Happy New Year everyone! Tod here! We hope your New Year’s Eve is going well. We’re still a little under the weather, ended up staying in town so we could heal up for the New Year, but otherwise also still surviving.
What goals did everyone else make for the last year? What are your goals for the new year?
2023 Goals and Results
Last year we had two main goals: to get “some” stories published and to complete our first novel.
I think we pretty much nailed those goals (mostly). We wrote 21 different short stories, completed the first draft of our novel, and wrote five postcard stories (50-word shorts) and a recipe. We have six published stories and one accepted and paid for, but not yet published. We also “published” the schedule for P-Con.
We collected fifteen rejections. (For the record, we much prefer getting a “no thanks” email as opposed to hearing nothing and discovering we weren’t chosen when the anthology is published.) We have eight stories currently under consideration. We will be submitting four in January.
Our author page at Amazon is at https://amazon.com/author/casasent
The six published shorts are all with Raconteur Press.
Most stories are in our Nano-Sapiens universe, where dogs and cats can become sapient via nanotech injections.
“Peer Review Parenting” covers the experiences of the first Nano-Sapiens rescuing their children from the new principal investigator. “Peer Review Parenting” is in the first volume of All Will Burn. https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR
Our first published story is “Space Sheep and the Electric Cow”. This is the story of two space cowboys tending their space sheep, who meet a new friend chasing after a lost space cow. “Space Sheep and the Electric Cow” is in Space Cowboys 2: Electric Rodeo. https://www.amazon.com/Space-Cowboys-Electric-Raconteur-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0BXW4MR9W
In “Space Dog and the Runaway Asteroid”, the friend with the space cow returns to help the two space cowboys deal with a potentially deadly asteroid. And they all make a new friend along the way. “Space Dog and the Runaway Asteroid” is in Space Cowboys 3: Return of the Bookaroo. https://www.amazon.com/Space-Cowboys-Bookaroo-Raconteur-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CJZWQ2BV
Next, we have the one-off stories, not part of any of our other universes.
“Cat Math” tells the tale of a man and his cat who have to deal with the aftereffects of space junk. The story uses Anna’s animal training and Tod’s experiences at NASA in on-orbit rendezvous and docking and work on the space station thermal bus. “Cat Math” is in Moggies 2: Moggies Back in Space. https://www.amazon.com/Moggies-Space-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CLT91RV6
“The Peace of Il Maqluba” follows an out of place boy and girl, searching for peace and a place to belong inside the hidden magical history of Malta. “The Peace of Il Maqluba” is in Falcons of Malta. https://www.amazon.com/Falcons-Malta-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0C6WK752F
“Eat Cake” is a 50-word postcard story about a chef’s battle in the kitchen. “Eat Cake” is in Fanta-Fly Postcards. https://www.amazon.com/Fanta-Fly-Postcards-Postcard-Stories-Book-ebook/dp/B0C4M6K3FJ
Our unpublished but sold story will be in an anthology of superhero stories from Real Live Press set in the 5 Second Rule RPG IP.
2024 Goals
For the next year, our goal is to finish the edits on our novel and get that into a slush pile. Then, return to work on our second novel in a different universe. We might be putting a up few short stories here and there, but we are planning to mostly focus on the novels and try and take things slowly.
~Tod