Synopsis Hell & Spaceport Blues

Writing synopses don't have to be hard, plus new art

So you may have heard I sold a novella to Tordotcom publishing (tentatively titled The Rainseekers), which is really cool, and I’m super excited about it (it comes out in ‘26). And so my agent, Ethan Ellenberg, being awesome, suggested that I immediately pitch them another book, in the hopes that I might have a series of related titles come out consecutively.

“Great!” I said, “What do you need?”

“Start with a pitch letter,” Ethan said, which I wrote, and subsequently sent it to him. And his response was, “I love it, now write me a three-to-five page synopsis.”

He did not see my face through email, but I was a deer in headlights. I went into (quiet) panic mode.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing. I love writing long things. But my process, as of late, has been more pantsting than plotting. Much of the fun of writing for me is in the discovery. I dreaded that if I plotted everything out, I’d sap the fun (much the same way the dreaded lantern fly is sucking the life out of my new native flower garden.)

Fast forward to today. After much hemming and hawing and procrastinating (not all of it my fault), I have written a (really) rough draft of a synopsis. And the thing is: I like it. I’m excited about the story, and I can’t wait to start.

I’m not done. I still have lots of tweaking to do. But the thing that liberated me, after talking to many people about this, people who pants rather than plot, is that you don’t have to hew too closely to the synopsis. Think of it merely as a guide. This has helped. I no longer fear being bound to something. I’m still free to explore, but I have a map to guide my way in case I get lost.

And as all self-respecting nerds know, maps are cool.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Oh, and this:

“A Little Early for the Bazaar” by me

I recently finished this artwork ("A Little Early for the Bazaar") that depicts a scene from my forthcoming novel, Space Trucker Jess, out next year from Fairwood Press. On the planet Gilder Nefan, a few deep space traders arrive too early for the quarterly Bazaar.

Gilder Nefan is a planet in the Outer Deep, at the fringe of the galaxy, where the local population shun technology and live pious lives, communing with god-like entities called Numens. To facilitate this communication, they smoke or ingest a psychedelic drug known as sweet jisthmus, which opens their minds to higher dimensions of thought and reality. The Bazaar, a quarterly trade festival, brings in the much coveted jisthmus and many other needed things.

My forthcoming novella from Tordotcom publishing (tentatively titled The RainSeekers) takes place in this universe, as well as my short story “Five Hundred KPH Toward Heaven” coming out soon from Asimov’s, and I’m more than excited to share these creations with you.