irons in the fire update

Star Trek. My story “You Can’t Buy Fate” is set issue #7 of Star Trek Explorer — I’ve been paid and everything! Not sure if I’m gonna see a proof of it before publication or not. I’ve got a second story pitch approved, and that’s due on the 30th of June. I’ve sent in another pitch that I’m waiting to hear back on. On the nonfiction side, I’m still rewatching Enterprise every Monday and reviewing Picard every Thursday for Tor.com.

Precinct series. Phoenix Precinct is now officially published. I still have to write a short story for Kickstarter supporters of that novel, and then after that, I’ve got Manticore Precinct to write and More Tales from Dragon Precinct to put together. No real timetable for either as of yet. I’m also in very preliminary talks with a gaming company about doing a game based on the series. More on that if it actually happens. For that matter, I’m in massively preliminary talks with a production company about the screen rights to it, but that’s just in the “oh, this might be cool” stage.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness: The Beginning. Issue #1 is out, issue #2 is currently scheduled for April release, and the remaining three issues should be more or less monthly after that. Cross fingers. The graphic novel collecting all five issues will come out not long after #5’s release. My scripts are all done, so I’m just waiting with the rest of y’all.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet. I need to finish writing “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” at which point Ragnarok and a Hard Place will be ready to go.

Bram Gold Adventures. Waiting for editorial feedback on Feat of Clay, and once that feedback is incorporated, it’ll go off to WordFire. Also waiting for time to write another Systema Paradoxa novella featuring Valentina Perrone.

Sherlock Holmes: Cases by Candlelight Volume 2. I have written “The Thick Blue Line,” and it has been deemed satisfactory by series guru Christopher D. Abbott and editor Aaron Rosenberg. Aaron has also written his story (which I provided some editorial notes on), and we’re just waiting for Chris and Michael Jan Friedman to finish theirs. We’re hoping to have this book out in time for Shore Leave in July.

“Prezzo.” This is a story I’ve been asked to write for a market that is on my writerly bucket list. It’s due tomorrow, and I’m most of the way through it. It takes place in the 1930s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The title is Italian for “the price.” More on this when I’m allowed to talk about it.

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. Wrenn and I have been awfully dilatory in putting this together, but we’re finally starting to hammer away at it. This is another one I hope to have out for Shore Leave.

Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups. The stories for this are due on the 1st of April, and four of the authors have already turned theirs in. I am not one of those four, so I should get a move on to write “Know Thyself Deathless” at some point soon…

Other short fiction. I’ve turned in my story and approved the edits on both “Another Dead Body on the Corner” for Joe Ledger: Unbreakable and “The Legend of Long-Ears” for The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny. The former should be published in the fall, the latter will be crowdfunded starting some time next month, from what I understand. I also have a tie-in short story that’s due at the end of June, which is for a property I’ve never written for before, and which I’m very much looking forward to writing.

Other novel-length fiction. Munish Batra and I have our second collaboration (a medical thriller) being shopped around by our agent, and we’re going to be working on our third collaboration this year — he and I have a phone call scheduled for later this week to start hammering that out. I have a goal for this year to write the first book in the mystery series I’ve been wanting to write for over a decade. I have an urban fantasy novel proposal in with a publisher. I also have a notion for a trilogy that mixes fantasy, science fiction, and horror, which was originally solicited as part of a loose shared-world and then they decided not to do it, but I’m free to shop it elsewhere (the shared-world elements are minor and easily shaved off).

Star Hoppers. I still have to finish Book 7 of this, but the project is slow-rolling at the moment as the guy who’s running it has had other stuff going on. Hoping to get back to it at some point….

Patreon. Last month got away from me, so there was no vignette, so there’ll be two this month. I also have to make up for the lack of movie and TV reviews in February. Sigh.

Other nonfiction. My essays in The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Clown Prince of Crime, D20 or Die!, and Outside In Regenerates should be out at some point soon — they’re all written and edited and suchlike. In addition to the Trek stuff for Tor.com, I’ll be doing my biannnual revival of the great superhero movie rewatch in June, and I’m in the mix to review other things, too (one upcoming movie is a possibility, and one upcoming TV show is very likely).

irons in the fire update

As we prepare to close the books on 2022, here’s what I have to write going into 2023….

The Bram Gold Adventures. Book 2, Feat of Clay, the sequel to 2019’s A Furnace Sealed, is written! It’s with three editorial types right now: Wrenn and The Mom for editing, and another dear friend who is backstopping me on the specifics of Judaism (of which there is a lot in this book in which Bram has to deal with a golem run amuck). Once those three are done beating it into shape, it’ll go off to the fine feathered finks at WordFire Press and with any luck be out in time for summer convention season! In addition, I’ve been talking to the folks at eSpec about doing another Systema Paradoxa book featuring Valentina Perrone.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet. I need to finish “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” at which point the manuscript for Ragnarok and a Hard Place will be completed. That should happen in January if all goes well, and then that collection will be out from Plus One Press some time in 2023, a good ten years after Ragnarok and Roll. Wheeee!

