey involves an Earth orbit period, a three-day trip to the moon, and a lunar orbit. Once landed, it's scheduled to operate for 8 days.

And if you have questions, feel free to reach out. I might not have all the answers, but I'll certainly try my best. You can follow the project at the Writers On the Moon website, which includes a link to the official newsletter. Also, you're invited to join the Writers on the Moon Facebook group, where you can connect with other writers, participate in the official countdown, and share in the excitement of this unique project.

I can't express enough how thrilling and amazing this opportunity is. Having digital copies of my work on the moon is an honor. It's an extraordinary venture, and I'm grateful for the chance to be part of it.

This isn’t just a trip to the moon. It’s our stories, hopes, and dreams venturing beyond the reach of the average person. It’s a slice of 2021 preserved for future generations or perhaps even otherworldly readers. It’s a tribute to human creativity and our unending thirst to better understand the cosmos.

And it’s really fricking cool.

Stay tuned for more updates, and let's hope for a successful journey to our lunar neighbor!

Writing Tips (Sometimes): On Being A Feral Author

This is part of my series of essays for writers. Get them delivered to your inbox by signing up here!

Sometimes, when the weather is nice, I grab my grandpa’s old reading chair out into the lawn and sit in it and… you guessed it, read. It’s Rowan’s favorite thing. She’s the only cat allowed outdoors without supervision, so she gets all her favorite things at once: outdoors, grandpa’s chair, and me!

I consider myself a mostly feral author. I like to do things my own way, no matter what the experts and gurus say.

The more time you spend in the indie author world, the more opinions you’ll come across. There are a million things we all “should” be doing—writing to market, having our books in Kindle Unlimited (or not, depending who you talk to), running Amazon ads, running Facebook ads, posting regularly on TikTok and Twitter, getting Bookbubs, writing every day, not using adverbs, releasing a book a month, having free books (also not having free books), hiring professional editors and designers, doing huge launches, having all of our books up for preorder, sending out regular newsletters, doing newsletter swaps, having a website, going to conferences, getting an MFA… I could go on, possibly forever lol.

At a certain point, the realization hits that we can’t do everything. And at least in my experience, once you have this realization, the next step for most authors is to focus on what you think will have the most impact. The right answer to this question depends on the author—some focus in on rapid release, others invest in CPC and CPM advertising, others start (or stop) doing in-person events. A lot of experimenting goes on, followed by a lot of frustration that their efforts aren’t working, or at least aren’t working as well as they’d like.

Some authors stay in this phase for a long time. Others, such as myself, go feral.

In other words, we disregard all the advice. All of it.

We instead focus our energies on being who we want, writing what we want, and building our business (or lack thereof) however we want.

I once met a lovely feral author who wrote and published books and refused to do a lick of marketing. I knew another feral author who was retired and sold paperback copies of his books at local festivals—didn’t even have ebook options available and didn’t care. I knew another feral author who forwent all suggestions to write to market or write what readers want, and instead wrote for their own pleasure only.

I personally have mostly ditched social media, write what I feel like, and have started designing most of my own covers. I write the books I want to write, publish them when I feel like, and only do marketing when and how it suits me.

At a certain point, I think we have to decide what it is about writing we love. Is it the writing itself? Is the connection with other people? Is it the storytelling? Is it the prestige? Is it the networking? Is it business development? Is it the challenge of trying to succeed in a highly volatile, constantly changing industry?

But what about making money? you might ask.

What about it?

We all find ways to make our lives work, and sometimes that means struggling to make our own businesses profitable, and sometimes that means working for a company, and sometimes that means cobbling together an eclectic combination of income and lifestyle that gives us the freedom to do what we want with our time.

Sometimes my business makes money and sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes I work for other people and sometimes I don’t. And I’ve figured out ways to make that work for me.

I’ve become truly and fully feral.

Only one of these cats is feral (Rowan, the gray one) the other one is spoiled af and would probably perish if his food wasn’t delivered at promptly 7:30 every morning and 5:30 every evening.

I Started A Video Blog

During November, some shit went down. There was a controversy within the National Novel Writing Month organization that is as of yet resolved, and so about halfway through, I lost a lot of my typical motivation. That meant I had to get creative.

First I tried ignoring the conflict. I was unsuccessful.

Then I tried making some other challenges. Like bingo. Those were fun, but didn’t really push me toward writing the quantity of words I needed.

Then I decided to make a vlog.

I dunno why. Maybe it’s because I’m a millennial. But I did it one day when I couldn’t focus. And weirdly enough, I liked it.

So I’ve kept it up.

I only have a few episodes, and there’s no guarantee I’ll do it indefinitely. But if you want to listen to me ramble on about my projects, philosophy, my values, and my pets, then by all means, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel.

I’ll occasionally embed them here in my blog, if there’s a topic I want to elaborate on more than I did in the vlog. Otherwise, click here to find the playlist of the ones available so far.

