Category: writing.

bullets & links. new hampshah. worthy causes. writing.

Various mid-summer odds and ends, and an announcement

Lots of things are going on at Castle Frostbite at the moment, so please forgive my lack of recent updates. I’ll endeavor to make the blog updates more frequent from now on.

First, a quick writing update: ECLIPSE, book #5 in the Palladium Wars series, is 3/4 done at this point but currently on the slow burner because I have a contracted novel due next month that hopped to the front of the queue. (This will be a stand-alone SF novel with 47North, working title COHORT.) Both of those novels will be done by the end of the summer. COHORT will go off to the editor when it’s done for the usual round of developmental end copyedits, and I’ll share a release date as soon as it’s turned in and I have word back on the production schedule but expect it at some point in mid-2027.

ECLIPSE will be out as soon as Robin and I have edited it, but that won’t take forever because I’ve been working on that novel for a while and it has gone through what my friend John Scalzi calls “fractal edits”. Each chapter so far has seen multiple editing passes and revisions, so by the time the last chapter is in the bag, the novel isn’t a draft anymore but a mostly finished product. You should see it available for sale before the end of the year because it’ll be self-published (47North declined to commit to the last book of the series), and I am not tied to anyone else’s schedule for this one.

On a completely different subject: I’ve been asked to run for local office, and after some deliberation and discussions with the family, we decided that helping to improve the local communities and the state as a whole is a worthy cause if I have a chance to move the needle a little. I am running for the New Hampshire State House in November, as the Democratic candidate for the Grafton-18 district, which covers several towns in southern Grafton County: Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, Bridgewater, Alexandria, Bristol, Orange, Dorchester, Groton, and Hebron. It’s not really a paid position–NH’s state representatives get the princely salary of $200 for a two-year term–so it’s a volunteer community service job more than anything else. Because of that, state politics are dominated by people who are either retired or wealthy enough to afford spending several days per week in Concord on their own time and dime. New Hampshire has always had an independent streak and a strong libertarian bent, but in recent years, my home state has taken a political course that leads us in the wrong direction, and I want to help reverse it and maybe break up the one-party trifecta we have going on right now.

Everybody wants to see things change and stuff get done, but few people have the desire or the time to take part in bringing that about. I didn’t have a good excuse to say no, so I figured I should run if I could.

If you want to check out my campaign and maybe toss in a few bucks to support it, you can find it here: Marko Kloos for New Hampshire, State Representative.

(And if you live in the Grafton-18 floterial House district, come out and say hi during campaign season when I am out and about at the various Old Home Days and community events in the county. I’d love to hear your opinion on how our state is run and what could be done to improve things in our towns.)

FIRST DISCLAIMER: No, it’s not going to hurt my writing schedule, and I am not trading the novelist job for a state house seat. As I’ve mentioned, it’s a largely unpaid volunteer position, and I a.) like my day job, and b.) still need to pay the mortgage and fill the fridge, so the novels will keep coming.

SECOND DISCLAIMER: You may not agree with my politics or the party for which I am running. And that’s your right in a democracy like ours! I just don’t want to read cranky comments about how you’re no longer going to read my books because of my political affiliation or opinions. If that’s the case, just go ahead and boycott me privately. No need to exit in a huff.

That’s it for me today, and now it’s back to work on COHORT, which has a looming deadline and much work to be done on it yet. I hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

(My team made this up as a way to memorize all the towns in Grafton-18. It’s not an official campaign graphic, but I figured I’d share it here just for fun.)

books. digital housekeeping. the palladium wars. writing.

What, March already?

It appears that I have managed to leave this spot without updates for over four months, which is a long time even for a sporadic blogger like me. I’ve been busy with various writing projects, life outside of writing has required frequent tending, and most of my brain bandwidth has gone to addressing those requirements. 

