November 2021 Novel Update: Or Not…

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Warning: Vaguely self-pitying ramble ahead, though I end on some pretty kick-ass news.

It has not been a good few weeks for working on my secret new novel project—at all.  In fact, November was absolutely my slowest writing month since I got back to Japan in September full of energy and productivity.  So what happened?

Well, on one level, preparing MFA Thesis Novel for publication happened.  November is the big month for manuscript prep, and I’ve been going back and forth with Vine Leaves publishers Jessica Bell and Amie McCracken, answering proofreading questions, sending materials like back cover copy and Acknowledgements, and even updating some images that appear in the text. MFA Thesis Novel is complex and has a lot of special formatting in it Continue reading »

October 2021 Novel Update: Back in the Saddle After a Break

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As I mentioned a few weeks back, leaving my old Day Job and moving to Yokohama has put me in a clearer headspace for doing creative work.  This is partly because of my new surroundings, partly because of the mandatory Japanese 14-day isolation period that kept me in my apartment for two weeks, and partly because, well, there are just plain fewer distractions here.

This has translated into more novel-writing time.

To be fair, it hasn’t been a LOT more novel-writing time—rather, the conditions I’ve been working under have made going back to the novel easier. Continue reading »

June 2021 Novel Update: I Stepped Away From Writing, But That’s OK

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Yep, I jinxed myself.

I’m not going to lie—June was a busy month for me.  In addition to polishing up MFA Thesis Novel in preparation for my developmental edit, a lot of my attention has been focused on a Secret Change that I’m not quite ready to talk about yet (but will be soon!).

The problem with this Secret Change is that it turned out to be a MUCH bigger undertaking than I expected.  It also required a LOT of email checking and sending, since information was constantly changing and I needed to stay on the ball.  The Secret Change also involved a lot of stress, which affected my sleeping patterns and kept me up one night until two am to make a deadline, which threw off my sleep schedule for the entire week Continue reading »

MFA Thesis Novel is Off to the Editor!

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Welp, I finished a big project last week.

As many of you know, last year I signed a contract with Vine Leaves Press to publish MFA Thesis Novel, my comic novel about grad school life in the Midwest.  After that, I did a lot of waiting.

That’s because prepping a novel for publication takes a LONG time—most presses schedule their release dates 1-2 years (or more!) in advance, and MFA Thesis Novel is slated for publication in April 2022.

There’s a lot of things to be done before next April: designing the cover (VLP editor Jessica Bell’s bringing her expertise to that!), proofreading the manuscript, formatting the pages, obtaining permissions, and a bunch of other stuff.  And one of those things is a developmental edit. Continue reading »

May Novel Progress: Slow and Steady…

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During my last novel update in March I talked about how I was setting the small, reasonable goal of working for 2-3 hours a week drafting my new novel.  This involved a lot of planning with my creative time in that I’d set aside one 2-3 session (usually after work, but sometimes on the weekend) a few days ahead of time, then treat it like a regular appointment and not schedule anything else during that time.

This has been going really well—I literally haven’t missed a week since New Year’s, and that’s equaled out to a LOT of novel progress.

The disadvantage to this system, of course, is that it’s SLOW Continue reading »

March Novel Progress – Knee-Deep in the Excitement of Drafting

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I promised you all updates on my new novel a few weeks back, so here’s how it’s going…

I’m a decent way into drafting Act I, and a lot of the scenes are starting to come together in a way that feels really natural.  It’s like the more I work on the novel, the more I’m able to mentally fill in information about the characters, their backstories, and the plot, so that areas that once felt like a confusing void feel clearer.  Now, when I’m at my Day Job, in the shower, or working on something else, I feel ready and excited to sit down and write.

Simply put, the more I work on this novel, the easier the process becomes, and the more I want to work on it. Continue reading »

I’m Getting Ready to Write a New Novel But Not Actually Writing It Yet—Here’s Why

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My writing’s been in this weird state of transition for a long time now.  That’s because, for the first time in nine years, I’m not actively working on some sort of novel.

Instead I worked on querying MFA Thesis Novel to publishers for ten months, and in between queries worked on some shorter pieces in various states of completion.  Having time to focus on these other projects has been great, but I’m realizing how badly I miss having a bigger, more involved project to work on, and how much I want to get back into the creative process of working on a novel.

