My Fellow Sectorians,
We are back with a brief retrospective on what we were able to do last year as well as a look ahead to the horizons of 2023. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
A New Direction
My last blog post of 2022 talked about this in detail, so I won’t repeat too much of it. The short version is this: I’m having to move my focus away from science fiction for the foreseeable future. I’ll be focusing on fantasy this year in the hopes of breaking into traditional publishing. It’s not a decision I make lightly, but it’s one that comes after much thought and soul-searching. This change will trickle over to the posts I make here. So, expect to see a bit more content about the fantasy genre in the months ahead.
Marvel, Maybe?
My philosophy for this blog was always to talk about those things I enjoy instead of focusing on those things I don’t. The MCU has taken up a significant amount of my Fanboy Reviews up to this point, but most of Phase IV has fallen flat for me. Multiverse of Madness was something of the final straw. My review of that movie was long and mostly negative, which runs counter to why I created this blog in the first place.
I can hope that Phase V will be an improvement, but don’t expect to see as much coverage of the MCU as there was in times past. If Phase V starts to improve, I’ll pick it back up, but I may be more selective in the titles I choose to review.
Fun & Games
This has been in the works for a while behind the scenes, but I can finally announce that I’m actively developing a TTRPG supplement for D&D 5e, potentially the first of many, and an original board game with a cyberpunk aesthetic.
The supplement will appear on DM’s Guild, and I’m hoping to launch it in March. More details on that as they become available.
The board game, by contrast, is on a much slower developmental track. My plan is to run a Kickstarter for it when the time is right. There are a lot of moving parts to a project like that, so it might be next year before it finally sees the light of day. I will, however, keep you posted on the progress I’m able to make in the meantime.
2022 Accomplishments
Last year was something of a roller-coaster for me creatively, but I made significant progress on a number of things I outlined in last year’s State of the Sector Address. I wanted to share those with you here.
Sector M Website/Patreon Revamp/New Merch Store: Sector M got a new look and new features, starting with my author website. I migrated my old Redbubble store over to Etsy. I now have many more options and designs available. Lastly, my Patreon got quite the glow-up , with new tiers, new rewards, and monthly Zoom calls with yours truly. If you haven’t already, go check ’em out.
Blog Delivery: After a few years of being hit-or-miss with my blog posts, in 2022 I was able to post one original blog post per month, January to December. With one exception, I delivered them on the dates I listed in the last State of the Sector.
Attended DFWCon: In October, I finally made it back to DFWCon after years of being away. I really loved the opportunity to hang out and talk with other authors, hear success stories, and make in-person pitches to agents and industry professionals.
Progress on #7: Book #7 has been something of a storm in a bottle. I started it on Halloween of 2021. While I made some progress during the last two months of that year, I really started getting into it in January of last year. I noticed that my average word count per writing session almost doubled. At the time of this post, I’m 120,000 words into it. The story is a big one though, big enough that what I thought was a novel might wind up being a trilogy of novellas instead.
Still in the Works
The Sector M Podcast: The timing for this just didn’t work out. I’m still interested in getting a Sector M podcast off the ground at some point in the future, so I’m not shelving this idea. If and when there’s any progress on this front, I’ll be sure to announce it here.
Goals for 2023
Finish Book #7, Start Book #8: As stated above, I’m still working on book #7. I hope to have the initial draft done in or around April. My plan is to start book #8, a direct sequel to #6, in June.
Query Books #5 & #6: Book #5, or DMM, is my first querying project of the year. This should begin in February. I’ll be working on polishing book #6, or AOTO, to start querying it later in the year. Both are fantasy titles that (ostensibly) are set in the same world, though they are separated greatly in time period, space, and overall theme.
Revamp Strange Reports to Sector M: My anthology that came out some years ago is getting a re-release. In addition to fixing some production errors that crept in, I’ll be adding a hardback version. My goal is to get that up and running in a May timeframe.
New Blog Schedule: I have a new slate of original blog topics planned for this year, and I’m excited to get started on them. Like last year, I’m going to post on the third Friday of the month. Here are the dates in question:
January 20(January 22)- February 17
- March 17
- April 21
- May 19
- June 16
- July 21
- August 18
- September 15
- October 20
- November 17
- December 15
This does not include the updates that may pop up in more of an update/ newsletter-style post.
Attend Writing Conventions: I thoroughly enjoyed going to DFWCon this last year. In addition to returning to that con, I want to travel to a few more conventions. I’m still in the research phase to determine which ones. Once I have that figured out, I’ll post the details in the next update.
How You Can Help
Support Tab: I’ve created a new tab next to “Home” and “About” at the top of the page. It has all the ways you can support Sector M. Here’s the breakdown:
- Buy one of my books:
- Support Sector M on Patreon
- Check out the Sector M Store (T-shirts, drinkware, stickers, etc.)
- Follow me on:
- This blog (There should be a pop-up when you visit the main page to help you do that.)
- Leave a book review for The Backwards Mask:
- Leave a book review for Strange Reports from Sector M:
- Tell a friend. No, really! Word-of-mouth is an author’s dream.
So, that does it for this year’s State of the Sector Address. Let me close by simply saying thank you for your continued interest and support of my work. There are some exciting things on the horizon, and I can’t wait to share them with all of you.
See you around the Sector!
Si vales, valeo.
-MC
The Sector M 