So I wrote this science fiction book called Skylights.  You may have heard of it, I’ve mentioned it around here once or twice.  Skylights was written in 2013 or so but didn’t come out until September of 2014.   It’s about Mars.  You may remember another book about Mars that came out in February of 2014, a book by a guy named Andy Weir that I liked one enormous hell of a lot named The Martian.  Other than being set on Mars, there’s not actually a whole damn lot that the books have in common, but a lot of times people assume one inspired the other– and, well, nobody is assuming that the book that came out second was inspired by the way more well-known book that came out first– and that’s not the case.  I actually used “Like The Martian, only not quite as good” as a tongue-in-cheek advertising line for a little while.

Part of the reason there was such a long dry spell in between the releases of Searching for Malumba and Balremesh and other stories is that I tried to write the sequel to Skylights, got halfway through or so, and realized I was telling the wrong story.  It was garbage and I had to throw it all out.  As it turned out, the important story was Book One, which I’d already written, and Book Three, tentatively titled Moonlight.  Book Two was treading water in between.  It was unnecessary.

You may see where this is going.  Book Three, now Book Two, of what I’ve been mentally calling the Johannes Cycle was going to be Moonlight.  One guess where most of the action was going to take place.   I’ve even got the cover done!  It’s gorgeous and I love it!  And let me be clear that I’ve had this book at least tentatively planned for like five fucking years.

And I just started reading Andy Weir’s second book.  This fucking thing here:

God dammit, Andy.