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. We’ve been awful about this, and I do apologize. The goal for January is to FINALLY get this damn thing moving. My hope is to have it out in time for Shore Leave in July. And yes, I know, this is the latest in a series of goals, but we’re trying, we really are….

Tie-in short story. I have written the first 54 words of this short story, which is due on 9 January. Assuming the story is approved, I’ll let y’all know what it is once there’s a signed contract and I’m allowed to talk about it.

Cases by Candlelight. My novella for this Sherlock Holmes anthology, “The Thick Blue Line,” is due in January, so I should probably get on that soon. Ahem. This is another one that’s set to be released in July…

Short fiction. I’ve got two stories in the hopper for projects that haven’t been announced yet. One will be a Weird Wild West story for an anthology, which is due 16 January, the other is for a thing that I can’t talk about, but which will be incredibly fabulous when it happens. (If it happens, but I prefer to be optimistic.) All I can say about the latter short story is that it will take place in Manhattan’s “Little Italy” neighborhood in the early part of the 20th century. Meantime, I’ve looked over the edited manuscript for “This Little Light of Mine” in Phenomenons: Season of Darkness and the galleys for “Ticonderoga Beck and the Stalwart Squad” in Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022, and both those anthologies should be out in the first half of 2023.

Brave New Girls. I fully intended to submit something for the 2023 volume of Brave New Girls, the charity anthology series about girls who do science, but the deadline is 23 January, and given all else going on in January, I’m not optimistic, but I’m putting it in here as a possibility anyhow. If I do write a story, it will likely feature Connie de la Vega, the protagonist of my previous BNG story in 2019’s Adventures of Gals & Gizmos (and also of my story in 2019’s Footprints in the Stars).

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. My Animal collaborator and I have written a second book, a medical thriller which is currently with our agent, who will be shopping it around to publishers once we’re past the holidays. Meantime, one of the goals of 2023 is to do our third book together.

Tie-in novelette. I’ve been invited to participate in an anthology of novelettes featuring characters I’ve never written before, but who I’m very much looking forward to penning a tale with. Don’t have a solid deadline on this one yet…

Mystery. Another goal of 2023 is to finally write the first book in this mystery series that I’ve been wanting to write for a decade now…

Science fiction novella series. This is still proceeding apace, but we’re taking our time with it. It’s likely that this will finally be announced and see the light of day some time in 2023. Or maybe not. It’s a work-for-hire, so it’s not up to me, I’m just gonna keep writin’ ’em. I’m in the midst of the seventh novella in the series, with twelve already planned out for the first leg of stories, and more planned beyond that.

Tie-in novel. I have a proposal with the publisher of a tie-in line that was solicited, and which they’ve had for over a year now. I’m not holding my breath that this will actually happen, but we’ll see…

Shared-world novel trilogy. I have a proposal for a science fiction trilogy with a publisher that’s part of a larger shared-world notion. Weirdly for an SF story, it involves dragons. Trust me, it’ll be fabulous.

EDITED TO ADD: Nonfiction. Knew I forgot something when I first posted this… I’ve got an essay in The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Crown Prince of Crime, where I talk about the 2019 Joker film’s riff on the Bernhard Goetz shooting here in NYC in 1984. I’ve got a piece in Outside In Regenerates, discussing the Comic Relief skit “The Curse of the Fatal Death.” Both those books will be out in early 2023. On the Star Trek side of things, I’m still doing the weekly Enterprise Rewatch for Tor.com, and I’ll be reviewing the new episodes of the live-action shows and Lower Decks as they’re released, plus periodic pieces on Prodigy (one is due to go live after the new year, discussing the end of the first season). I’ll also be finishing off my semi-annual revival of the great superhero movie rewatch in January with looks at Samaritan, Black Adam, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

irons in the fire update

So many things to do!

Science fiction novella series. I’m finishing up Book 7 of this series this week, then the person who hired me (and who owns it, as it’s work-for-hire) and I will be going over these first seven and making sure we’re on track for what he wants.

Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I have to finish “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which is the only story in this collection that is not a reprint. Once that’s done, the manuscript will go off to Plus One Press. (Here’s the table of contents.)

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. Wrenn and I have been very dilatory in getting this done, but once I get Cassie off to the publisher, I’m going to focus on finally moving this anthology toward publication.

Cases by Candlelight, Vol. 2. My novella for this Sherlock Holmes collection is due in January. It’ll be entitled The Thick Blue Line.

