Ryan M. Patrick

It’s been a month – my wife joked to me that it’s been “Maycember.” So much stuff going on, at work, with my family, with my friends, and with my writing! It’s been mostly all good though – with a couple of hiccups that I’ll talk about.

The Europan Deception

I had hoped for at least 30 units moved (which is how many I sold with The Martian Incident) and I got 50. But, more importantly, the reviews have been excellent – I haven’t gotten anything less than 4 stars! It’s a great start for what I hope will become my flagship series. If you haven’t bought or borrowed it yet, check it out on Amazon – you won’t be disappointed!

Crush Depth

Was shooting for 94,000 words, got to 93,000. But I only have 2 chapters to go! I think it’s in good shape but that’ll be up to my beta readers and editor. From there, it’s to the Pentagon and when it gets back, I’ll set a release date.

Memento Vivere

Going to stop talking about this one because I only wrote about a thousand words on it this month. Given that I’m almost done with Crush Depth’s (second) draft, I’m going to need to start a new project soon. I had hoped to shift to Memento Vivere but I’m not in the right state to work on. Plus, from a commercial/business standpoint, it’s a bad idea – I already have too much stuff going. Leading to my next topic…

The Saturn Anomaly

Enough of you have asked for it – it’s time to write a sequel to The Martian Incident. Originally that was supposed to be The Europan Deception but those worlds have diverged. I’m working on a book with the same main character – John Cameron, the series’ namesake NASA engineer – but set a couple of years after the events of the first one on a remote research station orbiting the planet Saturn. However, there will be a parallel plot set in 1988 aboard the US space shuttle Atlantis. I’m currently outlining it and am on Chapter 30 of a planned 45; then as soon as I’m done I’ll start it. It’s going to cover some of my favorite tropes – classified Shuttle missions, derelict satellites, remote space stations, and even touch on some cosmic horror. Considering that The Martian Incident sold 500 (!) copies in a year and a half and is my best selling book, I definitely think there’s a market for that! Hoping to get it (and Crush Depth) both done and released this year or early 2026, then start on The Europan Deception‘s sequel tentatively titled The Apophis Contingency.

Other Stuff

I got 3 blog posts in this month – you can find it in the archives on my home page. Shooting for another 2-3 next month. Still haven’t started another short – they’ll be time for that later!

Onward to June!