Fare Thee Well, Across the Board!

If my previous post sounded a little final, well, that's because I actually thought it was gonna be my last post and only realized after writing it that there was another month left to 2023 (I've been very discombobulated this year). I'm of course bummed about the blog coming to an end, but also I'm glad we were able to give it a proper send-off. Also, eight years, the amount of time I've been writing here, is a looooong while to be doing anything. Other than living in my Jersey City apartment and owning my cat, I haven't stuck with any one thing for this long consistently.

Since I already waxed philosophical last month, I figured I'd use this final post to give a summary of where I'm at, writing-wise, and what's coming up next.

A bunch of my writer friends were making graphics to show off their published output for 2023, and of course I couldn't resist jumping on the brag train...

I find it pretty funny that they're all short stories pictured here, since I still consider myself a novelist, and still say I can't write short stories, only mini novels. The novel I was supposed to publish this year, Flynn Nightsider and the Ire of Inferno, hasn't materialized yet for a number of reasons... okay mainly one reason, which is burnout. I also have half a dozen novel-length manuscripts in the aether... maybe my agent will be able to find a home for one, or maybe I'll publish one myself after I wrap up the Flynn Nightsider series. I don't know. A few years ago, I wanted nothing more than to see my books in print, even if it meant putting in the work to print them myself. Now, I'm a little more neutral about it. Having the book be finished was the goal... I care less about whether it's out there or not. Or maybe that's the burnout talking.

Anyway, here's what I've definitely got coming up in 2024:

Flynn Nightsider and the Ire of Inferno, the third and final Flynn Nightsider book... I mean it this time! I'm gonna release this one at Gen Con in August if it's the last thing I do!!!!! I already have a full outline and the first few chapters written... just need to shake the cobwebs out of my head and finish the damn thing.

Brave New Girls: Chronicles of Curious Girls who Create. Yes, we're back with an EIGHTH anthology,
which feels wild because the whole project kicked off after a beer-fueled Facebook rant between me and Paige Daniels, which led to the crowdfunding campaign for what was meant to be a single book, which has apparently turned into a series... hey, as long as people keep askin' for 'em, we'll keep makin' 'em! Submissions are currently open, by the way! We'll be releasing the anthology in July 2024.

Magic Under the Big Top, a circus-themed anthology I'm editing for indie author collective Snowy Wings Publishing. This one's taking longer than expected to come together because we're all busy, busy indie authors with a gazillion irons in the fire... I just finished my own contribution, like, yesterday (that's not even an exaggeration). But I'm okay with the long timeline, since I know it'll be amazing when it finally comes out... sometime in 2024.

Phenomenons: The Wind and Fire, the third installment in Crazy 8 Press's superhero shared-world anthology, edited by Michael Jan Friedman. We just hit our Kickstarter goal, which means this book is definitely happening! My salt-wielding teen heroine Sarcastic Fringehead will be returning for another adventure! What's it about? Not entirely sure yet, though I think I'll pick up some threads from my last story, "Above the Salt", in Phenomenons: Season of Darkness... 

Eliminate the Impossible, an anthology of Sherlock Holmes reimaginings with Derek Tyler Attico, Christopher D. Abbott, and Keith R.A. DeCandido. We'll be indie publishing this just-for-funsies project, with a cover by yours truly! Who will my Holmes be? Undecided... But I'd better figure it out soon, because we're aiming to release it around Christmas 2024.

Combat Monsters, a World War II secret history anthology edited by Henry Herz, in which I'll have a short story. The theme is: What if monsters and mythical creatures had taken part in major World War II battles? This was new territory for me, and writing my story took a lot more effort than I expected. But I turned in my draft earlier this year, and I'm excited to see it out in the world sometime in 2024!

That's it for now (wait that's already 6 things GAH!). There may be one or two other short things that materialize over the course of next year... Also, at some point, I've gotta return to the Fated Stars series... we'll see...

Anyway, farewell, Across the Board! You can find me writing at The Workprint, and, of course, posting on the socials, mainly Facebook and Instagram (and occasionally, for some reason, Twitter-now-X).