Short fiction. I have a Western short story for an anthology that’s due 16 January 2023, a science fiction short story for another anthology that’s due 23 January 2023 (that’s not definite), a horror story for a magazine that doesn’t have a solid due date yet (but which I’ve outlined), and my Ayesha/Egungun-oya story for Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups (which is entitled “Know Thyself Deathless”) is due 1 April 2023. There are two tie-in anthologies that I will have stories in; one is awaiting being sold to a publisher (I’m co-editing this anthology also, and my cohort is the owner of the property), the other is awaiting a firm deadline from the publisher.

Feat of Clay. This second book in the Bram Gold Adventures has been halfway done for a year and a half now, and I really need to finish the stupid thing and get it to WordFire Press so I can have it out at cons alongside A Furnace Sealed….

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. Our medical thriller is with our agent, and he’s shopping it ’round. We’ll be working on our third book together in 2023.

Mystery series. The plan is to finally — after, like, a decade — write the first book in that series, outline the second, and then give those and the already-written outline for Book 3 to my agent by mid-2023. We’ll see if this plan survives engagement with the enemy, as it were.

Proposals. I have a tie-in novel proposal with one publisher (which they’ve had for over a year, but which I’m told still has a shot at happening) and a science fiction/horror trilogy proposal with another publisher.

Nonfiction. I’m writing an essay for an upcoming collection about the Joker, which will be about how the 2019 Joker movie riffed on the Bernhard Goetz shooting in New York in 1985. For Tor.com, I’ll be continuing the Enterprise Rewatch every Monday, I’ll be reviewing the new episodes of Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, and Lower Decks as they’re released, I’ll be doing a look back at Prodigy‘s first season when it ends seven weeks from now, and I’ll be reviving “4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch” at the end of the year to cover Thor: Love and Thunder, Samaritan, Black Adam, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and three older movies I missed previously. And I’ll continue my TV and movie reviews for Patreon.

irons in the fire update

Lots of stuff on the ol’ plate…….

Precinct series. Current thing I’m doing is Phoenix Precinct, the sixth novel in the series. I’m in the throes of that, and should have it done by month’s end. I’m really enjoying being back in Cliff’s End, too. This novel will be crowdfunded, along with Yeti Left Home by Aaron Rosenberg and Esprit de Corpse by Ef Deal, by eSpec Books very shortly.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet. I’m almost set with Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I still have to finish writing “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which will be the only story in the collection that won’t have appeared elsewhere first. It’s already outlined. Once that’s done, I’ll shoot the manuscript to Plus One Press, and it will be published! Huzzah!

Bram Gold. I’m (sigh) still halfway through Feat of Clay. One of these days, I’ll write the second half, and then WordFire Press will publish it. Sigh again. I also plan to do another Systema Paradoxa book, this time focusing on the Beast of Sherman, which will take place in this universe, possibly with Bram, possibly with one of the other Coursers…

Star Trek. My RPG collaboration with Fred Love, Incident at Kraav III, has been approved by CBS and should be out some time between now and the end of the year. Meantime, the Enterprise Rewatch continues every Monday — I’m partway through season two — and I’m continuing to review new episodes of Trek as they air — currently in the midst of season three of Lower Decks. I’ve also written a monograph for the Gold Archive series about the Next Generation two-parter “Birthright,” on which I’m awaiting editorial feedback (the editor had some medical issues that have delayed things).

Resident Evil. I have done all my work for the comic book Infinite Darkness: The Beginning, the prequel to the Netflix animated series. Issue #1 should be out this month. The artwork that I’ve seen by Carmelo Zagaria is superb.

Nifty novella thingie. I’m writing a novella that’s part of a series of stories featuring an existing public-domain character. It hasn’t been formally announced yet, so watch this space. The novella has been half-outlined, and is due at the end of January.

Star Hoppers. This is the serialized work-for-hire science fiction novella series I’ve been working on. We don’t have a targeted pub date yet — I’ve written six of the 13 planned novellas in the series (and there will likely be more beyond those 13). Not much to say about it yet, as we’re taking our time with it, but it’s been a very fun project.

Anthology editing. I’m currently editing three (!) different anthologies. There’s The Four ???? of the Apocalypse, which Wrenn and I are editing. I still have to write my story for it, and edit the existing stories. This project has been delayed like whoa, but we should have it ready to go soonish. (Yes, I know I’ve said that before.) I’m co-editing a tie-in anthology that my agent is shopping around to publishers right now — nothing will happen on that until it’s sold. And Jonathan Maberry and I are co-editing an anthology for the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers called Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups. I’m also writing a story for this one, featuring Ayesha (a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed, from H. Rider Haggard’s She, whom I already wrote a story with in Turning the Tied last year) and the Yoruba goddess Engungun-oya (who also appeared in A Furnace Sealed). The Kickstarter for that anthology will launch next week.