And I did hit 50k words in November, if you were wondering. Win!

Was it the vlog? Maybe. Probably not. But it certainly didn’t hurt.

Writing Tips (Sometimes): When Sh-t Goes Down In The Writing World

This post was originally going to be about “Why Not To Do NaNoWriMo” (National Novel Writing Month) with a focus on how to choose the challenges, events, and strategies that are right for you, but I suppose I’m glad I’m behind on everything because it’s giving me the opportunity to talk about something more important.

Which is: what to do when shit goes down in the writing world.

Every 3 to 6 months, something happens. Sometimes it’s huge: one giant publisher tries to buy another, and there’s a huge court case like Department of Justice vs Penguin Random House. Or sometimes it’s less huge, but still pretty big, like when the Romance Writers of America was sent into a tailspin due to accusations of racism. Or sometimes it’s absolutely absurd, like when one writer tries to trademark the word “cocky” and then submits takedown notices to Amazon on any other author’s book with the word “cocky” in the title and the whole thing goes to court. #Cockygate. (Read the court case transcript if you need a good laugh.)

Sometimes the controversies are much smaller: one writer plagiarizing another, one writer accusing another of inappropriate comments in private messages, one writer bulk buying their books to artificially inflate their rankings. A well-known cover designer going bankrupt and running of with their clients’ money. A brand-new scam publisher with a new and improved sales pitch that is extremely convincing.

Sometimes it’s social justice issues, politics, or AI dividing the writing community.

Sometimes the accusations are true. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are both.

Misunderstandings, communication challenges, different expectations always play a role in these situations. As do personalities. And if you’ve ever been part of any writing group ever, you’ll know that writers tend to have very strong, very unique, very complex personalities.

But one thing never changes: with every new controversy, we have to decide how to respond.

Currently, there is a big controversy taking place with the non-profit organization that runs National Novel Writing Month. I won’t go into detail because the specifics are a bit fuzzy and haphazard at the moment, but suffice it to say, it doesn’t look good. NaNoWriMo is a huge part of the writing community, and in particular, the indie writing community, so these types of accusations are a huge blow.

If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s an annual challenge for writers to write 1,667 words per day, and at the end of November, writers end up with 50k words and sometimes even a finished rough draft manuscript. It’s kind of like marathon running for writers.

For me personally, NaNo kicked off my writing career. A friend challenged me to do it, and I lost, quitting about halfway through that November. But then a month later, I realized I’d written 20k words, the most I’d ever written on one project in my life. It was like something clicked in my brain: I can do this. For real.

I did the challenge again the following year, and beat it, reaching 50k words just before midnight on the last day. And I’ve done it every year since, including most of the organization’s mid-year challenges.

This event has played a huge role in my writing life.

Do I want to give it up? No.

Will I? If I have to.

If you know me, you know I tend to be the type of person who hates bandwagons. I don’t believe in virtue signaling, and I don’t believe that taking action rashly based on an emotional reaction to a perceived wrong is wise, particularly when it’s a situation like this—where many people are involved, an investigation is ongoing, and the truth of the story is yet to be fully known.

At the same time, I believe it’s important to listen to and believe victims. And sometimes it absolutely is necessary to take action immediately.

I try to hold all of these things in my mind simultaneously. I try to support the people taking action, while giving myself time to calm down and understand the full story before taking action myself. I try to believe the victims, while also giving the accused time to defend themselves.

It’s a challenging balance to maintain. Especially in the age of social media.

The older I get (though perhaps this has less to do with age and more to do with experience), the more I want there to be easy answers to challenging questions. And, at the same time, the more I realize that those easy answers almost never exist.

Instead, I try to ask as many questions as I can. I try to truly understand what happened, what people are saying, and what complicated interactions and nuances exist. And then I make my decisions to the best of my ability with the information I have. Then I stand by that decision, unless I learn something new that changes my perspective.

And I give myself permission to change my mind.

I’ve written well over a million words during National Novel Writing Month events, and no matter the outcome of this situation, that will never change. The organization will always have played a significant and meaningful role in my writing life. I don’t want to have to end my connection to it, but once all the information is available, and it is clearly necessary, then I absolutely will.

I try to live my life in alignment with my morals and values. It’s not always easy. And sometimes, the consequences have a substantial impact on my life. And sometimes, the consequences make me really sad.

But life is change, for good reasons, bad reasons, and neutral. And all I can do is learn to respond the best way I know how.

So if you’ve quit NaNoWriMo for good, I support and laud you. 

If you are withholding judgement until all the information has rolled in, I support and laud you too. 

And if you’re the jackass who caused this whole mess, fuck you.

Writing Tips (Sometimes): The Drawbacks of An Oversized Imagination

This is part of my series of essays for writers. Get them delivered to your inbox by signing up here!