Hello, 2023! Here's what I've got planned for you!

Happy New Year, everyone! Mary here, and like many writers around this time, I'm looking ahead to whatprojects I've got planned for the next 12 months or so. The writing / publishing world is a weird one in that, unless you're 100% indie, there's so much you can't really plan for (and even for indie projects, you're still dependent on others... editors, artists, distributors...). But here's what I've got going on... though you know what they say about best laid plans...

Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls Who Engineer and Explore

We'll be back in July with a new volume of Brave New Girls - our seventh! Submissions are still open, by the way, so if you've got an idea for a story about a STEM-savvy teen girl, check out our guidelines here. Like with all previous volumes, proceeds will be donated to the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund. Who will this year's Brave New Girls be? What kinds of adventures will they go on? I can't wait to read the submissions and find out myself ;-). I'm also planning to contribute a short story (which I need to get going on...) - a solarpunk tale, mostly because I like to challenge myself to write in new genres/sub-genres, and I haven't done solarpunk before.

"The Woman from Wuchu," in Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022/23

The latest volume of the Thrilling Adventure Yarns anthology series from Crazy 8 Press (edited by Bob Greenberger) was supposed to come out in 2022 but is now looking more like February 2023 (hey, delays happen!). My contribution is a noir short story about a mysterious woman in Chinatown who's willing to do whatever it takes to solve the murder of a sex worker, written as a tribute to midcentury noir films with my own twist. It's been finished for a while now, just waiting on a release date!

"Above the Salt," in Phenomenons: Seasons of Darkness

The second volume of the Phenomenons superhero shared-world anthology series from Crazy 8 Press (edited by Michael Jan Friedman) is also scheduled for a Februrary-ish release date. My character Sarcastic Fringehead, a teen girl with the power to control salt, returns in a few crossover adventures with other Phenomenons, and my story follows her efforts to find her friend after he's kidnapped in the middle of a school talent show. This one's also finished and just waiting for release.

Flynn Nightsider and the Ire of Inferno (Flynn Nightsider, #3)

Did I just drop a title reveal there? I think I did! Anyway, the grand plan for 2023 is to finally wrap up the Flynn Nightsider trilogy I first started writing in the summer of 2012... ten and a half years ago (crumbles into dust). I've already claimed August on Crazy 8 Press' release calendar (we're an indie author collective, so we set our own schedules). Will it happen? Well, Shards of Shadow (Book 2) miraculously did, so I still have hope... even though I kind of wrote myself into a hole with that one... oh, how's the manuscript going? I ain't started...

"The Four Opera Singers of the Apocalypse," in The Four ??? of the Apocalypse

Oh, this one's been written since summer of 2021, and the Kickstarter for the anthology has been funded since around then too. When is it coming out? Ask Keith ;-)

Magic Under the Big Top

I don't think I've talked about this one publicly yet, so, surprise! I'm editing a collection of circus stories for Snowy Wings Publishing (also an indie author collective). There's no set release date yet, as it'll depend on contributing authors' own schedules. I've booked the cover artist who did two of Snowy Wings' other anthologies, Magic at Midnight and Sing, Goddess!, and should have something to share in the summer! Of course I'm also planning to contribute a story, and in the spirit of "let's try a different genre," I'm thinking of doing a contemporary rom com set at a circus camp. Whether that happens will depend on The Muses...

Confessions of Former Teen Heroes

Another project I haven't talked about publicly before! This one's the most up in the air since there are a lot of dependencies, but basically, Kevin Dilmore and I got to chatting on Twitter about what happens to YA heroes who save the world at, like 16, and thought it'd make a fun anthology theme. The title isn't necessarily final, by the way - it's just what we've been calling it. At some point, we're going to run a Kickstarter for the whole thing... At the moment, we're still in the planning phases, and aiming for a Summer 2024 release through Crazy 8 Press.

Another anthology project I don't know if I'm allowed to announce yet

Basically I was invited to participate in an anthology project that we're supposed to be Kickstarting in the summer, but I don't know what I'm allowed to say about it yet, so that's all I can give ya ;-). 

