Behold! Another full site revamp! It even comes with a free newsletter subscription on this very page so you won’t miss future updates on all things Pale and Grey. And what’s this? It includes a free digital copy of the Aurora nominated anthology, Strange Wars: Speculative Fiction of Coalitions in Conflict? 27 free stories? What a deal, right?
Pale Grey Dot
First and foremost, the first wave of revisions on my scifi epic are off to the editor! She gave superb suggestions on how to tighten up the manuscript. I consider myself pretty damn good at pacing, and yet she still managed to find places to trim. Is it possible someone is even better at it than me? Hard to imagine 🙂
A common question I get is whether I know what the cover would look like. This is where that trite “don’t judge a book by its cover” line would come in handy, but let’s be honest: everyone judges a book by its cover, because covers are cool and that’s what a cover is for. To actually answer the question: I don’t actually know when we’ll see that. Presumably much later in the process.
So when’s it coming out, you ask? Still too early to say. My contract with Turnstone says I owe them the final manuscript in November, and they have 2 years to publish after that. I get the impression that the exact timing of handing in the manuscript isn’t a showstopper, though. This makes sense to me. Better to do it right than obsess over a timetable.
Toronto SciFi & Fantasy Writers Group
I hate to say it, but the Toronto SciFi & Fantasy Writers Group has been doing gangbusters since the pandemic. Hooray for worldwide plagues!
In The Before Times<tm>, we held one submission review meeting a week, and maybe one another sprint or workshop per month.
But since the Pandemic forced us onto Discord, suddenly we’ve ballooned in popularity and activities. There’s Justin’s Saturday reviews, Gillian’s Sunday sprints, Melissa and James’s Tuesday reviews, Rio’s semi-daily breakfast sprint for crazies who think getting up and writing at 7 AM is a good idea, and even full novel reviews run by David F. Shultz.
As another plus, suddenly the ‘Toronto’ part is kind of optional. We get folks stopping by from France, America, and elsewhere.
The last benefit of such a large group is…
Promotion Explosion
…the ability to promote each other’s work. As much as writers hate to do it (myself included), promotion is half the battle. Realistically, the large network went a long way towards nominations for the Aurora Awards. In particular:
Don Miasek (that’s me!) – Best Related Work
Peter G. Reynolds – Best Short Story
Gillian Secord – Best Short Story
Wayne Cusack – Best Short Story
Marco Marin – Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration
Voting opens June 17th.
Peter in particular has done a great job on the promotional side of things, and it’s well worth bending his ear for advice.
Closing Thoughts
So what’s next? Well, more updates on the progress of Pale Grey Dot and my other project, [REDACTED]. I’ll also see if I can help with the promotion of the other Torontonians. Maybe some sort of interview cycle? There’s certainly enough fantastic authors to talk about.
‘Till next time!