Me & Blueberry just hanging

Throughout my life, ever since I was a small child, I’ve been accused of having an overactive imagination. I know, “accused” is a strong word, especially since some people said it affectionately, others said it laughingly, and most said it exasperatedly.

And the truth is, I’m not the only one! Most fiction writers have at very least active imaginations, if not overactive. And this active imagination is critical to a writer’s ability to do their job. Fiction writers invent new people, imagine strings of worst-case scenarios, and create entire worlds out of basically nothing.

But while this active imagination is useful to our craft, it can actually hold us back in other areas.

Such as in the process of developing a business around our writing. Or when we’re building a marketing plan. Or trying to make decisions about publishing and distribution.

Just because we can imagine a scenario, good or bad, doesn’t mean that it’s the right scenario to be basing our decisions on. I can imagine a full business structure with hired employees filling all kinds of roles from CEO right down to janitor. I can imagine renting or owning a building to conduct my business from, and rubbing elbows with the famous actors who are going to star in the TV shows based on my books. And I can see all kinds of tasks I could currently perform that would create a solid foundation for said business.

But should I be doing all those tasks? Or should I be writing more books?

One really common area I see this pitfall frequently is in discussions about readership.

Imagine an author who has one, maybe two or three books published. They have 200 followers on Facebook (mostly family and people they knew in high-school), 25 newsletter subscribers, 128 Instagram followers, and 7 BookBub followers (all other authors from an author Facebook group follow-a-thon). In total and assuming no overlap, 360 people who have chosen to engage with their brand for some reason or another, and maybe 15% of them are strangers to the author (or possibly bots).

Then, this author has a new idea for a new book. It’s different from their first, second, and third books. A different tone, a different genre, different themes. And they are terrified that writing and publishing it will “upset readers.”

What readers, might I ask?

There is endless conversation in the writing community about “what readers want.”

What do readers want in your newsletter? What do readers want you to write and publish? What do readers want you to post on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? What do readers want your brand to look like? What covers do readers want? Will this ending piss off my readers? What if I kill off this character? What if… what if… what if… But what about the readers?

And most of the time, these questions come from authors who have no readers. Or who have very few, at best.

Sometimes it feels like collectively, we have created an imaginary monster that haunts our writing, our branding, our business—the looming colossus, the invisible watching eyes, the sinister and pernicious Dastardly Reader, who has the power to destroy our careers with a sneer and a bad review. They peer over our shoulders and growl at cliffhanger endings, hiss at overused tropes, and spit acid whenever we dare do something (can I even say it aloud?!) out-of-the-box. And if you dare publish a work with anything the Dastardly Reader dislikes, they’ll sweep in and burn everything to the ground with one fiery breath.

Well, I have good news for you.

The Dastardly Reader is naught but a figment of our collective oversized imagination.

This is not to say that we all should completely ignore what our readers feel, think, and want (although, I do think this is still a perfectly valid creative strategy for some authors). Rather, that the key word here is our readers.

Every author has a unique audience; yes, even authors who write to market. You may have some crossover with other authors, sure. But your audience is yours and yours alone. So, what your audience wants may be different than what another author’s audience wants.

For example, if you see a newsletter guru in the author community recommend writing short emails, and then proceed to write excruciatingly long emails for their own audience—this is because they’re giving you general advice, but then applying specific, strategic choices to their own business, based on their own audience.

There are lots of strategies out there for figuring out what your reader wants: sending out surveys, creating reader groups and letting them talk to you, inviting them to email you, reading reviews (proceed with caution!). But I think the most frustrating time for an author is right at the beginning, when you have no readers. No one participates in your reader group. No one responds to your emails. And you can’t even get reviews in the first place.

So how, then, are you supposed to make decisions about what your readers want, if you don’t have any readers to ask?

Beware: this is the exact moment the Dastardly Reader likes to show up and start poking and prodding at you. So make sure you acknowledge it for what it is: imaginary.

My advice would instead be this: do what you want.

Do you want to play around with that overused trope? Do it. Do you want to leave some kind of potentially-obnoxious cliffhanger ending? Do it. Do you want to have a messy and chaotic social media presence? Do it. Do you want to send out really long (or really short) emails? Do it.

The thing that makes your brand unique is you. The thing that makes your audience unique… is also you.

You can always follow someone else’s template for a business model if you want. You can always change your approach. You can always grow, learn, and refine your tactics and methods.

But I honestly believe that there’s no time better than at the beginning to focus on figuring out what you want in your books and your business. When there aren’t any real eyes watching your every move, when you have no obligations to anyone, and when you don’t have an audience to “disappoint.”

Explore, experiment, evaluate—and don’t let that Dastardly Reader get in your head.

Blueberry’s favorite sleeping spot: the stairs. No, it doesn’t look comfortable to me either lol