Fated Stars #2

Ok, now we're getting into the super speculative part of the list. At some point after I finish the Flynn Nightsider trilogy, I'm going to finally get cracking on the sequel to Windborn, the first book in a planned 5-part YA fantasy epic, which I first started working on in 2014 and finally released in 2020 with Snowy Wings Publishing (yikes, what even is time). I actually already have the whole thing outlined, plus a cover image. Now, I just have to write the damn thing (and settle on a title). Maybe this will be my NaNoWriMo project...

Phantom / Fantastic

For those of you who've been following my social medias, you might've heard me talking about "the shower thought book". Basically, I took a shower on November 23 and got what I thought was a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! idea. Is it actually brilliant? Who knows, but it got me excited (it's a YA fantasy set at a steampunk circus). On November 28, after finishing my NaNo manuscript, I started fleshing it out. By December 12, I had a 75,000-word manuscript. I sent it off to beta readers shortly before Christmas. I'm actually planning to let this leapfrog the manuscript I originally promised my agent (more on that in a sec) and send it to him after incorporating their comments... here's hoping he finds the idea as brilliant as I do (after a WTF moment, I'm sure lol). Anyway that pic isn't meant to be a real cover... I just made it for fun in Canva when I was bored one day.

Gifted & Talented

This is the manuscript I was originally supposed to send my agent in early 2023. Sometime in 2022, I pitched him the idea for what was then my "next" book - a YA murder mystery set at a prep school for the supernaturally gifted - and he liked it. In August I said I would work on it in the fall and have it for him in a few months. Well, I wrote the book as planned, but as happens sometimes, it didn't exactly go as planned. Mostly because I kept changing my mind in the middle of writing and making notes to go back and revise earlier chapters for continuity... anyway, at some point in 2023, I'm actually going to do that. And then see if he's still interested in it (assuming it's coherent). P.S. That cover is also a mock one I made in Canva while bored.

Untitled Circus Fantasy Project

For those of you who've been following my socials... remember how I wrote a circus fantasy book and even commissioned some character art (to the left, done by Niru Sky Art) for it just for fun? I started writing this manuscript in fall of 2020 and finished it in late spring 2021. It's been treading water ever since, mostly because neither I nor my agent can decide what to do with it. Oh, it went through some rounds of revisions, which is part of the reason behind the delay. But it's also been a lot of "hmm, what now?" I wrote it as YA, but at about 140,000 words it's too long for that market, in this economy at least (hey, Children of Blood & Bone was about that long, so I had reason to hope!). And the way it's composed, I can't just chop it up into shorter books (I tried... another reason for the delay). Could we pitch it to the adult market? Never say never, but given some of the feedback received on previous manuscripts of mine, probably not (my voice is just too YA). So... I don't know what's going on with this one lol. Hopefully by the end of 2023, I'll at least have decided whether to let it continue treading water in hopes of a traditional deal or if I should just take it back and indie publish the thing.

Project Sherlock

Another unsold manuscript, which died in submissions to editors. I'm mostly including it here to remind myself that it exists. It's a re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes as an AI girl in a Star Trek-y space-faring future. The character has made some (non-canon??) appearances in a few short stories of mine already, and people seem to like the concept, so maybe I'll indie publish this one too. Someday.

Whatever Crazy 8 Press asks me to write next

We've got a few anthology ideas in the pipeline over at Crazy 8 Press, which I won't disclose just yet, and I plan to contribute to whichever one(s) become reality, so I'm on deck for whatever short stories are coming next!

So basically, the Grand Plan for 2023 is to release a few short stories I've already finished, release the next Brave New Girls, complete the Flynn Nightsider trilogy, work on the two anthologies I'm editing (and possibly release one, depending on how things go), get cracking on the next Fated Star book, and maybe, maybe, maybe, decide to publish the start of what could be an all-new indie series (the circus one? Sherlock?), which I originally forbade myself from doing while I still had a gazillion sequels in the pipeline.

Let's see how many of these plans actually pan out... Happy 2023, y'all!