Collaborations with Dr. Batra. Dr. Munish K. Batra and I wrote the serial-killer novel Animal that came out to much acclaim in 2021. Our second collaboration is a medical thriller that our agent is shopping around to publishers right now. We have a couple of other things we want to do together, and we’re just waiting for a hole in my schedule. We’re also shopping around a graphic novel version of Animal.

Super City Cops. I have a contract to write four novellas in this universe for Falstaff Books. Some day I may even write them.

Nonfiction. Besides the Tor.com stuff, I’m still doing monthly TV and movie reviews for my Patreon, which you should all go out and support right now, and I’m also writing a piece for a collection of essays on the character of the Joker. Specifically, I’ll be writing about the parallels between the 2019 Joker and the Bernhard Goetz incident here in NYC from 1984.

Short fiction. Besides the aforementioned Cassie Zukav, Four ???? of the Apocalypse, and Ayesha/Engungun-oya stories, I’ve got to write a story for the second Phenomenons shared-world anthology edited by Michael Jan Friedman, Season of Darkness. This story, “This Little Light of Mine,” will also feature Luminosity, and also cross over with stories by Aaron Rosenberg, Mary Fan, Michael A. Burstein, and Dan Hernandez, so we’ll see team-uppish things with Black Hat, Sarcastic Fringehead, Red Sky, and La Colosa y La Particula. In addition, I’ve written a story for the upcoming Joe Ledger: Unbreakable called “Another Dead Body on the Corner,” which focuses on Ledger in his days as a detective for the Baltimore City Police, which is awaiting editorial feedback. And my story “Ticonderoga Beck and the Stalwart Squad” is all ready to go for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022 (I’ve also written a proposal for a Ticonderoga Beck comic book that is making the rounds). EDITED TO ADD: Forgot to mention a short story that I’ve been invited to write for a nifty thing. I’ve plotted it out, and am now waiting for a deadline.

Alien. I’ve got a proposal called Deadline in with Titan Books that is awaiting the editor’s pleasure.

Mystery series. One of these days I’ll write this mystery series. Dammit.

Science fiction trilogy. I’ve been invited to pitch for a loose shared-world thingie that would entail me writing a science fiction trilogy that would be tremendous fun.

irons in the fire update

While putting this together, I realized I’m approaching two writing milestones…

When Feat of Clay and Phoenix Precinct are finished, I’ll have written 60 novels (or novelizations) for publication. That’s pretty fabulous. (I’m not counting my second collaboration with Munish K. Batra until it’s sold, nor am I counting two movie novelizations I wrote that were cancelled and will likely never be published.)

I have six short stories in the queue to be written, and once they’re done, I’ll have written 100 short stories for publication.

That’s pretty cool……..

Anywho, here’s what I’m working on:

Precinct series. The plan is for eSpec Books to do a three-way Kickstarter for Phoenix Precinct and novels by Ef Deal and Aaron Rosenberg this fall. This means I have a 1 October deadline for Phoenix Precinct. It’s pretty much plotted, so I just have to, y’know, sit down and write it. It should be out either by the end of 2022 or in early 2023, depending on how eSpec wants to handle the release. In addition, I need to start thinking about assembling More Tales from Dragon Precinct.

Bram Gold Adventures. I’m still halfway through Feat of Clay. Sigh. Really will finish it one of these decades. Hoping to have the book out this year, but 2023 is looking more realistic. In addition, I’m going to be doing another Systema Paradoxa novella that will take place in this setting.

Science fiction novellas. I’ve written five of the novellas in this series, and just starting on Book 6 now. I promise to say more about this as soon as the guy who hired me to write them says it’s okay…..

Phenomenons. With the successful crowdfund of the second volume, Season of Darkness, I’ve started brainstorming my second Luminosity story with editor Michael Jan Friedman and a few of the other writers. This is gonna be fun….

Anthology editing. Wrenn and I have been struggling to get moving on The Four ???? of the Apocalypse, but it’s gonna happen in July, dagnabbit. If all goes well, we’ll have copies of the book ready to go in time for Dragon Con. In addition, I’ve somehow been talked into co-editing two more anthologies, one of which will be announced soon, the other of which is being shopped around to publishers. I will also have stories in both of those (which will be edited by my co-editor in each case).

Medical thriller. This collaboration with Dr. Munish K. Batra is being shopped around by our agent. Cross fingers, please! Also, Munish and I are going to be doing more collaborations…

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness–The Beginning. I’ve written all my scripts for this one. The art is coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing this in print….

Star Trek Adventures: Incident at Kraav III. I’ve done what should be all my work for this. Just waiting for CBS to approve it and Modiphius to publish it. I also have some mission briefs to write for them…

Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I still have to write this collection’s one original story, “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” but once that’s done, it will go off to Plus One Press for publication. The rest of the collection is reprints.

