Hey, there! I discovered a thing about myself that I find kinda cool. Because I’ve only a few years under my belt as an author, I’m still learning what my process is after finishing a novel. And guess what? It seems I really like writing short stories in between larger projects.

I had to ditch NaNo this month because I felt totally burnt out on wording. Smart decision for me, too. I’m glad I made that call. With The Stealth Lovers awaiting editing with the Renaissance folks, I can heave a massive sigh at having the heavy lifting done for that book.

But my short hiatus was even shorter than I expected. I saw a writing prompt for a pretty awesome looking anthology called Space Opera Libretti, and I got inspired. Their submission deadline is Dec 31, 2018. Here’s their Kickstarter page, too.

I thought, I could write a space opera about an opera company. That would make it a space opera space opera. And so, The Silken Eclipse was born. And am I ever having a blast with this one. It’s so great to go back into my comfort zone of absurdist humour—and aliens, of course. And true-to-form, there is dessert in this story. Except in an Easter egg sort of way. One of my characters has a last name that’s actually a Russian pastry (spelled differently of course). It’s amazing how I keep this running gag going after I realized I mentioned dessert too much the first few jotted chapters of Life in the ’Cosm, then decided to exploit that to the full instead of deleting it. (There are aliens enjoying desserts in The Stealth Lovers as well.)

Whether The Silken Eclipse will make it into the anthology is anyone’s guess. But I’m grateful that there are people out there who love silly sci-fi, and that they woke up my desire to use words again.

I’ll keep you posted! And check out the anthology if you want to have fun with words, too!

Cait Gordon is the author of Life in the ’Cosm (Renaissance) and The Stealth Lovers (Renaissance 2019). When she’s not writing, Cait’s editing manuscripts and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors manage disabilities and/or chronic conditions. She’s also teamed up with co-editor Talia C. Johnson on the Nothing Without Us anthology (call for submissions are ongoing until Dec 31, 2018.)