That said, I think I need to curtail my already limited social media presence even further and return my focus to updating just one spot instead of spreading my public presence across four or five different ones. To that end (and because I have bills to pay like everyone else), I am considering moving my updates to Patreon. I’d still keep the general blog updates free, of course, but I’d be posting more regularly, and I’d have an outlet to release short fiction as subscriber exclusives before I put them on the Kindle for general consumption. There could even be a tier where folks can get signed books every now and then with their subscriptions, which would be a good way for me to distribute the author copies I’m drowning in every time a new book comes out.

(Long-time readers will know that I usually do the free book giveaways, but those have started to become unsustainable for various reasons—shipping is getting more expensive, shipments keep getting returned to me unclaimed, and international readers have on occasion refused to pay customs duties and left me sitting on a $20 personalized book I can’t reuse and $25 international shipping costs I’ve spent out of my own pocket.)

Anyway—what’s the general consensus on an All Things Marko Kloos Patreon with a free updates tier and some nice perks for paid subscriptions? And what kind of content would you want to see other than the exclusive short fiction first reads I already mentioned? Looking forward to your comments below.

As far as work goes, I am back on Palladium Wars #5, and that one will be finished this month come hell or high water, to be available at some point in April once it’s been edited, formatted, and hammered into shape for Kindle and paperback formats. I’m having to do an indie release because 47North didn’t want to continue the series and let me finish it, and nobody else is going to commit to the fifth book in a series if they don’t already have the other four in their stable. But as I am not willing to keep the readers hanging and leave a five-year-plus project unfinished, the fifth book will be finished and released before I get started on the next thing.

frontlines: evolution writing.

CYGNUS draft is in the bag

I haven’t updated this space in a while because I’ve been crazy busy and had nothing much of general interest to report. However, some of you may be happy to hear that I just finished the draft for CYGNUS, the third book in the Frontlines: Evolution series, and sent it to my editor this morning.

This will be the final book of the series with Alex as the point-of-view character. My publisher wanted me to cap the series as a trilogy, and I think I managed to accomplish what I had planned to do, which is to give Alex a great character arc and bring her story to a full circle. People really seem to like Corvus, and I think this one may be even better. But time will tell.

Now I’ll be in recovery mode for a little bit, and then it’s off to the races to finish Palladium Wars #5, ECLIPSE, before year’s end so you can all get your hands on it soon.

 

books. frontlines: evolution the palladium wars. writing.

Busy, busy, busy

The draft for CYGNUS, third book in the Frontlines: Evolution series is due to my publisher this month, so I’ll be busy with that one until I turn it in. When I am in deadline mode, I don’t have much bandwidth for anything else, so if you have sent me an email in the last few weeks (or plan to do so in the next few weeks), remember that I am bad at quick replies on the best of days, so bear with me until this manuscript is on the way to my editor.

After that, I’ll be finishing ECLIPSE, the fifth and final book (for now) in the Palladium Wars series. Since 47North declined to continue the series, I’ll be publishing ECLIPSE myself through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). For those of you waiting for the book (and I hope that’s a lot of folks), that means it will be available not too long after I’ve finished the draft and edited it with my partner in crime. I aimed to have it ready later this summer, but the way the calendar is progressing, it will be out in the fall instead. I’ll be sure to make it worth the wait–it’s shaping up to be a very good novel.

Now the world just needs to stop falling apart for a little while. I thought my cortisol levels were high in 2020 and 2021, but all of this 2025 business is making the pandemic stress feel trivial by comparison. When I write, I need to tune out the world so I can get into my zone, but this world keeps refusing to let itself get tuned out…

 

writing.

Please don’t send me your stuff

Quick PSA: 

Unless I have an existing, mutually agreed-upon working relationship with you, please do not send me your writing for critique, review, or other professional feedback.

I don’t have the time to read your stuff, and I don’t want the legal exposure. Even if I did have the time to read your novel—which I don’t because my schedule is stacked with my own projects—I can’t look at what you send me because I don’t want to be on the receiving end of a future lawsuit that claims I ripped off your work in one of my own stories. 

(And no, I am not interested in writing a novel with or for anyone else, regardless of how amazing your idea may be, or how certain you are that it will lead to untold riches for us both. See the paragraph above about the legal exposure thing.)