Short stories. I’m doing a story for another Crazy 8 Press anthology, which will be announced (and set up for crowdfunding) soon. That’s due at the end of July, and I’ve already outlined it. I’ve written my story for The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian, edited by Michael A. Ventrella, which Fantastic Books should have out in time for Philcon in November. I’m slated to write a tie-in short story for an anthology, assuming the publisher is able to work out the contract with the rights-holder. I’ve also sent several short-story pitches to a magazine that is publishing tie-in work, and waiting to hear back from the licensor.

Nonfiction. Currently have three weekly things going on Tor.com: the Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch, reviews of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and the summer revival of “4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch.” I’m in early season 2 of Enterprise, there’s just one episode to go of SNW and then the first-season overview, and I’ve still got five movies to cover for 4CT35MM: Spider-Man: No Way Home, The King’s Man, The Batman, Morbius, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I also have a piece to write for another of the Outside In anthologies, and my usual monthly TV and movie reviews for my Patreon.

There’s other stuff that’s way in the background, as it were. This is what’s in the foreground. Wheeeeee!

irons in the fire update

Working on all the things…….

Medical thriller. My second collaboration with Dr. Munish K. Batra is in the midst of revisions requested by our agent. I’m hoping to have those revisions done in the next week or so said agent — who absolutely loves the book, but says it’s too short to be saleable, which has been an issue throughout my career — can start shopping the book around.

Space opera novella series. I’ve completed the first four of these novellas. Not ready to announce what it is yet in any detail. The current plan has Books 5 and 6 done by mid-June.

Precinct series. Phoenix Precinct now has an actual deadline from my publisher: 1 October! So I damn well will write it by then….

Cassie Zukav. I still have to write “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which will be the final story to go into Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. It’ll be the only wholly original story in the collection, which will otherwise include all the stories that were published in magazines and/or anthologies and/or collections since 2013, as well as all the Cassie vignettes I posted to Patreon.

Bram Gold. I’m still halfway through Feat of Clay. Sigh. Hoping to get this done before summer is over. Blorfle. Meantime, I’m also scheduled to write another Systema Paradoxa novella in this universe.

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. One of the two stories we were waiting for has been turned in. Hoping to finally make progress on this…..

Various bits of short fiction for anthologies. Waiting for the go-ahead on one tie-in anthology that I’m really looking forward to. The stories for Zorro’s Exploits and Three Time Travelers Walk Into… are done and awaiting, respectively, proofreading and publication. My stories for the upcoming Tales of Grignr and Ludlow Charingtons charity anthologies are both turned in. I have forthcoming stories to write for Phenomenons: Season of Darkness (which is crowdfunding right now!) and Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022. And finally, I’m co-editing and writing a story for a tie-in anthology that’s going to be incredibly cool. It’s being shopped around to publishers right now.

Nonfiction. I’m still doing the weekly Enterprise Rewatch for Tor.com, as well as reviews of each new episode of Trek (currently Strange New Worlds) as they air also. On top of that, I’ll be reviving “4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch” in June and July with eight new movies (well, five new movies and three older ones), and I’ll be reviewing The Umbrella Academy season three when it drops near the end of June. I’ll also be doing a piece for Outside In Regenerates on “The Curse of the Fatal Death.”

Star Trek Adventures. Still waiting for the final approval on Incident at Kraav III. Meantime, I have ten mission briefs to write for this…

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness–The Beginning. I’ve done all my script work for this, and I think it’s all been approved. At the very least issue #1 is approved. I’ve seen some of the artwork for #1 and it looks fantastic. The series should start being published this summer.

There’s other stuff, too, but it’s all back-burnered while I get the above stuff done. Wheeeee!

irons in the fire update

Lotta stuff on the ol’ plate…

Resident Evil. I’ve written all my scripts for Infinite Darkness: The Beginning. The script for #1 is approved, and we’re waiting on approval of the art and of the next four scripts. Barring major revisions requests, my work is pretty much done on that. Not sure what the target pub date is…..

Phenomenons. Editor/creator Michael Jan Friedman is gearing up for the second volume in this shared-world superhero anthology series, and I will be doing another Luminosity story for it, as I did for the first anthology, Every Human Creature, which is on sale now from the cool cats at Crazy 8 Press.

Dragon Precinct. Phoenix Precinct is on the list of things to be written, hopefully before 2022 is done. Also, I’ve changed my mind, and I will be doing something other than a Flingaria story for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022.

The Bram Gold Adventures. March’s goal is to get back to Feat of Clay (only a year late!). I want this book to be published this year, dadgummit! In addition, I’m cogitating on another Systema Paradoxa book that will be set in Bram’s world, though I’m not sure yet if it will feature Valentina Perrone or another Courser.

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. We’ve been slow to move on this, but both Wrenn and I are determined to get the stories edited in March (and also get our two stories written).

