Early Rising

Long days lead to longer nights

Hey! When does the sun rise where you are?

The recent summer solstice marked the beginning of a series of festivals — at least where I live.

La Fête de la musique (Music Day) here in France started everything off strong with a lot of noise in the air. That then fed into a local block party over the weekend, and a special event in a nearby park.

All that to say, I’m a little tired as I write these words.

Last Leg

To keep the news coming, I want to make sure everyone is aware this is the last week to submit something to Sidereal Times.

Even if you’re not sure whether or not your writing is “good enough” or “fits the theme”, go ahead and submit it anyway!

There’s nothing to lose and the criteria is pretty forgiving.

As a reminder, here is a simple version of the rules:

1. Write something about a battle

2. Send it to siderealtimespublication@gmail.com

I will also say that if you’re struggling to refine your idea into words, a rough draft is fine. This isn’t a report or a presentation, it’s all about self-expression.

As long as it is you, there is no wrong way to do it.

There’s a quote from a Questlove interview that captures that spirit — he talks about a very complex technique in music, but that’s not important here.

I love how the conclusion is about how moving further from perfection makes art more human.

“The sloppier that you deliver it, the more heartfelt and human it is.”

Facing Forward

The other thing on my mind is the soon-to-be released project I have for Buildspace Season 5: Lux Aeterna.

I’ve settled into calling it a cross between a novella and an anthology collection, but there’s more to it than that.

I’m not sure when or where would be a better time, so I’m putting down some thoughts about what this project means to me here and now. It’s very likely this will be edited into what becomes the forward!

The short pieces of prose that make up the bulk of the book started as a personal coping mechanism. When I was at one of my lowest points, I would write these short segments as a way to find the human inside of an otherwise soulless machine.

Generally, that was appreciated and I received praise for caring at all — even the tiniest sign of life could ignite into a passionate fire.

Now, that’s all very abstract so I’ll break it down into easy-to-understand terms.

The anthology aspect of Lux Aeterna is what I wrote to survive.

When I started putting those little vignettes together into a collection, the idea of a meta-story also began surfacing. Rather than simply presenting my work as is, I thought it may be more interesting to weave it into a larger narrative.

A more abstract representation of that life, distancing my personal truth and perhaps developing into something more broadly engaging and appealing.

Slowly, the image of an old janitor walking through lonely office halls formed in my mind. At first, I didn’t believe he needed some grand motive, and enjoyed placing more mystery in the overt references to ancient Abrahamic themes.

However, that shifted when I saw an opportunity to tie everything into the world of Maneus.

After another rewrite, I’m happy to have Lux Aeterna act as an intermission between Rhean and Maneus.

The setting, the title, and the themes match the growing universe I’ve created. I then can only hope that adds to, rather than subtracts from, the experience of reading all my stories.

And of course, my sister Molly is working hard to make sure I have the right art to illustrate the cover and themes of the book!

Mixing Methods

With the sun — or at least light from the sun — rising before 5 AM these days, sleep is blurring the line with fatigue.

Those rays of everlasting hope have me turning round and round in my bed, but I’m sure it will all settle down soon enough.

At the very least, I can’t wait to have Lux Aeterna out and in the world.

Until next time.

—JMB