Just signed a contract for the new Diving novel. It’ll be serialized in Asimov’s some time next year. The novel is called The Courtmartial of The Renegat Renegades. Yep, more Renegat stories. And to think that should’ve been a novella. Whoops. We’ll put it out through WMG later in 2023. And maybe a few other Diving things as well. Yes, I’m being mysterious.
I’ve been writing like crazy. Fey fans should have found The Reflection on Mount Vitaki by now. That’s the novella that we Kickstarted last year. Writing the novella was much harder than expected because I had 20 years of pent-up storytelling to get out of the way. I wrote 200,000 words plus to get 25,000 words out of it. I’m not kidding.
That 200,000 words are parts of several novels. It took me a while to figure that out, of course. I write out of order, as many of you know. Once I figured that out, though, I finished the first book in a new series, which takes place a long time before the events of the existing Fey books. That novel, which I just turned in to WMG, is called The Kirilli Matter. Dean’s the only one who read it so far, and he loves it. I’m now busy on what might be novel 2 or novella 2. Depends on the length. This one is entirely from scratch. The Kirilli Matter took about 30,000 words from that 200,000 words…maybe. The bulk of that stuff I wrote is part of book three…or maybe more. We’ll see. Or I’ll see, and then I’ll update you.
Yesterday, I finished the early draft of Lessons From Writing The Fey, which is a nonfiction book that we promised through the Kickstarter. I need to put everything together, and then turn that in.
WMG is busily working on the Fey as well. I’ve reviewed all of the books and restored a lot of my earlier work, stuff edited by one of the worst editors I ever worked with. (You can find out more about that from Lessons when it finally comes out.) We’re going to rebrand the series, with covers that fit with my vision rather than what someone thinks will sell. What I’ve seen so far in the rebranding is really lovely. WMG’s Allyson Longueira is a genius when it comes to book design.
No, you can’t preorder any of these books yet. I’ll let you know when you can. I just want to let you know they’re coming. I’ll also let you know when the Diving novel hits Asimov’s.
Speaking of books, and sf books, my novel, Alien Influences, is part of a Storybundle called Aliens Among Us. The title comes from a fun Pulphouse anthology (with a fun cover), which is also in the bundle. The bundle has twelve ebooks by incredible writers, including Robin Brande, Marcele Dubé, Dean, Kari Kilgore, Raymond Eich, Rebecca Senese, Cameron Cooper, and Robert Jeschonek. You can get all 12 ebooks for as little as $15.
The catch is that I’ve been lax in reminding you about the bundle. It disappears in two days. So hurry, hurry, hurry to get your copies.
And one final bit of news: WMG is holding a Spring Workshop sale. You can get almost all workshops, pop-ups, lifetimes, and more for half off with the code SpringSale.
Just enter it at checkout. Go to https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/ to find the workshops you want.
I do know that figuring out what to take in that large group of workshops can be hard, so here’s a link to a suggested curriculum:
https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/workshop-curriculum-2/
I think that’s all the news for the moment. I’m sure there will be more soon.
Let me know if you have questions!