Tie-in anthologies. In the last week, I was invited to two different tie-in anthologies, one for a milieu I’ve written in before, one for a milieu I’ve always wanted to write in. I’ve written pitches for both. For the former, I have to write the story, for the latter I have to wait for some paperwork stuff to happen.

Star Trek. Nothing currently happening on the fiction or comics front, though there are potential conversations. I emphasize “potential” here — it’s 90% likely that this will come to nothing, but there’s always that other 10%. Meantime, I have to do some revisions on my Star Trek Adventures RPG Incident at Kraav III, and I also am doing a package of mission briefs for STA. I’m still awaiting editorial notes on my Gold Archive: Birthright monograph (my editor has had major health problems, and he’s focused right now on getting better, which I’m totally on board with, as he’s also a dear friend and I want him to be healthy, please). Meantime, the Enterprise Rewatch will continue on Tor.com every Monday and Paramount+ will have at least one (and sometimes two) new episodes of Trek every Thursday between now and the beginning of July at the very least, and I’ll be reviewing every one of them…

Science fiction novellas. This series of novellas is going well so far. I’ve written the first three, and will get back to them after I get Feat of Clay done.

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. Our agent has asked us to add to Pigman‘s word count, so that’s also on March’s (very crowded) docket. Meantime, Munish and I are batting ideas around for our next book. While Animal was set up for a sequel, WordFire Press has declined the option to do one. Munish is working on getting an Animal film made, so that may change the calculus, but we’re not there yet.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I still have to write “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which will be the one story in Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet that won’t be a reprint. Once that’s written, Plus One Press will publish the collection.

Super City Cops. Still waiting on editorial notes on “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” my story for the Tales of Capes and Cowls anthology. Meantime, I’m still under contract to write four SCC novellas. Maybe I’ll even write them some day!

Other short stories. I’ve been invited to an anthology being edited by Michael A. Ventrella to be published by Fantastic Books that looks to be an absolute blast. I’ve done final edits and proofreading on my story for Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, ditto my story in The Fans are Buried Tales (which has been successfully crowdfunded). I’m going to be doing either a mystery story, a detective story, or a Western story for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022.

Nonfiction. I’ve done final edits on my essay for Unauthorized Offworld Activation, which is about how Stargate Atlantis didn’t do right by its three leader characters (Weir, Carter, Woolsey). Over on Patreon, I’m continuing to do TV and movie reviews. On Tor.com, besides the Trek stuff, I’ll have a lot to talk about in June’s revival of “4-Color to 35-Millimeter,” as not only will there be a bunch of new movies to discuss (Spider-Man: No Way Home, The King’s Man, The Batman, Morbius, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), but some older movies I missed the first time around (I’m saving the titles for the summer, though, evil grin).

Tie-in anthology. I’m editing a tie-in anthology, for which I’m also writing a story. This is still in the proposal stage, but it promises to be an absolute thrill to work on. It’s a world I’ve never written in before, but am a huge fan of.

irons in the fire update

Here’s where I am, writing-wise, just at the moment.

Serialized novellas. I’m working on Book 3 of this science fiction series, which I’ll talk more about soon, I hope. The first 12 of them are planned out, and there will likely be more besides. I’m having a blast with this.

Bram Gold/Yolanda Rodriguez/Valentina Perrone. Once I’m done with Book 3 of the novella series, the plan is to dive back into Feat of Clay, which has somehow managed to lay fallow for an entire year. Sigh. The goal is to get it done by the end of February. In addition, I’m talking with NeoParadoxa about doing another Systema Paradoxa book, this one focusing on a different cryptid, but also taking place in the world of Coursers. Haven’t decided if it’ll feature Valentina or one of the other Coursers, or even a brand-new one….

Precinct series. The plan is to write Phoenix Precinct this year. Not sure when it’ll be published, as it depends on a) when I finish it and b) what the rest of eSpec’s schedule looks like. Meantime, I’m also going to be doing a short story set in Flingaria for Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022, though it won’t be a Cliff’s End Castle Guard story, but more likely involve Gan Brightblade and his friends.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. Gotta write “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which is the final story for Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. Will probably do that after I’m done with Feat of Clay. Hoping to have the collection out by the fall.

Super City Cops. Still have a contract to write four novellas in this setting with Falstaff Books. Really should do that some time. Meanwhile, I’ve written a Super City story for Tales of Capes and Cowls. Waiting for editorial notes on that one, which should be out from Crossroad Press this year.

