Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Archefire Newsletter! Long time no see, eh? It's been two months since my last update, and I wish I could say it was for a better reason. Ultimately, I just didn't have anything to share in October. Why, you ask?
I said I'd be doing my best to depart the strugglebus in October, but as you can see, that didn't really happen. Just two days after sending the October newsletter, I was in the ER (and no, unfortunately that doesn't mean Elden Ring this time). Food poisoning got me. From cheese pizza, of all things, and from a local place that we've ordered from, I don't know... three dozen times? (Never again!)
That hospital trip was genuinely the worst I can ever remember feeling. I was so dehydrated that my brain was shutting down. I remember losing consciousness for several seconds many times until I finally got some anti-nausea meds and a fluid IV in me. My wife Rachel ate the same pizza and got sick as well, but maybe because she had one fewer slice than me, it didn't hit her nearly as hard. She was a rockstar, taking care of me, getting me to the hospital, and figuring out childcare when Benny was due to be picked up from daycare. I'm a lucky man; I don't know what I'd do without her.
The highlight of October was that, although in the ER on Monday, we had a flight to Vegas on Friday for my friend's Elvis wedding. That was pretty much the only weekend I wasn't sick in October, and as soon as we got home, I was sick once again.
Scenes from the City of Sin.
Time for some quick maths! No, not calculating casino odds – it's sick maths!
When Rachel was pregnant, I read Emily Oster's Cribsheet, which is a statistician's perspective on parenting advice. One mindblowing fact from that book was that kids under school age have a cold on average 50% of the time during winter. That number is even higher for kids in group daycare, as Benny is.
At the same time, I've needed to go into the office for work more often, and I take SEPTA trains (I'm writing this on one of those trains right now!). If you're not from the Philadelphia area, you probably have no idea what's going on with SEPTA, so let me give you a quick rundown.
Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania state legislature deadlocked over a budget to cover SEPTA's several-hundred-million-dollar operating shortfall. SEPTA responded by making massive cuts to the regional rail and bus routes. But a few days after those cuts went through, a Philadelphia judge ruled that the cuts were unlawful, effectively forcing SEPTA to keep operating at a loss while drawing from its emergency "Service Stabilization Fund."
Roughly at the same time, there were a bunch of fires on these sometimes 50-year-old trains, triggering a long overdue federal inspection. SEPTA had to pull all 223 of its Silverliner IV cars from operation, and only 76 passed inspection without needing work before returning to service. The end result, as it affects me and other passengers, is that during rush hour, we're often boarding two-car trains instead of the usual four- or five- car trains. We're jammed in like sardines, often with standing room only.
Adding all this up, we've got 1) Benny and his developing immune system bringing home tons of incubating viruses from daycare, 2) me going into office twice as often on public transport, and 3) fully loaded trains with people in close quarters and poor ventilation during cold/flu/RSV/covid season. This is a grim equation, with the sum being that I've been sick almost continuously for about 3 months now. Every time I start to feel better, I'm hit with another virus and my poor, battered immune system can't handle it.
Right now, I'm roughly at the peak of this misery cycle, but the good news is that the trains will supposedly be back to normal in January and kids in daycare have overall stronger immune systems once they get through the initial one or two years. There is light on the horizon. And all things considered, I'm not that far behind my goals despite the hardship. Praise be to Advil (and Sudafed, and DayQuil, and Benadryl)!
Sibling Suns 3 Update
Against all odds, I've written 14,340 words since the last newsletter! Sure, that's one good month's output split over two months, but it's not half bad for a perpetually sick boy. And it puts this book at 40% complete. In order to catch up, I'd have to hit 50% by the end of the year. That's an additional 7 seven chapters, so it seems a bit unlikely. But still, I shouldn't be too far off! (Not like there are a bunch of holidays or anything to get in the way, right?)
Meanwhile, I've switched up the chapter order for this last stretch of Part II probably half a dozen times now. There are two main storylines happening simultaneously, so the goal is to find the right balance of switching between them without ruining the pacing of either one.
