Two weeks ago, I got the fabulous news that my Analog novelette, “Apollo in Retrograde” won the Sidewise Award for alternate history. People have been asking me what is next. Now that I have come back down to Earth–kinda mostly–I do intend to return to the timeline in which a woman astronaut is the second person to set foot on the Moon. However, I had thought to put this off until after completing other writing projects. Like many writers, I find there are always stories agitating to be written right away. Hence, it’s always something of a dilemma as to which one to do next.
Almost a year ago, I completed the sequel to “Apollo in Retrograde” and got valuable feedback from some astute first readers. However, I set it aside as I worked on more time-consuming fiction. As so often happens, the revisions grew in my mind until they seemed like an enormously tricky task, one that I began to doubt I could pull off. So I turned to other stories needing to be written or revised or polished up. Now, I have no excuse. Now is the time to dig into this next draft. The working title is “Orbital Handshake,” which has a dual meaning.
Please wish me luck.
