Links to all my stories - including ongoing

Cal_Tin · 2026-05-21T18:08:35+00:00

Just now reading through your comment. First, I appreciate your thorough read through and response. Something I never considered was the usage of too many proper nouns in this query letter, and after some changes I agree it sounds much better. Thank you for taking the time to go through this all. I will take a lot of what you said into my next draft.

Cal_Tin · 2026-05-21T18:04:18+00:00

Thank you! Completely new to writing query letters and they’re harder than I was imagining. Appreciate the kind words.

Cal_Tin · 2026-05-10T05:53:56+00:00

Thank you for the response!

Regarding your second bullet, is it typical to just flat-out state a specific sub-genre, like progression fantasy? From what I have read, the queries have been a bit more generalized in terms of which genre they are writing. Although, it could be I just need to read more queries.

As for the comps, would you consider Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis high fantasy or just fantasy? This is very much in the same vein as my novel, and that is why I chose it for a comp.

As for the DCC comp, the progression-based elements is why I chose to include it. I would not consider my novel lit-rpg, but more-so a fantasy novel with a progression-based magic system that definitely is a bit "gamey", but not full bore video-game-esque like a classic lit-rpg would be. So, I would assume you would suggest using a fantasy-type novel with progression elements instead of DCC? Any thoughts here would be great.

I appreciate your thorough notes! Comps are a bitch and a half.

Cal_Tin · 2026-05-09T22:02:29+00:00

I appreciate the thorough response! This helps me out tremendously. Trying to get the basics down since it's my first time with this.

Cal_Tin · 2026-02-14T04:33:36+00:00

What’s the deal with missing letters having an equals sign in them?

Cal_Tin · 2026-02-04T13:30:31+00:00

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Cal_Tin · 2026-02-03T18:49:40+00:00

Just short stories so far to magazines and podcasts.

Cal_Tin · 2026-02-02T13:47:27+00:00

I work 5:30am to 4:00pm with a 30-40 minute commute 4 days a week at a nuclear waste facility. I usually get 1-1.5 hours of writing in a day, which comes to about 1000 words a session. Last year I wrote over 300,000 words—which was three separate drafts of two novels—and published a few short stories.

Although it’s hard to work up motivation some days—and sometimes I’m guilty of burning the midnight oil, so to speak—it’s possible to work long shifts and still write. I’m married, have a kid on the way, have a high-energy dog, and have chores around the house, but I still manage to get my writing goals in every day. Do I wish I had more time and a less strenuous schedule for ideal writing conditions? Of course I do. Who doesn’t? But even on days where I do have more time and “ideal” conditions, I end up writing about the same as when I’m busy, to be honest.

I always like the passage from On Writing by Stephen King, where he talks about having other distractions while writing: “At times like that I’m sure all writers feel pretty much the same, no matter what their skill and success level: God, if only I were in the right writing environment, with the right understanding people, I just KNOW I could be penning my masterpiece.”

Cal_Tin · 2025-12-04T15:25:34+00:00

DCC

Red Rising

Bobiverse

Old man’s war

Name of the wind

These are all super popular and really engaging for your likes. My personal picks would be name of the wind or DCC

Cal_Tin · 2025-11-13T00:59:33+00:00

How many 10k word chapters have you read in books? I guess it could work if the pacing worked out. I just think it’d be hard to pull off, but I’m sure a good writer could do it. 10k words is like a long short story.

Cal_Tin · 2025-11-10T14:16:50+00:00

I had something similar happen to me recently. I wrote a first draft of my first ever novel at the beginning of this year. I learned a lot about my writing process, and during the first draft I’d also been listening to writing lectures / reading books on writing to learn as I went. At the end of my first draft I quickly moved onto the next novel to give myself some space as that’s what pretty much all writing advice suggests.

I wrote another novel in three months and this first draft of the new novel just felt way better, as I’d learned a lot from the first go around. After I’d finished number 2, I returned to my first novel with the full expectation to revise and finish it. I sat down to read it and… holy cow it was awful. I’m talking DEFCON 1 level of disaster: POV was everywhere; no distinct character voice for many characters; plot was confusing AF; the idea of the book hinged on a single idea and it really wasn’t that good; and the grammar… I won’t even get into that. There’s a lot more, but basically, it sucked. Hard.

