Introducing: Privateers of Mars

Art takes time. That’s something I try to hammer home to a lot of people, not least myself. If you grabbed a random person off the street and asked them the most important attribute for an artist to possess, they’d probably say “If I answer your question will you let me go? Please, I have a family.” And then probably say “Talent.”

There’s a whole other discussion about the misconception that artistic ability is all “talent,” an innate quality you either possess or you don’t. Developing whatever amount of talent you have into skill through study, work, and practice matters far more. But that’s not what I want to address at the moment.

So let’s give our terrified person with a bag over their head in our unmarked van some credit, and let’s say their answer is “Skill.” They’re still off. Not because you don’t need to be good at your art form, because of course you do. But the difference between your work entering the world and going places, and not, is patience. Ask any actor. Yeah, we’ve all read about X now-famous actor just walking down the street when Francis Scorsese Spielberg bumped into them and proclaimed them the new star. But actually talk to one some time. Audition after audition after audition. I’ve gotten callbacks a few weeks after auditions that I’d totally forgotten I’d even had, as they vanished into the background wash.

With that, I’m very happy to announce the imminent release of my novella Privateers of Mars!

I wrote the short story that would become this book in 2010. I started submitting it for publication in 2010. Every few months or so, I’d go back, re-read it, tweak it, cut some fluff, try and fine tune it just a little more. When that story was accepted for publication in 2018, I had submitted it twenty one times, sometimes waiting as long as 4-5 months for my next rejection. In the intervening two years, I’ve added to it until it’s become a little book in its own right.

I’m very proud of this raygun romp. I think it’s a lot of fun and excitement without being completely devoid of interesting themes and that human condition commentary we all crave in our fiction. We crave that, right? Let’s say we do. But hey, if you’re just in it for the witty banter and space pirate action, that’s just fine too.