Ryan M. Patrick

A much better month in terms of writing, but still no traction on my two novels in the Pentagon security review.

The Saturn Anomaly and Crush Depth

I pinged the Pentagon on the 4th of May, no joy – they’re both still in “component review.” I’ll ping them again sometime this summer. There’s precedent though – both The Martian Incident and Lag Delay got their approval emails back while I was at my parents’ beach house! It’s frustrating, and I’m redoing my roadmap so I will have at least two non-review novels (Memento Vivere and Black Sails and Sorcery) coming up next that I won’t have to wait on them for, but it’s part and parcel of having a security clearance and being a writer. A necessary evil!

The Kuiper Dominion

Absolute mess of a month, but I came out on top.

I realized early on I had an issue with pacing. It was boring, way too many repetitive chapters. I went back to Chapter 4 at one point, then quickly built myself back up. I’m currently sitting at just under 70,000 words and 32 chapters done out of 45. Looking like I’ll finish in June and get it out to my beta readers (and the Pentagon!) sometime in July. I also did the cover too – same as the first two, stock image + a small element that I did myself.

And I can’t wait to have the whole trilogy done. I think it’ll build me a lot of respect (I can actually finish a series!) and maybe more readers will take a shot on The Europan Deception and its planned six sequels.

Memento Vivere

This is ready to go the moment The Kuiper Dominion is done. It’s slower to write, it’s a very personal novel, but I think it’s my best and it’ll be my first foray into fantasy.

Short Stories

Nothing done here, other than some brainstorming some future ideas. I’ve always been a fan of the trope of alien geometry but I think it’s a bit overdone in the sci-fi realm. So I’m going to do a fantasy take on it…

Critique

I finished one manuscript this month. 8/12 for the year.

The goal for June is to get The Kuiper Dominion done and start editing in early July. We’ll see if I get either of my books back from the Pentagon – I have them so well-edited that I think it’ll be a 30 day turnaround to release!