April 2025: Keeping On

I’m officially done with sabbatical, but I’m going to keep doing these monthly updates—for a while, at least—because they turn out to be useful milestones for my own accountability and excellent reminders of what I’ve actually accomplished.

I’ll keep posting those updates here, but I’ve also started an email newsletter, so you can follow along that way if you like. The newsletter will also get release and event announcements once I finally start publishing.

Shiraki Press

Speaking of publishing, Shiraki Press is now off the ground and accepting submissions!

My wife and I started this venture earlier this year, thinking that if we’re already going to be setting up a publishing pipeline for my own books, why not offer to leverage that effort on behalf of other authors too? We’re initially focusing on novella-length stories that light the way to worlds that could be, and it’s our sincere hope that we can build a healthy community of authors and readers around this ideal over the next several years.

Crossroads

My current WIP—working title: Crossroads—is a hopepunk story about a supernatural boutique, its lovable staff, and the hellmouth in the basement that endangers them all.

At the beginning of March, I was still working out the concept and had just started some initial outlining. Now, I’ve got a full outline and about 4k words drafted, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but this month—like every month since I started sabbatical last summer—has been relentless in its attempts to prevent me from focusing on my goals, so under the circumstances, 4k words is something I’m actually really proud of right now.

My next goal for this WIP is to submit the first few chapters—about 6k words total—to my speculative fiction class for critique later this month, and I’m really looking forward to getting their feedback on this piece!

Reading

Since Shiraki Press is focusing on novellas to start, I’ve recently been trying to read more in that space. One of the big advantages of that length is that it’s digestible in a single sitting, which significantly increased the number of different stories I was able to read this month.

Starfish, by Peter Watts—I first read Starfish in the early 2000s. I remembered it being more focused on the deep sea environment, but it’s got way more cyberpunk and climate fiction stuff going on than I remembered, and it’s very prescient about modern AI: in particular, how AI turbo-charges the damage that can be caused by human laziness and stupidity.

What Feasts At Night, by T. Kingfisher—This sequel to What Moves the Dead, a story I greatly enjoyed last year, brings sworn soldier Alex Easton back home to Gallacia, where they confront a breath-stealing monster that plays on the terrifying experience of sleep paralysis. Tight, well-plotted, and with a wonderful balance of levity and dread.

A House With Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher—In this story, Kingfisher does contemporary Southern Gothic. Sam comes home to a mother who’s developed a stark fear of upsetting her very dead grandmother. The imagery of the underground children will stick with me for a long time.

Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree—It doesn’t feel like we can focus on hopepunk or novellas without reading this modern paragon of the genre. I worried going in that the stakes would feel too low, but it doesn’t have that problem at all; wonderful characterization and a super tight narrative focus made every scene feel satisfying and important.

Every Dark Cloud, by Marisca Pichette—This short novelette memorably describes a world of near-total darkness after humanity intentionally blots out the sun to prevent total extinction due to unchecked solar radiation. There are more ideas packed into its quick 77 pages than in lots of books three or four times its length.

Job hunting

I’m still looking out for new game dev or tech employment, either on a full-time or contract basis. Here are my resume and my LinkedIn.

I’m writing with purpose, and we’re starting a small press, but neither of those things is bringing in money right now, and our financial runway is very much running out. We’re not in full-scale crisis mode yet, but we’re definitely starting to tighten the budget.

We’ve both been job hunting since late last year, but the games industry—and the tech industry more broadly—has been going through a whole time lately. Any leads are welcome. Email me!