I’m Mike Beller, aka M. Patrick Beller, aspiring science fiction writer. Here’s some more basic information about my embryonic writing career, in mock-interview form.
Aspiring? As in, non-published? That’s right. In late 2016 I started writing my first novel, tentatively titled Firebreak. It’s actually the first in a planned series. Firebreak is a better name for the overall series than the book itself, but I haven’t come up with a better name for the book, so it’s Firebreak for now. It took me two years of writing/editing/revising/etc. to get Firebreak and its 115,000 words to something I feel is good enough to send to prospective agents. I have yet to find an agent who is interested. So, if you are an agent who came across this site, I’d love to talk to you…
So you spent two years writing a novel and haven’t written anything else. Good plan. I did take a break in the middle of writing Firebreak to pen a short story, which I desultorily shopped around before going back to the novel. Now that the novel is complete for now, I plan to write some additional short stories and sell or self-publish them.
Why do you write science fiction? Because I like to ponder the future of humanity through character-driven stories. Yes, I spent too much time drafting corporate mission statements in my past life.
Love it!
Love your irreverent style!
I really enjoy the unpretentious tone and self-deprecating wit reflected in your initial blog post.
This is the review of the Tangani short story that Amazon says can’t be posted since I am a relative. As a fellow author, I stand by my words in the 5 star review I wrote:
Great short story, love to read more from this author
This is a great short story, written by someone who understands the reality of what often happens historically to first colonizations–think Jamestown, Plymouth and the Lost Colony of Roanoke. What is special here is that the author let the story tell the tale and was brutally honest with his ending. Great characterizations also, Yadra is a powerful character and even Pallo has a strong personality! I’d love to read more from this author and hope he will be adding more stories soon.
As a non-Beller, I find this website intriguing and I will look forward to future posts!
Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just
your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and everything.
Nevertheless imagine if you added some great visuals or video clips
to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and
clips, this site could definitely be one of the very best in its niche.
Awesome blog!
Mike – I worked briefly in your IT organization a few years ago (I think -I was part of the AMS merger). It’s excited to hear that you’re trying to move towards writing full-time. I just finished my first novel (also sci-fi) but went the self-publishing route instead. It would be interesting to hear some of your feedback on the challenges (and rewards?) of pursing traditional representation. I look forward to reading more of your work. Best of luck.
Kurt, thanks for reaching out. To be honest, I don’t remember you, but given all the various mergers/splits/spin-offs that AMS went through it’s certainly possible that I just forgot.
Thus far, I’ve had no luck with traditional representation for my novel (about 25 or so rejections, with one or two adding useful feedback). My current tactic is to self-publish some shorter stories, try to build a base of readers with this, then resubmit the novel the traditional route, hoping that I can reference this base of readers as a selling point. I’ve got two self-published right now, neither of which is selling very well. Marketing is my downfall…
Is “Rare Earth” your new novel? I’ll try to read it and give it a review.