I get such requests on a semi-regular basis, but they’ve picked up lately for some reason, so I am putting this out here to discourage future requests. This isn’t me pulling the ladder up and thinking I am too good to help out new writers. It’s to protect myself against copyright claims and to minimize the chances of someone showing up at my place one day with a framing hammer, a bunch of zip ties, and an unshakeable conviction that I stole their idea for a novel. 

the palladium wars. writing.

Work in progress is progressed

As you can see from the progress bar to the right, the novella for the secret project is done. As it often happens, I overshot my word count target, but in this case I overshot it by rather a lot. I had planned for 19,000 words give or take a thousand and ended up with 27,000.

No, I can’t tell you yet what it is because I am not at liberty to spill the beans. But rest assured that I’ll share the news as soon as I can.

Now I get to take a few days off to reset the brain, and then it’s full speed ahead with the next two projects: finishing the Halley story (which you should see out this quarter), and starting the draft for Palladium Wars #5, the as-of-yet-untitled “E” novel. Because 47North passed on continuing the series, I’ll be publishing that one independently, so you should see it in the first half of this year.

I’ve also been working on some new short fiction and a few other fun projects, so stay tuned for more news and UNEXPECTED FICTION-SHAPED SURPRISES.

travel. writing.

Our combination anniversary getaway/working vacation

 

Last weekend, the wife and I went to Quebec City for three days to celebrate our anniversary (21 years!), recharge our batteries, and plan out some new stories together. We stayed at a nice hotel in the old city, went to the German Christmas Market and did some shopping, ate fantastic meals, and generally had a wonderful time in one of the most beautiful places on the continent. 

We came back with detailed outlines for five books–a brand new science fiction trilogy and two more Frontlines: Evolution installments–so I’d say the mission was an unqualified success. It was great to be able to bounce new ideas off each other away from the distractions and interruptions of our regular everyday lives. I think we’ll make these planning sessions a regular event from now on.

Oh, and Quebec City is amazing. This was my third time there and I’ve enjoyed every minute of every trip. It’s the city that has the most European feel of any place I’ve visited in North America. The people are uniformly friendly and very forgiving of my lousy French, the food is stellar, and it’s great to be able to make an international trip by car instead of having to put up with holiday season airline travel. It’s just a five-hour drive from our place, and we had all the advantages of being able to haul our own stuff and take back food and souvenirs without having to worry about space or luggage allowances.

conventions. travel. writing.

The public lives of writers (and the urge to comment thereon)

When I was in Glasgow for Worldcon, I shared a few pictures on my Instagram account. Among them were shots of the full Scottish breakfast I got to use as fuel for the day.

Someone commented on the post that I should “eat less and write more.” I’m sure the person who left that comment had no ill intent and meant it as a compliment of sorts, but it still rubbed me the wrong way just a little bit.

What I do—what all writers I know do as well—is informed and fueled by our lives. We synthesize our personal experiences and perspectives and turn them into fiction. In order to do that well, we have to, you know, live our lives. I do most of my work in a room by myself with just me and the screen or the notebook in front of me. Whenever I don’t work, I need to step out into life and refill those experience bars again, and I also like to meet old friends and eat good food because those are the sort of things that sustain me and keep me at my desk the rest of the time. In fact, whenever I go without them too long, I feel my writing dropping in quality because it’s not healthy to live almost exclusively in your own head and let those socialization and experience bars go down to nothing. The trip to Glasgow was, in fact, only my second trip of the entire year, and the only one that was work-related. I got to see writer friends I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic, and it was a much-overdue event for my mental health.

When you tell me to cut out enjoying that part of my life and go back to my office, you irritate me and spoil my enjoyment, and you make me pull back from sharing my life in public in order to avoid getting irritated and having my joy spoiled. It’ll also make my work less enjoyable in the long run because I’ll eventually suffer a creative slump or burnout if I am locked in the office by myself all year. Neither of those outcomes are in any way positive for either you or me.

