"Per Astra" One-Year Progress Report

On May 12, 2011, one year ago today, I started work on my hopefully soon to be released second novel, "Per Astra Ad Aspera." It's hard to believe how fast time has gone, but I thought I'd take advantage of the anniversary to give a sort of one-year progress report.

I'm still aiming for a 2012 release (preferably this summer, though I'm not sure if that's a realistic goal at this point). I know I previously announced my plans to self-publish the novel on Kindle, though at the moment the book is under consideration with a publisher. Hopefully they'll accept, but I suppose I can still self-publish if all else fails.

Looking back, it's interesting how quickly I was able to write "Per Astra." I had finished the first draft in only three months (for reference, the first draft of But Whether Men Do, which was also considerably shorter, took six). A year after I started BWMD, I was still in the revision stages, while a year after "Per Astra" I'm already searching for a publisher. You think such a quick schedule would lead to a rushed product, but when I look at Per Astra, I have to say I'm pretty proud. But Whether Men Do was an admirable first effort, I think, but I wrote the majority of it when I was in high school (and going through a pretty bad phase, no less). It's the work of an amateur, and it shows. When I look at "Per Astra Ad Aspera," I see a much more refined work. I really think I've grown as a writer in the time since publishing But Whether Men Do, and I can't wait to show that to the world.

On that note, I know I say this a lot, but at the moment I'm largely dependent on word of mouth to draw attention. If you know anybody who's a big science fiction/fantasy fan that you think would be interested in my writing, please let them know. It's been my dream for a long time to have tons of people enjoying my writing, so every person you tell helps.

One last bit of news to close off this blog post. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the SCP Foundation, but it's full of some pretty interesting stuff. Yours truly is now the creator of SCP-1122, and I might write some more for that site in the future, so keep an eye out.

Anyway, hopefully "Per Astra" will be out soon. I really think you'll all be pleased with the result.