Now, could I just wait to do this when I'm finished with the first draft and working on edits, when things will inevitably be shuffled around anyway?
Yes. Yes, I could.
That's how I handled To Burn All Belief – I wrote every storyline one character at a time, then assembled them into a working story after the fact. But I've been trying to write Sibling Suns 3 sequentially, which is (oddly enough) something I've only done for Grave of the Waiting. That book, however, has only one point-of-view character, so the task is easy. With three main POVs, it's much harder to juggle.
Are there any benefits to doing it this way? I have no idea! I just like trying new things. My writing process changes for every single book. I wonder if I'll ever discover my ideal method and stick to it for all future books...
Speaking of Grave of the Waiting...
If you squint really hard, you can make out a familiar cover among this cohort. That's right! Grave of the Waiting is officially entered in the 5th Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC 5). My judges are Team ZAPS, and looking at the other contestants in my cohort, I must confess...
When I entered the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO), the X (or was it Twitter, at the time?) community was super hype for the competition, and I met a bunch of new authors who I still interact with to this day. But I also already knew a bunch of the authors in my group.
Not so with the SPSFC 5 group. I only recognize one name on the list – Adam Holcombe, and I'm more familiar with his cozy fantasy book, A Necromancer Called Gam-Gam. I didn't even know Adam had a sci-fi book! What's the deal with science fiction? I've always found it harder to find other sci-fi authors online (where are you all!?), and it's always been harder to market sci-fi to readers. Fantasy seems to be thriving in online spaces, while science fiction seems to have a much harder time.
It's a shame – there hasn't been a fraction of the excitement for this competition as there is for SPFBO every year. Perhaps that's because SPFBO has been a staple for over a decade now, with big-name author attached – Mark Lawrence, who actively engages with the community and posts about the competition. SPSFC also (theoretically) has a big author attached, Hugh Howey. But as much as I love Hugh Howey's books (the entire Silo series was a 5 star read), he doesn't seem to be actively involved with the project anymore. Too busy sailing the world in his yacht, I suppose, and who could blame him?
/** Side note: No joke, Hugh Howey just sent out a newsletter today – a rare occurrence – and it starts with some coordinates showing where he is. He really is on his yacht! About 450 miles off the coast of West Africa.
Anyway... moving on. **/
Another dark cloud that hangs over SPSFC's head is the controversy from last year's competition, when they removed Devon Eriksen's book, Theft of Fire, because of controversial statements he made online. I disagreed with that decision at the time, and said so publicly, and the result of it has been to tarnish the competition's reputation in the eyes of more conservative-leaning authors.
Anyway, I don't know all the reasons for this competition not generating as much buzz as I hoped it eventually would when I joined as a judge for its second year. But I'm still excited for any opportunity to get Grave of the Waiting in front of more readers. I'm very proud of that book despite its struggling to find an audience, and I think it has a shot to do well in the competition (assuming the judges aren't too put off by the horror elements in the back half of the story). Fingers crossed!
Speaking of Grave of the Waiting... again...
Did I mention how incredibly good this book is yet? It's my highest rated title at 4.78 stars. Like I said above, it has struggled to find an audience, but everyone who has read it has loved it. If you give it a shot, I think you will too!
Oh yeah, have you noticed that this is the obligatory shameless self-promotion section of the newsletter? You can bet your behind it is!
Let me tell you some more about this book and why I think it kicks ass. First of all, it's emotionally devastating. If you're looking for a book that hits you in the feels – and let's be honest: aren't we all? – then look no further. It's a horror book, so rest assured that no one is safe. Some characters are going to die, sure, but the point of the book is that some things are worse than death. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to think about what those things might be.
Second, I did the math. This is a hard science fiction book, meaning I did the calculations to make everything feel as realistic and grounded as possible. But you don't have to worry about any of that -- I made it as effortless as possible for you to understand the science and technology that underlies the characters' problem solving.
