Celebrate good times. Come on!
(Thanks Kool 😊) What a difference a day makes! After weeks of radio silence from the judging panels, the floodgates finally opened yesterday, and the pond has been hit by a tidal wave of fantastic news.
Memory Letters Makes the Longlist!
The Open Novella Contest has finally dropped the big ones: the Round 3 Winners, the Ambassador Picks, and the official Longlist.
I am absolutely thrilled—and still slightly stunned—to tell you that Memory Letters has been named both a Round 3 Winner and has officially secured its place on the Longlist! Out of the 672 stories that entered qualifed from Round 3 for consideration, the judges have narrowed the field down to just 300 stories.
When the notifications started popping up, I honestly didn't know how to react. To see Jane's story survive every single cut and stand tall among those final 300 contenders is a massive milestone.
The waiting was agonizing, but the result is more than worth the wait!
Next step? Maybe the shortlist... who knows.
Grounding the Logic in Sanctorum's Veil
While celebrating a win is always good, the daily grind of editing waits for no man. My custom dashboard script has been keeping me honest as I push forward with Sanctorum’s Veil, and this week required some serious narrative surgery on Chapter 7.
During the review, I hit a scene that frankly made no sense. Originally, my main character, Sam, needed an ID card, which was mysteriously sent to him anonymously. It was an odd plot point that I just knew I'd end up having to explain badly later on in the book. So, I’ve cut the anonymous delivery entirely. Now, Sam finds the ID card organically while going through his mum's things. It’s cleaner, far more believable, and doesn't rely on a clunky mystery to move the plot forward.
New Project: The Whisper in the Margins
As if my digital shelf wasn't busy enough, a new story has crept out of the archives. Being the 'forever DM' for my Dungeons & Dragons groups, my D&D Beyond account is practically a graveyard of characters I'll likely never get to play. While perusing them the other day, an archivist and mage named Rollo Whitglade practically jumped off the screen at me.
His concept was just too good to leave on a character sheet, so I’ve started writing an urban fantasy/wizarding mystery centered around him called The Whisper in the Margins. Chapter 1 is completely done, and Chapter 2 is already halfway there.
The Void Between: The Search for Authentic Art
On the flip side, progress on my HFY sci-fi story, The Void Between, has hit a temporary pause due to a personal quirk of my writing process. I’m a bit particular when it comes to focus; I find I can’t truly connect with the soul of a story until I have a solid title and a proper cover design to look at while I type.
The title is locked in and feels great, but the search is now on for the perfect inspiring imagery. I love creating my own covers and now I am specifically looking for royalty-free or paid art that is strictly NOT GenAI created. I want real, human-crafted illustrations or photos to form the backbone of the Sol Explorer's visual identity, so the keyboard is on hold for this one until I find the right piece of the puzzle.
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