Category: Fiction

2018 Roundup, 2019 Forecast

It’s that time of year, when we freelancers look back at what we accomplished and take a minute to feel good about everything instead of being stressed over what comes next. If you’ve read any of these things, thank you. (And if you haven’t, it’s not too late!)

Forthwith:

Things I published in 2018

Things I finished in 2018 that will appear in 2019

  • The Division: Broken Dawn, a novel linking the first and second Division games and expanding the lore beyond New York and Washington DC
  • “Isla Tiburon,” a short story in Asimov’s
  • A kids’ picture book adaptation of Avengers: Infinity War
  • A picture book adventure about Shuri and the Avengers
  • More stuff I can’t announce yet

 

Happy New Year! And thanks again for reading!

The Division: Broken Dawn

With The Division 2 coming up in March, Ubisoft is launching several related books, including a comic series, a lore book, and a prequel novel: Broken Dawn, written by yours truly. I’d always wanted to continue April Kelleher’s story after New York Collapse, and that’s part of what Broken Dawn is about. But there’s more! The book also sets up the narrative of The Division 2, while showing what the rest of the virus-ravaged United States looks like beyond New York and DC.

Broken Dawn is out March 26 in the US! Here’s the cover and jacket copy:

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Months after the outbreak of a devastating global pandemic that started in New York City on Black Friday, traces of rebirth are spreading across the United States. Spring has come to the nation, and with it a glimmer of hope as civilians band together in settlements, trying to carve out a better life.

Amidst a ruined government, a shattered infrastructure, and an eroding civilization, The Division – an autonomous unit of sleeper agents activated when all else fails – is all that protects the people from predators who would harm them, scavengers who would take from them, and oppressors who would exploit them.

Aurelio Diaz is one of those agents. A man of great honor, he is on the hunt for one of his colleagues who inexplicably abandoned his duty and caused the death of multiple civilians. This trail leads him to April Kelleher, a resourceful civilian who traveled out of New York into a troubled American Midwest. There, she hopes to understand why her husband was murdered and if an antiviral to the deadly disease exists.

Together, Agent Diaz and April soon uncover an imminent threat to the future of the country. They must act to preserve civilization’s last hope to stop a new virus and save itself from a final collapse.

Writing, Rejection, Revision: A Parable, Sort Of

I wrote a story and submitted it to a magazine.

It was rejected.

I took a look at it and changed a single line of dialogue in the ending.

I submitted it to a different magazine and it was accepted.

Things I will never know: Whether the first magazine would have accepted the story if I had changed that line before sending it to them. Whether the second magazine would have accepted the story if I had not changed the line.

Thing I do know: The story will be out in the spring.

Roundup: Interviews, New Short Stories

I feel like I’ve done a lot of talking over the past couple of months, mostly about The Comic Book Story of Baseball. If you care to listen to some of those conversations, here are links:

WBUR’s “Radio Boston,” with Anthony Brooks
“Baseball by the Book,” with Justin McGuire
“Beyond the Trope,” with Giles Hash (Tomm Coker’s on this one too!)

I also talked about life as a tie-in writer with Minister Faust, on MF Galaxy. (Whose novels you should read.)

On the short fiction front, the new issue of Lightspeed Magazine contains a new story of mine, “The Atonement Path.” Also, if you missed it back at the end of May, my short story “Black Friday” is up at Tor.com.

And, as always, there’s more stuff cooking on the various creative fronts. Stay tuned…