I guess what I am trying to get across is this—writers are not vending machines, so please don’t treat your favorite authors as such, even if it implies that you love our writing so much that you’d rather we never did anything else so you can get your fictional treats more quickly. We need time to restock so you won’t be stuck with the stale novella in slot C5 that’s been put there without much care by a tired and overworked brain. Please think before you comment, and let us have a life outside of work as well without making us feel bad for it.

conventions. frontlines: evolution travel. writing.

CORVUS draft and Worldcon after-action report

As you can tell from the progress bar in the sidebar to the right, I have finished the first draft of CORVUS, the second installment in the Frontlines: Evolution series. It’s with the editor now, and I’ll see it again in a few weeks to begin the developmental edits, but for now it’s off my desk.

I spent a long weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, where I attended the Alfie awards dinner thrown by George R.R. Martin, honoring the authors whose works had been inexplicably punted off the shortlist by the powers in charge at the Chengdu Worldcon last year. I also spent much of Saturday at the con, where I got to meet up with some old friends I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic, so that was lovely. The travel itself was another story altogether. I took the draft of CORVUS with me to finish it on the way (spoiler warning–I didn’t finish it on the way), and deadline stress plus travel anxiety combined into a new and special cocktail of stress that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But I finished the draft in my hotel room on Friday, literally two hours before the awards dinner, and everything was much more fun and relaxing once I hit “Send” on that email to my editor and agent.

In the wake of the con, a lot of people reported testing positive for COVID, including a good friend with whom I spent time at a pub on Saturday night, and several people who went to the same awards dinner I attended. I’ve tested negative three times since Sunday and I feel fine, so I hope I made it through a busy con and two packed airports without catching it.

I got back on Monday and took the last few days to recover from the combination of travel and deadline stress, but now it’s back to work. I have a project to keep me busy until I get the editor notes for CORVUS back, but I can’t disclose that one yet, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it’ll be cool and awesome.

Once I turn in this secret project, my schedule for the rest of the year consists of writing Palladium Wars #5, which doesn’t have a name yet. I aim to have that one done by the end of December, for a release in the first quarter of next year. I have news on the future of the Palladium Wars series, but that’s a matter for another post.

Anyway–the year is already almost two thirds of the way done, and there’s plenty of work to be done in that last third, so I’d best get to it. More news to follow soon!

 

art. fountain pens. writing.

A magic wand for tattooing dead trees

The piston knob on my favorite fountain pen broke recently, so I sent the pen (a Lamy 2000) off to the mothership in Germany for warranty repair. It came back a little while ago, with a delivery note listing the repairs which were performed at no charge. That’s some awesome customer service for a pen I bought eleven years ago.

I started a new notebook for the current manuscript in January, but I had to use one of my other pens for the first few chapters because the Lamy 2000 was out of commission. I can tell by the quality of the handwriting changing mid-page when I got the 2000 back because it looks cleaner and neater. I put a lot of miles on that pen over the years–I wrote the first drafts of TERMS OF ENLISTMENT and LINES OF DEPARTURE with it–so I’m glad to have it back for the next decade of novel-writing.

I don’t usually do product recommendations (except for my own novels, of course), but I’ll make an exception for the fantastic notebooks I found on Amazon last year. Before I came across those, I wrote in Moleskines until their paper quality started going downhill, at which point I switched to Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, but these new ones are head and shoulders above even the Leuchtturms, and they cost about one third as much. If you’re a fellow ink-and-pen writer, you need to give them a try. The pages are sewn, so they lie flat no matter where you open the notebook, the notebooks are sturdy, and the paper is seriously thick–probably twice as thick as the ones on the Moleskines. There is no ink I’ve tried that will bleed or show through on the other side of the page, and it’s smooth paper with just a little bit of tooth, perfect for fountain pen nibs. The best part is the price: they’re twelve bucks for a pair. I throw another pack into my shopping cart pretty much every time I order other stuff, and I have enough now to keep me in first draft notebooks for the next six or seven novels.

Here’s the link if you’re interested. Stock up while they have inventory because you won’t find a better notebook, especially not for a mere six bucks a pop.