Resident Evil. I’ve written all five scripts for the Infinite Darkness: The Beginning miniseries/graphic novel, but I’ve only got licensor approval on #1 so far. The art for #1 is in progress. Not sure what the target pub date is for this…

Star Trek. I’m waiting for final approval on Incident at Kraav III, the Star Trek Adventures RPG module that I co-wrote with Fred Love. I also have some other things to be doing for STA. Sadly, a bunch of pitches I sent to IDW didn’t go anywhere, but those lines of communication are still open. Meantime, I’m continuing to review the new Secret Hideout shows as they’re released, either on Tor.com (everything but Prodigy) or Patreon (Prodigy, which I’m only doing occasional pieces on for Tor), and the Enterprise Rewatch will continue every Monday. And, finally, my Gold Archive monograph on TNG‘s “Birthright” two-parter should be out some time this year from Obverse Books.

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. Four stories still need to be submitted, plus we’ve got a bunch of paperwork thingies that need to get done, but we’re going to have this anthology out this year, dadgummit……

Phenomenons. The first book in this shared-world superhero milieu created by Michael Jan Friedman, subtitled Every Human Creature, is out now, and I’m hoping it does well so MJF decides to do more, as I really want to write more of Luminosity…

Short stories. I’ve turned in short stories to Three Time Travelers Walk Into… (just waiting on editorial notes), The Fans are Buried Tales (already proofread, now waiting for either publication or perhaps a Kickstarter first…), and Life is the Pits (Pit Bulls, That Is) (also waiting on editorial notes). I’m also going to be doing a story for a humorous fantasy anthology that Fantastic Books will be publishing and Michael A. Ventrella will be editing. Should be a blast….

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. Our agent is shopping around Pigman, and we’ve got some other notions we want to work on….

Nonfiction. Besides the aforementioned Trek pieces, I’m still doing other stuff for Tor.com, including the twice-yearly revival of the great superhero movie rewatch and other reviews and think-pieces here and there. In addition, I’m continuing to do movie and TV reviews on Patreon. I’ve also got essays coming out in OOOFF! BOFF! SPLATT!: The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66–Season Three and Unauthorized Offworld Activation: Exploring the Stargate Franchise this year.

irons in the fire update

Got lots of stuff in the works!

Science fiction novellas project. Not quite ready to talk about this publicly yet, but this series of serialized SF novellas is proceeding apace. I’ve written the first two novellas of a thirteen-installment “season,” with more likely to come after that.

The Bram Gold Adventures. Still need to get back to Feat of Clay, which remains halfway done. I’m hoping that this is the month when that finally happens. We’ll see. I’ve also been cogitating on doing another Systema Paradoxa novella, featuring either Bram or Valentina Perrone (or maybe Yolanda Rodriguez).

The Precinct books. After Feat of Clay is done, I need to write Phoenix Precinct.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I still owe Indie GoGo supporters an audio of “Ragnarok and a Hard Place,” which is on this week’s to-do list. I have to write “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which will be the only never-before-published-in-any-way story in Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet, which will also include the aforementioned title story, as well as “Down to the Waterline,” “William Did It,” “Rán for Your Life,” “Fish Out of Water,” “Seven-Mile Race,” “Behind the Wheel,” and all the Cassie vignettes I’ve written for Patreon. Once the dragon story’s done, I’ll turn the manuscript in to Plus One Press.

Super City Cops. I still have four novellas under contract with Falstaff Books. I should probably write them at some point. Meantime, I’ve written “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for Capes and Cowls, which will be out soon from Crossroad Press.

Short stories. One of this week’s goals is to finish my story for Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, which will feature Mary Shelley, Josh Gibson, and Katherine Johnson. I’ve turned in two stories for a couple of Crazy 8 Press anthologies that will be out this year: “The Light Shines in the Darkness,” which I hope is the first of many stories for the superhero shared universe created by Michael Jan Friedman that will start in Phenomenons: Every Human Creature; and “Carpet Bomb” for Peter David’s The Fans are Buried Tales.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness — The Beginning. I’ve written four of the five scripts for this — hoping to get #5 done this week. The art on #1 is being worked on, and we’re still waiting for final approval of the scripts for #2-4.

OOOFF! BOFF! SPLATT!: The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66–Season Three. Also on this week’s agenda is to finish my writeup of the final episode of Adam West’s Batman, “Minerva, Mayhem, and Millionaires” for this essay collection.

The Four ???? of the Apocalypse. Wrenn and I have fumbled the ball a bit on this one, and we’re also waiting on four of the authors (two of whom are, um, me and Wrenn) to write their stories, but this will be out this spring. We hope.

Stargate essay anthology. I’m writing a piece for Sequart’s upcoming collection of essays about the Stargate franchise, specifically on how Atlantis failed all three of its commanding officers. This is due at the end of January.

