Writing updates
July 2, 2026
As mentioned in my previous update, I hadn’t been doing much fiction writing. (Angry letters to county commissioners who continue to ignore school-children’s safety don’t contribute to the word count.) Then, on June 14th, something (and Lord I wish I knew what that something was!) kicked me in the writing engine. After that, I wrote 550-1100 words almost every night.
June word counts:
Asylum (Dremiks sequel): 5,445 words
Enhancing the Man (Nicholas Reed’s origin story): 2,154 words
Other projects: 685 words
Total for June 14-30: 8,284 words.
Those aren’t really great numbers, until juxtaposed with the previous four months’ paltry sums.
I’ve set a weekly goal of spending 15 hours per week writing. That’s writing, not posting about writing, not responding to emails, not posting Notes or Threads or making other social media posts. Just butt-in-chair, focused writing.
I’m also participating in Abbie Emmons’s virtual writing retreat this month. My weekly word count goal during the retreat is 5,000 words. I am hoping to exceed that, of course. But, as my life always goes haywire when I make big plans, I’m thinking small.
Substack growth
I gained 6 new Subscribers in June. Please welcome:
Roger Misso, Dhanshree Gems, Zephyr Mezmeron, James Palmer, SciFiVirteleon, and Seth
The following Substack authors recommended me or mentioned me in a post:
Swords & Sarcasm, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Hub, The Archangel’s Gift, The Lemon Tree Mindset, and Tilt the Future. Thank you to all of these great writers!
I now have 124 subscribers and 4 of you even pay me. I appreciate each and every one of you.
What I’m reading:
I’ve devoured the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, A Parade of Horribles and the latest Murderbot book from Martha Wells, Platform Decay. I’m really enjoying this serial sci-fi by Nick J. Taylor. I’ve also been asked to beta-read Justin Deming’s latest book.
Other Projects:
My mother has asked me to edit her latest book, which is a genealogical narrative about our family’s early American ancestors. It’s nice to take a break from a maybe-paralyzed-billionaire or a possibly-exploding-space-station to focus on history and grammar!
In Case You Missed the Emails:
Teaser snippet of dialogue from Asylum:
“Assuming O’Connell brings him back in one piece—”
Barnes interrupted Nevah. “Hey now, she’s never actually returned with crewmates in multiple pieces. Bloody and unconscious, sure, but never dismembered.”
New around here?
I have two separate series: Dremiks is a space opera with a military influence. Think Battlestar Galactica, but with aliens. “Aliens & Gingerbread” is featured in the Winter Wonder anthology and is set in the Dremiks universe. “The Inheritor’s Screams” is a (completed) 13-part short story available for free on my Substack. It also features characters from Dremiks.
The Sentinels: Requital is a superhero-vigilante thriller set in modern-day Seattle. It features a medically enhanced billionaire trying to dismantle his father’s criminal empire. A young woman whose parents were murdered and who is just trying to put her life back together gets caught up in the hero’s vendetta. “Enhancing the Man”, which is only available to paying subscribers, describes how Nicholas Reed went from trust-fund kid to a crime fighting superhero. This story has nine chapters released so far, with many more to come.
Please drop me a comment or a note if you have any questions!
Thank you for the restack.