My Year End Summary

It felt like a slow year, but the year had other plans...

TL;DR: Quick Summary If You Don’t Want To Read the Whole Email!

This is a long email, so I’ve summarized it here in case you don’t want to read it all!

Despite feeling like I didn’t accomplish much this year, in retrospect, it seems I did quite a bit! Over time, small things add up to a whole lot.

This year I published only one story, and in 2024, I have just one story forthcoming, so far. I’ve completed four new short stories, a novel, and a novella, so more sales will (hopefully) be on the way soon! I participated in seven podcasts and/or panel discussions. I was quoted in four news articles, including The Wall Street Journal. I published six Substack posts. I completed eight 3d renders. My Moksha submissions system processed ~90,000 submissions. And I co-hosted a successful year of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series with Ellen Datlow.

I summarize my feelings of 2023 and writing during times of anxiety. And finally, I talk about what’s in store for me in ‘24, with a new potential writing-related podcast that I might be starting with Mercurio D. Rivera.

Writing-wise, I think 2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year! I hope you’ll stick around to see what happens.

-Matthew Kressel

Our story continues below…

Stories Published in 2023

I only had one story published this year, but one I’m quite proud of! In “Sword of the Silent,” Ven Zenara is raised as a member of the secret order of The Silence. When humans visit her planet, bringing news of a sprawling galactic civilization, Ven conspires to access humanity’s vast library archives, but what she discovers buried there could upset millennia of her people’s sacred history.

• “Sword of the Silent.” Unioverse: Stories of the Reconvergence, edited by Angie Hodapp and Joshua Viola, Hex Publishers. English language. August 15, 2023. ISBN 979-8986219400.

Stories Forthcoming in 2024 (so far…)

As of this writing, in 2024 I have one upcoming reprint of my short story, “Your Future is Pending,” about a struggling woman who is tasked with repairing the robots that keep people alive while they spend most of their time in virtual worlds.

• A reprint of “Your Future is Pending” will be appearing in the Kaleidocast podcast sometime in early ‘24

Stories Completed

In the last few months I’ve completed several stories which I’m quite proud of. I hope you’ll see them published soon! They are:

• “The Cartographer’s Sky” - Fantasy. A medieval painter discovers a secret network of tunnels underneath his town cemetery that leads to some very strange places. (Currently on submission)

• “Movie Night” - Science Fiction. A door-to-door salesman of AI replicas of dead relatives struggles to find his own humanity. (Currently on submission)

• “Five Hundred KPH Toward Heaven” - Science Fiction. A retiring space-elevator operator struggles leaving the job she loves. (Currently on submission)

• “Like Seeds Across the Stars” - Science Fiction. A chief botanist in charge of cataloging all the plants humanity has encountered in the galaxy discovers a new species that might be sentient. (Currently on submission)

Novels and Novellas

I finished my science fiction novel, Space Trucker Jess, and my agent put it out on submission a few months ago. I’m super excited about this novel, because I think it’s some of my best work, and also, it was absolutely incredibly fun to write. And my novella, How Far We’ve Come, How Far We Must Go, is also some of my best work. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten on both so far, I suspect you’ll be seeing at least one of these real soon.

• Space Trucker Jess - Novel, Science Fiction. When Jess’s father gets arrested for running cryptocredit scams in the gas bays, she’s forced to get a job as a roachrunner, repairing starships to survive. But when her father goes missing from the local prison, Jess goes on an odyssey across the galaxy to find him. She will encounter missing planets, alien gods, and a sprawling secret that just might change the future of humanity forever. (Currently on submission)

• How Far We’ve Come, How Far We Must Go - Novella, Science Fiction. A former social media influencer is hired by a Martian magazine to document the adventure of a group of pilgrims trekking across the plains of Mars, hoping to be the first humans to experience rain on another world. (Currently on submission.)

Podcasts and Panel Discussions

I was on Geeks Guide to the Galaxy five times in ‘23, as well as a few panels. I really love doing podcasts. They’re great excuses to geek out about things I love alongside super smart (and also geeky) folks. I already have a few podcasts scheduled for ‘24, including one about the Frank Herbert’s third book in the Dune saga, Children of Dune.