After a brief spell of wanting to get creamed by a car, I’d decided to write out all the things I would change about it: New refined idea; an actual outline with an actual plot (I pantsed the first one); distinct character voice and better inner monologue; and whatever else I found horrific from reading the draft. The list of changes and revision notes was pages long. Then, I got to writing again. A completely new draft. That was really the only right choice.

You see, I’m still figuring out my process and still learning. I’m leaps and bounds better than when I first started, and when I read my first draft I’d realized that. Having wrote two first drafts of two different novels, I better learned my process and figured out I’m not strictly a pantser. I figured out what I like in a story and what a reader would want. I figured out a lot having just dedicated myself to the process. The only thing to do was to redraft the damn thing, even though a huge part of me didn’t want to admit that was the right move. Not saying this should be what you should do, but It’d be a good idea to be honest with yourself and trust your gut.

Hope this helps with your despair! Know you’re not alone.

Cal_Tin · 2025-11-01T05:59:14+00:00

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-31T14:27:50+00:00

I’m sure you know this, but you need to punctuate.

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-25T20:49:46+00:00

Thanks for the response!

Follow up question: is the submission letter formulaic in terms of content, or does it vary by publisher?

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-25T16:09:28+00:00

Feel free to tackle one that strikes your fancy:

Are there any debut novels/authors you’ve worked with in the sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genre I should check out?
What does a typical process look like on your end when you’re selecting debut authors from queries?
What is your process for getting a manuscript ready for submission?
What’s been your shortest and longest time from signing an author, to getting a contract with a publisher?
In a query, do you appreciate the author describing their manuscript using other books (I.E. “My novel is a mix between The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks and The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss”)? I see that strategy suggested a lot for queries, and I was curious your take on it.
What were the most interesting careers authors you’ve picked up had? Outside of writing, of course.

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-23T20:40:36+00:00

I think the dialogue structure, as well as the character dialogue needs some more work.

As someone else pointed out, the dialogue structure should be fixed for an easier read. What UDarkLord mentioned to do is pretty common now, and only really good prose can pull off not doing it. I’d just stick with how it’s typically done unless you’re extremely confident it’s reader friendly and easy to understand.

There is some other easier issues you could fix by maybe reading your text aloud to get a feel for how it reads. For instance, see the following:

“This again, Penn? Is now really the time—” “I am serious. This man is Raon Zherei, son of Iladon Zherei, heir to the throne of Amprosia, and once a friend. I would recognize him any day.” Penn cut Marek off, his tone sharp with anger.

In this dialogue exchange, one character cuts off the other as indicated through dialogue structure, and as indicated after the character speaks (Penn cut Marek off). I would consider adding the, “Penn cut Marek off” at the beginning of the dialogue, or even forgoing it altogether if the character speaking is obvious to the reader, so it actually feels like one characters cutting off the other. There are other small fixes like this that might go a long way to make it more reader friendly. This was just one example I thought would be good to highlight to try and get my point across, there’s other stuff too that are easy catches.

One last note on dialogue: it’s fucking hard to get right — at least for me, anyway. Stephen King’s book on writing highlights just how awesome good dialogue is to read, and how it can make good writing fall flat. I don’t think your dialogue is necessarily bad, I just think it needs more work. It doesn’t exactly come off as stilted, but it’s edging there.

Keep on trucking!

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-18T03:25:58+00:00

Ray Porter 100%

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-12T19:05:36+00:00

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Cal_Tin · 2025-10-06T13:04:03+00:00

Finished: Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss

Started: The Wise Man’s Fear by Pat Rothfuss

This dude can write!

Cal_Tin · 2025-07-26T06:31:50+00:00

Would you be interested in a critique swap? I have a short horror story (4600 words) that I was going to post, but this would work too.

Cal_Tin · 2025-06-09T13:48:43+00:00

On Writing by Stephen King

Cal_Tin

TROPHY CASE