But, as I wrote about in my post a few weeks back, I’m having trouble starting.

That’s partly because this novel idea is particularly ambitious—it’s like nothing I’ve ever written, and writing it the way I’m imagining it is going to take every bit of my writing skill, in addition to a lot of skills I’ve yet to get a handle on.
Continue reading »

Should Writers Have to Pay to Submit Their Work?

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In my post a few weeks ago about getting my novel accepted for publication by a small press I briefly mentioned a topic that really merits more discussion: Submitting my novel to publishers cost me some actual folding money.

Said folding money came in the form of submission fees to some of the 22 small indie presses I applied to over a 10-month period.

The submission and payment process for indie presses works a bit differently than it does if you’re going for a contract with one of the Big 5 Publishers.  To get that kind of contract, you first have to send your novel to a literary agent, which is always free.  Literary agents get paid by charging commission fees off advances and royalties—in short, they only get paid when your novel sells, and any agent who charges upfront reading fees is almost certainly running some kind of scam.

This is because the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR) specifically prohibits its member agents from charging writers to read their work.  This is an amazing protection for writers that Continue reading »

A Very Special Thanks for the Support

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Hey everybody,

After I posted about getting the contract to publish MFA Thesis Novel I received a FLOOD of comments and messages from people saying congratulations, that they were happy for me, that they couldn’t wait to read it, and more.  Some came from people I hadn’t talked to for literally years, and getting back in touch with them felt really good too. I took the time to reply to everyone individually (and if I missed yours I sincerely apologize!) because that kind of personal response is important to me.

In the meantime, though, I also wanted to say a collective thank you to everyone who sent messages, commented, replied, Liked, or otherwise reached out in support—it means a lot, makes me SUPER optimistic about getting MFA Thesis Novel into the world, and provides a genuine confidence boost Continue reading »

Holy Shit, I Signed a For-Serious Novel Contract!!!!!!!!111

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Hell yeah I did.

As of three weeks ago, MFA Thesis Novel, my satire about a grad school writing program, is officially signed and scheduled for publication with Vine Leaves Press in April 2022.  That means that my goal of publishing an actual novel is finally going to become a reality.

MFA Thesis Novel is about a twentysomething writer named Flip Montcalm (who’s definitely not based on me) who enters a grad school writing program (that definitely isn’t based on the one I went to at the University of Nebraska) in the barrens of the Midwest.  However, no one around him seems to like his novel, and in an world of fierce competition, Flip has to figure out how to write something that’s both meaningful and that people will actually like.  It’s a novel about fitting in, starting out as a writer, and the desolate working conditions that thousands of underpaid grad students face every year, along with what it’s like to be a lonely young artist in a strange place.

Plus there’s jokes.  And cursing (fuck yeah!).  And lots of pop culture references. Continue reading »

Here’s What I’ve Been Working On RIGHT NOW (and have been for the last few months)

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It’s been a while since I updated you on my projects in progress, so I thought I’d change that.

I started posting semi-regular updates on my creative work a few years back both to keep people updated and keep myself accountable.  If I posted that I was working on something, it felt more serious and I’d be more inclined keep working on it so I wouldn’t have to answer to my blog readers and admit that I’d been slacking off—or worse, that I’d given up.

There are a few reasons for my lack of updates—the main one being that I haven’t been working on a novel since finishing my last one well over a year ago, and not having that as a primary focus has felt…distracting.  Without a bigger project to work on Continue reading »

I Signed a Book Contract…That Got Cancelled Due to COVID-19

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In the words of every SNL host ever: What a week it’s been.

This week I was planning on posting some really Good News…that’s since turned into Bad News.

The Good News is that two months ago I got an email from one the small presses I’d sent MFA Thesis Novel (my novel about grad school life) to.  The email said they enjoyed my book and wanted to publish it.  The email was really short, so at first I wasn’t sure if I’d understood it correctly—but when I realized they were serious, I fell into a state of cautious ecstasy for the next few days.  The email came in the middle of some other life shit I was dealing with that month, so the uncertainty of those first few emails added a lot of extra stress to an already difficult time.

Eventually the press sent me a publishing contract, Continue reading »