• Podcast: David Cronenberg Movies, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy #553, November 3, 2023

• Podcast: Tim Shields; Ann Charles: & Matthew Kressel, The Stuph File #0741, October 29, 2023

• Panel Discussion: Creating Hope in Times of Trouble, WeHo Reads, October 19, 2023

• Podcast: Charlie Kaufman Movies, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy #549, September 8, 2023

• Podcast: Awesome 70s Sci-Fi Movies, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy #543, June 16, 2023

• Podcast: Dune Messiah Book Club, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy #537, February 24, 2023

• Panel Discussion: Hopepunk & Optimistic Futures, TBRCon2023 Panel 29, January 29, 2023

Articles

I was quoted in four news articles, including in The Wall Street Journal, all about AI, specifically AI-generated submissions flooding the SFF short story market. These days, AI is appearing everywhere, and promising everything, and you can be sure this won’t be the last time you’ll hear writers griping about how destabilizing AI is.

• Article: In the SFF Crisis Over AI, It’s Humans You Can’t Trust, File 770, July 24, 2023

• Article: AI Junk Is Starting to Pollute the Internet, The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2023

• Article: Sci-Fi Publishers Are Bracing for an AI Battle, WIRED.com, February 27, 2023

• Article: AI-generated fiction is flooding literary magazines — but not fooling anyone, The Verge, February 25, 2023 

Substack Posts

I published six Substack posts this year, including this one. That’s not as many as I’d hoped, but work and familial responsibilities pulled me away. I hope to publish more writing-related posts in ‘24.

• Don’t Limit Yourself to Just One Medium

• Short Story Critique

• Emotional Honesty

• In a World with AI, Why Should Anyone Keep Writing?

• Writing Dry Spells

3D Art

I made eight new 3d renders in 2023, all of which I’m proud of. I haven’t had a lot of time these last few months to make a new render, but I have a few in the pipeline I hope to release soon. Here’s my ‘23 renders:

“Weeping Rose”

“Ringlit Pier”

“On a Clear Day”

“Desert Temple”

“Offshore Space Elevator”

“Old CO2 Scrubber Tower”

“Saturn Spa”

“Saturn Sky”

Fantastic Fiction at KGB

The Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series that I co-host with Ellen Datlow has roared back to life this year after a slow ramping up post Covid lockdowns. We’ve seen some of the largest crowds ever at recent readings, and many new faces. I was worried the series wouldn’t survive Covid, but it now seems stronger than ever. We also have lots of great guests scheduled for ‘24.

Moksha

My Moksha submissions system has quietly chugged along, supporting the genre (and other) publishing industries. I rolled out a major facelift and made hundreds of small and large improvements. My little submissions system that could has processed almost 90,000 submissions in ‘23, from all over the world, and we’ve seen lots of new publishers begin to use the system. I never imagined Moksha would have gone so far when I first started it! (Please make sure to read the guidelines before you submit!)

My Personal Thoughts on 2023

In our culture of instant gratification, dopamine saturation, and endless content production, there is a pressure to always “produce”, to be productive. But that noise can be antithetical to good art. We need to be patient with ourselves and with our art. The most enduring works take time, and can’t be done in public view. We must find our quiet spaces to create, away from the noise, so we can focus.

The world in ‘23 has been an increasingly chaotic space. From the personal to the political, the micro to the macro, it seems as if all our cherished and beloved things are under attack. Life feels hard. With a device in our pocket that we can pull out and escape into at any moment, it’s too easy to use them to hide from the very real problems of the world. And it can be difficult, amidst all these external stressors, to put our art on hold. But I believe that art is the one thing that can save society, the one thing we desperately need more of. We need better stories, hopeful stories, optimistic stories. We need stories that show us the way out of darkness.

We need more STEAM in STEM. We need more Arts (and Humanities) with our Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. All our fancy technologies mean nothing if we fail to recognize the humanity in each other.

What’s Coming from Me in 2024

I have several long and short works presently out on submission, so look for sales announcements coming soon from me. Also, Mercurio D. Rivera and I have discussed starting a new writing-related podcast, to be named, which I’m getting increasingly excited about. And, though much delayed, I’m working on a Dungeons & Dragons 5E supplement/adventure based on the setting and monsters in my novel King of Shards.

All in all, I’m excited about what’s in store in ‘24, and I’ll hope to share my adventures with you!

Wishing you a healthy, safe, and happy new year.

-Matthew Kressel

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If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting me by buying some of my books, including my novels King of Shards and Queen of Static. Thank you!