Star Trek. I’ve been talking with IDW about some projects, but right now it’s just talk with nothing concrete anywhere even near the horizon. Still, we’re talking, which is something. I’ve done my work for the RPG module Incident at Kraav III for Star Trek Adventures, which I’ve written in collaboration with Fred Love, and we’re just waiting for the final approval from Modiphius and CBS/Paramount. I’ve got another STA project to do for Modiphius, also. Meantime, I’m continuing the Enterprise Rewatch every Monday and reviewing each episode of most of the Paramount+ shows as they come out (I’m not doing every episode of Prodigy, but I am doing weekly takes on the others, at least so far). In addition, I’ve turned in my manuscript for my monograph on The Next Generation‘s “Birthright” two-parter, and await editorial feedback.

Tor.com. Besides the above-mentioned Trek work, I’ve got two more installments in “4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch” to do the next two weeks in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Eternals. And I will likely continue to do reviews and think-pieces for Tor going forward.

Patreon. The usual craziness on Patreon will continue: monthly movie reviews, semi-regular TV reviews, weekly excerpts from works-in-progress, monthly vignettes featuring my original characters, first looks at first drafts, and TONS AND TONS OF CAT PICTURES. If you’re not supporting my Patreon, why the heck not????????

Yeah, 2022’s gonna be busy…….

irons in the fire update

Here’s what I’m working on….

The Bram Gold Adventures. I’m still halfway through Feat of Clay. It is my hope to finally get back to it in November and finish it by the end of the year so it can, y’know, be published.

Dragon Precinct. Phoenix Precinct has been plotted, though I still need to write a more detailed outline. That’s the next novel to do after Feat of Clay is done.

Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet. I still have to record the audio of “Ragnarok and a Hard Place” for the story’s Indie GoGo supporters. I also have to write “Stop Dragon My Heart Around,” which will be the last story I need to assemble Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet, which will be published by Plus One Press in 2022. That collection will include all the Cassie stories I’ve written since the 2013 publication of Ragnarok and Roll.

Science fiction novellas project. This hasn’t been announced yet, and I’m also not sure how, exactly, this thing is going to be published, but it’s a series of science fiction novellas I’m writing. This has been a fun project, one that scratches a space-opera itch I haven’t been able to scratch for quite some time (pretty much since I stopped writing Star Trek and Farscape regularly). I just finished the first draft of Book 1 of the series.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness: The Beginning. Now that this has been announced, I can finally talk in detail. The script for issue #1 is done and approved, and we’re waiting on art. Issue #2 is scripted and awaiting approval. Issue #3 is next on the docket now that Book 1 of the novella series is done.

Phenomenons: Every Human Creature. I’ve written my story for this shared-world superhero anthology edited by Michael Jan Friedman, and am waiting for MJF’s feedback on same. It’s called “The Light Shines in the Darkness,” and it’s about a hero named Luminosity who can control the light spectrum.

The Four ??? of the Apocalypse. Still waiting on four stories for this. To be fair, two of them are mine and Wrenn’s. (Oops.) We’ve edited some of the stories, and we’ve gotten the cover art from JK Woodward. Hoping to have this out for Farpoint.

Three Time Travelers Walk Into… I’ll be doing a story for this recently Kickstarted anthology, where my three time travelers will be Mary Shelley, Josh Gibson, and Katherine Johnson.

Super City Cops. At some point, I really need to write the four SCPD novellas I have under contract…

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. Our first book, Animal, was published earlier this year, and our agent is shopping around our second, which has the working title of Pigman. Munish has a few ideas for what our third collaboration will be, and I’m waiting on him to send me the proposals for each.

Mystery. I’m really hoping that 2022 will be the year I sit down and write this. I’ve also been saying that for about a decade now. Sigh.

Tie-in novels and comics. I have a proposal in with a publisher for a tie-in novel and I have some pitches in with another publisher for tie-in comics, and I’m talking with another publisher about pitching tie-in novels, though the latter has been slow to respond. All three are licenses I’ve worked in before.

Gold Archive: Birthright. I’ve turned in my first draft of this monograph about the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter, and am awaiting editorial feedback.

Tor.com. I’m finishing up my Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch, and November will see the launch of the only-once-a-week Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch. I will be continuing to review new Paramount+ shows, as well — next week, I’ll kick off Star Trek: Prodigy, and I’ll be doing the new seasons of Discovery and Picard when they launch, as well as the inaugural season of Strange New Worlds. I’m also planning to do my usual every-six-months revival of “4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch” in December and January, covering Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and The Eternals. (I’m going to hold the December releases, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The King’s Man, for June 2022.)

Patreon. I’m a month behind on vignettes, so I need to catch up there, and I still owe October’s movie review, and I have a bunch of TV shows to talk about: new seasons of What We Do in the Shadows, Lucifer, and Bosch, as well as Only Murders in the Building, and I may want to do a think piece on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which I’ve been rewatching, plus I still haven’t written up Slings and Arrows, The Flash, Giri/Haji, and a bunch of others. The cat pictures, weekly excerpts from works in progress, and first looks at first drafts have been continuing apace.