Toward the end of last week, I finished the latest Jacob and Miriam novel. This is the fastest I’ve written a novel, but not the reason for this post.
I write the Jacob and Miriam novels in the third person, and the Jacob short stories in the first person. It wasn’t a conscious decision to write that way, it just happened.
Once the novel was done, I put it aside and turned my attention to a short story – at least I think it’s a short story. It may turn out longer. It’s a Jacob story that came about from a throwaway line in the story A Cousin’s Outing that appears in the Thrill Ride issue Sisters in Arms.
In that story, Miriam makes a comment about a past event, and Gideon makes it a condition of his help to hear the full story about the event.
At the time, I had no idea what that event was, how it came about, or who was involved.
Well, the subconscious mind is a strange thing, and over the weekend, I opened a new Scrivener document and started writing about that event. After about 400 words, I came to a slow stop. Something didn’t feel right. I wasn’t sure what it was, so back to the top and reread from the beginning. As I did so, I found myself changing the viewpoint. With my head still deep in the novel, I automatically wrote Jacob in the third person. As I cycled back through the first paragraphs, I changed from third person to first, and then kept writing.
Because I started late in the day, I didn’t really expect to hit my daily word count, and was quite surprised when I looked up and had blown past it. I don’t think I would have been anywhere close had I persisted with Jacob in the third person. And I even have a title. Keep your eyes peeled for Unwelcome Competition!
Tag: #Babylon
For those of you who supported the Thrill Ride kickstarter, a big thank you from me, and implied from everyone else with stories in this year’s issues. The kickstarter funded, so expect to see the first issue – Sisters in Arms – within the next few weeks. This issue includes my story A Cousin’s Outing.
It’s been a while since I submitted anything to the top science fiction magazines, but I have stories under consideration at Asimov’s and Analog. Unfortunately at the moment Fantasy and Science Fiction isn’t accepting submissions, but when they open again, there will be several stories in the queue for them.
Elsewhere, I’m making good progress on the third Jacob and Miriam story, and that’s on track for publication at some time in the second quarter of 2024. More news on that closer to the publication date.
We are into the last hours of the Thrill Ride Kickstarter where I have two stories in this year’s issues.
Check it out and support this great magazine.
It’s funny how often after a long stretch of nothing apparently happening, everything seems to coalesce together and there’s a flurry of frenetic activity.
That’s how it’s been this past week, and probably how it will continue into the coming week.
Firstly, two of my stories were selected for the 2024 issues of Thrill Ride Magazine so there were edits and proofing copy in preparation for the upcoming kickstarter which starts on Tuesday 30th – Thrill Ride – the magazine (Year Two) by M. L. “Matt” Buchman — Kickstarter. There are some excellent writers in this year’s magazine, as there were in Year One, and I’m grateful to be included alongside them.
Secondly, I finally finished the editing and formatting of Death at a Wedding and got everything published, along with the reformatting of the cover for Thieves in the Temple. Both books now look like they belong together. Check out Death at a Wedding here: Death at a Wedding
And finally, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine confirmed my Jacob story The Cleansing of Abel will be in the May/June issue available in April.
It’s been a great start to the year and I can’t wait to see what comes in February.
While jotting down some ideas for 2024 plans and goals, something drew me to the website here, and with it a certain amount of surprise that I realized I haven’t posted anything since July of 2023.
At the same time was the realization that maybe it was not so much of a surprise. There was a definite tilt in our world over the summer, and that contributed to 2023 being the lowest word count year since I started keeping track in 2017. I am looking to change that substantially in 2024, and over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the goals and the plans to reach those goals.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom in 2023. I finally finished the next Jacob and Miriam novel – Death at a Wedding – and once I get the final feedback from the my proof readers, it will be up on all the usual places. Currently, I am targeting the end of January. The next story – The Corpse in the Courtyard – is already under way and hopefully you won’t have to wait two years for that one to appear.
And the tilt? I’m not sure it has completely finished twisting our lives but we are learning to live with it!
This past week my wife was out of town catching up with some friends, which left the kitchen open and available to explore two dishes that have been on my let’s try list for a while. I do a lot of my experimental cooking while she’s away. And I make sure to be cleaned up before she gets home!
The first meal was Goan Venison Curry from issue 12.22 of the Big Green Egg Life Style magazine. The combination of fennel, cloves, chili, and cardamom appealed to me, and as I have stack of cubed venison in the freezer, it seemed a good choice. Except I must have missed something, because the generous spicing described in the article didn’t materialize. If anything the whole flavor was very bland, which was disappointing because I love a good curry.
With the curry behind me, the next experiment was Roast Chicken with Babylonian Spices from the book The Witches Feast by Melissa Jayne Madara. The dish is based on a translation of the recipe amusarnu pigeon with broth from tablet 8958 of the Yale University collection, dating back to about 1,700 BC.
After the not so great experience with the curry, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into – especially as I made some changes – sesame oil instead of olive oil, and the roasting phase on the Big Green Egg instead of the oven. While the chicken cooled after poaching in the sauce, and before roasting, I tasted the sauce, and immediately knew I had something different.
I was really pleased with the chicken, and plan to try it again. Now all I need are the other recipes on tablet 8958.
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