sci-fi author, beatmaker

Category: Creative Work/Career Page 7 of 23

Some Personal Updates, and a Request

Unrelated to the post, but Bumblebee was parked in front of my house yesterday.

I got back from my uncle’s funeral service a few hours ago. It was belated for various reasons — he died over a year ago — but the service was well-attended, in a beautiful location, and I feel as if we did right by him.

Both my father-in-law and my uncle passed away around the same time last year. For a few months my stress levels redlined and I had difficulty sleeping, but after I’d had a chance to grieve and the bulk of the end-of-life logistics were handled for both family members, I settled into a more reflective state. It’s been good to consider my own mortality, and the mortality of my friends and family. It’s easier to prioritize what’s important when I consider the relative imminence and unavoidability of death. I frequently let my family and friends know that I love them, I work on my big ideas, and I do the things I would regret not doing were my life to be cut short.

But I hope that my life continues for a very long time, because I’m enjoying it immensely. In terms of external life metrics such as finances and career, I’m doing fine, but what’s really making me happy are the following:

2018 Awards Eligibility

Nominations are now open for the 2018 Nebula Awards, for SFWA members (including Associate members). This post lists my fiction eligible for the 2018 awards, and includes reading links. If you read and enjoy a story, please consider nominating it (I can’t nominate my own fiction, nor can the publishers).

I’ll write a follow-up post in a few weeks about the fiction I’ll be nominating myself — lots of great choices this year.

2018 Nebula and Hugo Eligible Fiction

Novel category

The Sky Woman (Flame Tree Press)
“wonderfully entertaining debut novel” – Compelling Science Fiction
amazon link
audible link
SFWA member forum link (Ch.1-2)

Novelette category

The Icelandic Cure (Omnidawn)
“a strong, thoughtful story that inspires hope for the future” – Publisher’s Weekly
amazon link
SFWA member forum link

Short Story category

The Equationist (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
“emotionally affecting and thought-provoking” – SF Crow’s Nest
SFWA member forum link
Purchase back issue

Targeted Behavior (Compelling Science Fiction)
read online for free

Money in the Tortoise (Intergalactic Medicine Show)
IGMS subscription link
SFWA member forum link

Plastic Eater (sfreader.com)
read online for free

Boosting Word Counts – November Productivity Test

I’m in awe of authors who can crank out 5-10K words a day. And there are a lot of them out there. To achieve my own writing goals, I don’t necessarily need to achieve those heroic word counts. But I would like to bump up my productivity significantly.

Ideally, I’d like to consistently write at least 5000 thousand words a week. While that’s an order of magnitude less than many writers, those words still add up. If I can keep that pace up for at least ten months, I’m at 200K words per year. That’s a couple of novel’s worth, or four novellas, or forty short stories, or some combination thereof. (Of course, many of those words will end up deleted, or archived forever, so there’s something to be said for surplus words.)

A Special Announcement and Upcoming Blog Changes

Monthly pictures of Leia at the $1/mo. membership tier.

Around the first of November I’ll be launching a Patreon account featuring the following rewards:

  • Exclusive access to unpublished drafts of my new fiction each month (a new short story or chapter of my in-progress novel) with the opportunity to provide feedback.
  • Full and unlimited access to all private blog posts on this site (jdmoyer.com)
  • At higher levels, signed copies of my novels, one-on-one consults, invitation to an annual patron dinner (roving location) and many other rewards.
  • Monthly pictures of my beautiful mystery-breed dog Leia.

For regular readers, that might bring up the question: What private posts?

So as not to surprise anybody, as of November 1 or so, some of the existing posts on this blog (less than 10%) will become accessible only to Patreon members at the $3+/month tier. Some new posts (also less than 10%) will fall into the same category.

For those who can easily afford the three bucks a month, I’d encourage you to join my Patreon for the following reasons:

  • The new Patreon-member posts will be written for a smaller audience, one presumably more like-minded, and will be both more lively and more personal than the public-facing posts.
  • Joining my Patreon will allow me to dedicate more time to writing, including both blogging and fiction writing (resulting in more blog posts, stories, and novels).
  • It’s fun! I support a number of artists and projects on Patreon myself. It feels great to give back to people whose work I have been enjoying and benefiting from for months or even years.

What do you think? My Patreon isn’t live yet, but I’ve been working on the various membership tiers. I’d be curious as to what kinds of benefits you might want, either as a reader of this blog or of my fiction.

Reminder: On October 1st I launched a book review contest, which is open until the end of year. Review The Sky Woman on either amazon or goodreads, and win $500, two tickets to WorldCon Dublin, or one of about twenty other prizes. Based on the number of entries in past contests on this blog, there is a significant chance that everyone who enters will win something.

Reviews!

Is my name big and gold enough?

So, today The Sky Woman is officially released. Hooray! It’s been a long wait. Many thanks are due to everyone who helped make this book happen: my wife Kia, my daughter, my parents (especially my mom who did a careful read of an early draft), my other friends who read various versions (Jason W. and Jason K. — looking at you guys), my friends who have encouraged me unconditionally along the way (especially my music brothers Spesh and Mark), and many readers of this blog who have cheered me on. And also editor Don D’Auria, and all the folks at Flame Tree Press who worked hard to get the book out today (in multiple formats, all beautifully done). I deeply appreciate all of you.

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