I have submitted, after editing/formatting/reviewing, my first SciFi short story for consideration of publication. The next (about) 180 days of waiting for the response, be it negative (19/20 odds) or positive (1/20 odds), are going to be ... interesting.
In the mean time ...
I have a position to secure, healing my spine to continue, PT (Physical Torture, not therapy) to begin, a conference to register for (SC23 in Dallas), etc.
And lots more writing.
What brought this about, has been the 16 years or so that I've been honing this particular story (about 5400 words), ever fearful of sending it out for others to critique. However, I joined a writers group in the town I live, who have been quite encouraging after reading it. I also had an external reviewer with it at a writers workshop a few months ago.
Today, we walked through Northville MI, and I saw many writers out with their books, and a local imprint, all touting the joy of being in Michigan. No really, this is a great state, relatively low cost of living, 1st world services, with 3rd world roads. I spoke to a few, and they were also very encouraging.
So, I decided, after getting home, and waiting for the bosses laptop to finish backing up before taking it in for service, that I was finally going to make this happen today. This story still might be rejected though, the workshop writer, and the local writing group have suggested turning it into a novella or longer.
I'm not sure this story could extend that far. Maybe it could. I dunno.
I do know that I've had a bunch of other stories bubbling up for a while, and I've captured some of them down. Some are crap. I get that, not everything will be good. Some of them are pretty good. I've got a short, non-fictional, actually semi-biographical story from something the boss went through. I've got a great title for it. I'm not sure I'm going to publish that one though. I might use that title and concept for something larger, novella or beyond length.
Most of my stories are hard SciFi. Call it the nature of who I am. I write what I know. Impressed upon me at the writers workshop is that young adult, and as I learned, romance, are the big sales targets. I've got a story thats been bouncing around my noggin for the better part of 4 decades that I've been wanting to get down on paper that hits these topics in addition to fantasy, and Military SciFi elements.
Basically what I'm saying is that in my next acts, I am going to lean into this aspect of who/what I am. I marked off a bucket list item recently with a promotion to 3rd Dan (Sensei). This (being an SciFi/etc. author) is another.
So, at some point soon, I'll be looking for some critical alpha/beta readers. Feel free to ping me here if you might be interested. All critique welcome/wanted!