The Journal of Michael Merriam

I've started picking my reading material for the Speculations Reading at DreamHaven Books on February 4th. I'll be reading something from The Horror at Cold Springs, Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep, and Last Car to Annwn Station. There will be baked good to eat, prizes to give away, and books for sale. With luck I will have some postcards to hand out.

Carina Press let me know that the developmental edits are about half-finished for Last Car to Annwn Station. The editor emailed me with a couple of questions about whether I meant to use remote or close third-person, since I have places where it switches, but is mostly close POV. We plan to make it close third-person.

Now I need to check the mail, give the cat some food, clean up after lunch, and then get back to working on the new short story. It is swirling around in my head, slowly coming together.

I've had my head down and pushing hard trying to complete this draft of Dead Brew, aka The Monster-Hunting Barista novel. It is still too short for comfort, coming in at 77,000 words, but it is what it is and I have no idea how to add more to it at this point. Even short of the industry more or less standard 85K to 100K for an UF novel, I think I can polish it down and sell it.

While I wait for Dead Brew to spend a little time on the back burner, I plan to return to the Steampunk Spy-Thriller, tentatively titled The Curious Case of the Jeweled Horn, and finish the rewrites which has been percolating in the back of my mind for the last few weeks.

I really wanted to finish this rewrite pass on Dead Brew now, because we have family coming up from Oklahoma for Christmas, arriving this Wednesday and leaving next Monday morning, so I figure I won't get a lot of time to work. Which may translate into more blogging over the holidays, but no promises. Of course, I say that, so something will mug me and demand to be written.

I re-signed up for services with MN State Services for the Blind. I'm still looking for part-time work, something 15 to 24 hours a week to help bring in a little extra income while careswen finishes graduate school, completes her licensure requirements, and spins up her practice. That means after the first of the year, I am going to have to devote a little more energy to the job hunting, but SSB will be assigning me a service that specializes in placement of people with disabilities in the workforce. I am cautiously optimistic on this front.

Now, I shall make a list of the things I need to get done around the house over the next two days.

Back from a short vacation in the land of chocolate—aka Hershey, PA— where we learned that the secret to making Hershey Chocolate is apparently singing cows. Saw the Hershey Museum and Chocolate World. Pennsylvania is very pretty at this time of year, all fall colors and cool days.

Now that I'm home, despite the head cold, I am ready to get to work on something— anything—new. I'm starting to get that twitchy feeling that overcomes me when I'm not writing. I still haven't received the first round of edits from Carina Press for Last Car to Annwn Station and I'm not quite ready to hit the second draft of the Steampunk Mystery Spy-Thriller novella, so I'm considering what to work on in the meantime. I'm a big believer in having a project or three going at all times. On to the next thing, I say.

I have the opening of a handful of short stories, all of which I intend to write at some point and none of which I'm ready to tackle for one reason or another. I could get going on another novel, but the ones that want writing are both sequels to the Monster-Hunting Barista novel, and I'm a little leery of writing a sequel to a novel I haven't sold yet, though I'm more inclined to go that route now that I've at least proven to myself that I can sell a novel.

I guess I can open all my works-in-progress and poke at them until one takes flight.

Question: I see that Scrivener has a beta-version for Windows now. Those of you who have used Scrivener, what are your thoughts? Is it something useful to you as a writer? Why? What do you think are its strengths and weaknesses?

3375 words yesterday and today.

The steampunk mystery spy-thriller is at 21,000 words.

The End.

2600 new words yesterday on the Steampunk Mystery Spy-Thriller. This brings the WiP up to nearly 17,000 words. I'm guessing about 4,000 more to go before I'm finished.

It is October (how did that happen?) and so once more I am engaged in the annual reading of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October, an odd, quirky novel.

Today's question is: What novels do you go back and read again and again? Why and when do you pull them out?

kmarkhoover reviews The Horror at Cold Springs here.

My favorite line in the review?
In short, it's a damn fine genre-bending story that rockets right along from the first page to the last.

Glad to know I hit that note exactly the way I wanted.

Dudes! I have Cover Art!



I'm especially pleased at how they brought forward the steampunk aesthetic (I'm right pleased with those gears) while also showing the American western-style buildings in the background. The Horror at Cold Springs is a 25,000 word Steampunk/Weird West novella with a nod to Lovecraftian horror.

The cover price will be $6.00. I'll post a link to where you can buy this as soon as I have one.

We will be holding a release party at CONvergence. I'll have copies for sale there, and my publisher Sam's Dot Publishing will be in the dealer's room.

As I told mylefteye in comments, I've been hammering at Rija's Tale off and on for nearly 2-1/2 years, and the short story that was the basis for the novel was written 5 years ago. I've been with Rija ( and Jeyla and Raif) a long time, and while I had the darnedest time writing this novel, I'm going to miss discovering Rija's story as she unveils it to me. That said, while this is a complete, stand-alone novel, I left myself some room to revisit these characters in the future, should the desire or need arise.

What’s next? I think I'll take a couple of days off to read and relax, and then head into other projects. While Rija's Tale sits and simmers, I need to go back and hit the rewrites of Dark Water Blues, finish the submission packets for Old Blood's Fate and The Horror at Cold Springs, and make some decisions about Last Car to Annwn Station.

I also have several pieces of short fiction waiting in the wings, which I think will be a nice change of pace from novel writing. I only have nine short stories out circulating, which is a low number for me, but I've (happily) sold down my inventory of short fiction while writing the last two novels. I prefer to have at least a dozen stories out at any given time, so I need to work on few of these ideas that have been waiting on the back burner.

And then there's the next novel lurking on the horizon, Move Along Home (Spear of Destiny, ceremonial magicians, evil antiquarians, blind Gaius Longinus, roman witches, tunnels under the Twin Cities) which has been waiting in the wings for a long time. And of course, probably this autumn, rewrites of Rija's Tale.

Yeah. Not going to get bored or anything.

2700+ words today, but still no title.

Untitled Weird West Steampunk Novella


*Fallsdowngoesboom*

I have eaten breakfast cleaned house, taken out the trash, dealt with email, and done other things. The Plumber is here right now finishing up some work, and should be done in another fifteen minutes or so.

I have the Weird-West-Steampunk-Horror-Survivor-in-a-Ghost-Town story open, and the climax blocked and plotted. Everyone still alive is determined to stay that way as the town burns and the Eater-of-Men stalks them.

Here we go...



And yes, there will be dynamite involved.