One of the strongest aspects of the book is the way in which the author makes the seemingly hard to understand, easy. It's full of scientific formulas, theories, technical slang, but he does an incredible job of making it easy to understand. – SFFInsiders
That's ultimately the thrust of the book: problem solving. Think of Andy Weir's books, The Martian or Project Hail Mary. The character is thrown into an uncompromising environment with nothing but scarce resources and his own wits to rely upon to survive. That's what this book is, except instead of one man stranded by himself, it's a dysfunctional team of five who can barely agree on anything, and the uncompromising environment has ancient horrors that they accidentally awaken in the midst of their struggles to survive. Oopsie!
I could go on about "how well thought out and full of personality all of the characters are," or how the plot is "not only thrilling and engaging from page one all to way to the end, but also filled with action, tons of drama, and numerous twists and turns."
But that would be too self-indulgent, even for me, so I'll stop there.
So if you're looking for a solid winter read (featuring a deadly ice planet!), then go pick up Grave of the Waiting from the Archefire Store.
And if you've already read the book and loved it, then please leave a review! We're only at 9 ratings and 6 reviews for this one on Goodreads (a grave travesty), so we've got a long way to go before catching up to the Sibling Suns series. Every little bit helps!
Books I Need to Review
While I haven't gotten as much writing done in the past two months as I've wanted, I have gotten much more reading done than usual. Maybe these things are correlated – being in absorption mode makes it harder to be in output mode?
At any rate, I'll first say that I haven't forgotten about that mini-book report-slash-review on C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength. I almost wonder if it's been too long since I've read them, with too many other books since then, for me to do a good job. Maybe I need to commit to writing these things when the experience of the books is still fresh. On the other hand, maybe waiting has its utility as well, serving as a filter for anything that wasn't memorable enough to stick with me.
I guess the only way to find out is to sit down and write the dang review. I know it must be done, but I find it hard to sit down and write reviews when I know I'm behind on Sibling Suns 3. And I haven't even mentioned that I've completely neglected to update the website for several months! :sob:
Another book I've finished recently is Sarah K. Balstrup's The Way of Unity. This is an introspective dark fantasy with philosophical and religious themes explored in quite lovely prose. I've been brutally DNF'ing indie books lately, but this one hooked me enough to get to the end. I intend to write a full review for this as well. For now, I can at least recommend it if you're in the mood for something a little more slow-burn and thoughtful.
My current read is Austringer's Wrath by E.L. Lyons, follow up to her Starlight Jewel, which I greatly enjoyed. Only about halfway through this one so far, but just like the first one, the sequel instantly hooked me. E.L. Lyons can write, and she isn't afraid of taking her beloved characters down some extremely dark roads. Can't wait to find out how this one ends!
Anyway, there are four or five other books I read and enjoyed, but I'm not planning on reviewing any of them. They were history and religious books, and writing reviews for those genres is entirely out of my wheelhouse. If you're really interested in seeing what they were, you can send me a friend request over on Goodreads. As horrendous as that site is, with Amazon essentially abandoning it, I am still loyal to my decade-old bookshelves. For better or worse (definitely worse).
Nazgul, His Infernal Barkness
With a name like that, you wouldn't expect him to be such a cute boy. And yet...
You might get the impression from these pictures that all he does is lay around looking cute. I can't blame you. He does do a fair bit of that.
But when he's not, he's running around like a wild animal, barking at every car and passersby outside our window, getting into Benny's toys, and just being an overall menace. Living up to his namesake. The problem is that it's really hard to get good pictures of him when he's doing that. I only think to pull out my phone when he's sunbathing on the sofa, looking majestic.
Or when he's hiding from the true menace of the house: Benjamin.
There's been a lot of that lately. And more to come, as Benny is crawling around like a madman himself. He stands a bit but doesn't quite know how to put one foot in front of the other yet.
When he does... Nazgul's days of peace might be over for good!
That's it for this month! Since you won't hear from me again until the New Year, Merry Christmas to all, and to all... please pray for me to have at least one week of health. That's not so much to ask for is it, Santa?
See you in 2026!
And as always, thanks for reading.
— Josh