Once again I’ve started in on what I figured would be a short story – a contribution for an anthology no less – and discovered that the story kind of really wants to be a novel.

Many of my novels have started out as short stories.

In a way, no surprise this time, since it’s a science fiction anthology and the theme is Megastructures – objects that are just vast. So, yeah, I guess my subconscious wanted to explore that large concept on a larger scale.

The anthology’s call is for a length somewhere between 3000 and 7000 words, and the new piece is already closing on 20,000.

And as if my subconscious is letting me know that it’ll get way bigger, the heroes haven’t even gotten to the megastructure yet. They’re just on their way. (More details might be considered spoilers, so they’ll show up when the book is available).

Mostly my novels come in at around 60,000 words, so I might be a third of the way there… then again, some have gone longer.

And the trick is I still have to circle back at some point and get a story in for that anthology. Under 7000 words.

In the meantime, there’s a lot of work ahead. I’ve whipped up a draft cover for the book, but it will be some time before it shows up. Maybe with a different title, maybe with a different image, but certainly all about intrepid explorers finding out all they can about a megastructure.

Guaranteed to be fun.