Hello, fellow travelers! September is here, and oh, what a month it has been. Buckle up: Some cool book updates coming up!

This is going to be a very geeky post, but trust me: if you’re the kind of reader who loves cracking open a book and immediately flipping to the map… this one’s for you. ✨🗺️

🛸 WORK IN PROGRESS UPDATE: The Book Keeps Moving Along

I know, I keep saying “last pass,” but apparently my manuscript has other ideas: I’ve just completed what I’m officially calling the last-last-last pass of the manuscript. This time around I focused on weaving in richer Latin American cultural details that I think are really going to make the world feel alive and authentic. This story deserves that depth, and I’m very orgulloso of how it’s shaping up.

Work on the cover art is still ongoing, but I am barely containing my excitement about sharing it with you. Keep your eyes on your inbox, because when it drops, it’s going to be a moment. And you’ll be the first, promise.

The Kickstarter launch page is also coming along, timed to launch just a few days after I get the cover done.

On the production side, typesetting for both the PDF and ebook editions is complete! This is a big milestone, as it means the words are locked in, laid out beautifully, and ready to meet your eyeballs.

We’re getting closer, folks. Patience.

🌎 The 2026 World Science Fiction Convention

Last week, I had the privilege of attending LACon V, the 2026 World Science Fiction Convention… and believe me, it was a lot in the best possible way.

Here’s a taste of what I got up to:

• 🎲 Alternative Role-Playing Games Panel: We had a long discussion about the best RPGs that aren’t D&D. And oh, there are so, so many!
• 🌎 Latin American Culture in English Western Literature: I participated in three panels on this topic, exploring how Latin American voices and traditions are shaping the broader science fiction conversation, and how we’re increasingly driving that narrative rather than just appearing in it. These discussions felt genuinely important, and I left energized and inspired.
• 🤖 AI & the Writing Space: When writers and AI get together, the conversations quickly become spicy, and that’s what happened here. We dug into AI from both a legal perspective and a creative perspective, And I shared my perceptions from working hours and hours with AI on the job, and out of it; as well as the position of the Science Fiction Writers Association, which I represented for this discussion. Let’s just say, there were no shortage of opinions in the room.

And then there were the people. Oh, the people.

I got to reconnect with friends old and new, including the wonderful Jennifer Hudak, Nebula Award winner and former critique group comrade, which still makes me feel like I can brag a little (don’t read this, Jenn). I also found myself in the same orbit as some absolutely legendary authors: Arkady Martine, Daryl Gregory, Richard Swan, John Scalzi, and Martha Wells. Just… casually existing in the same space as those humans. No big deal. (It was a very big deal.)

But perhaps the geekiest moment of the con for me? Getting to hear Ronald D. Moore — the mastermind behind Battlestar Galactica — speak. And I may or may not have exchanged a few words with him about Star Trek: The Next Generation’s best guest stars (Michelle Forbes, period). I’m not saying I geeked out. I’m just not not saying it either. 🖖

Leaving aside the fan moments, what really struck me was getting a genuine pulse on where the science fiction book market is heading, and how authors are innovating, building communities, and championing the stories that will define the genre for the next decade. It was the kind of inspiration that makes you want to sprint back to your desk and write.

Or code.

✨🗺️ SPECIAL TOPIC: Presenting the Thorn of Concordia Digital Starmaps

Ask yourself: When was the last time you read a book, or watched a movie, in which the three-dimensional positioning of the stars in space was relevant?

If you’re a Military SF or Hard SF reader you probably have read some books that play with 3-D space, although most books still have 2-D maps. And no wonder: Creating a 3-D map is hard, and getting it into readers’ hands is harder still.

And then there’s the fact that these pesky stars have all kinds of inconvenient positions in space. Here’s the map for Thorn of Concordia, with Earth at the center of both axes, using real star positions from the 2012 Hipparcos XHIP catalog (told you we’d get geeky):

Do you see Concordia, the planet where all the action in… well, Thorn of Concordia, happens? See how close to Earth it is? Except it isn’t; If you follow that green line that leaves Earth to its two o’clock, then does a rhombus and returns, and then reaches Concordia, you’ll see the trip is far longer than it looks. Why? Because these stars are in 3-D, and thus Concordia is much farther from Earth than this image makes it look.

Isn’t this inconvenient? Fortunately, there’s a better way. After some tweaking and coding, I completely overhauled the technology behind those old maps and updated them to the upcoming novel. I believe the result will change how you’ll experience the world of the book.

Introducing: the Thorn of Concordia 3-D Digital Starmap.​

Now you can use any modern browser to visit the star neighborhood of Thorn of Concordia, navigate within the stars, and see them in 3-D space. These are real stars, and real star positions. Nothing here is made up and, as you’ll see when you finally lay hands on the book, the geography of the stars plays a big part in the plot.

But that’s not all: If you pick any of the stars marked in red, a link to that star’s main inhabited planet will appear on the top right. In the example above, Epsilon Eridani has a link to Concordia. And when you click it…

… you get a full 3-D layout of each planet, along with its main cities, and precise planetary characteristics.

So, what’s the point of these, you may ask? First, hopefully this dispelled any doubts about how scientifically accurate Thorn of Concordia is going to be. Second (and more important), you’ll have these available when you finally read the book! As you follow Seela's adventures from star system to star system, you'll be able to plot them on the map, and get even more immersed in the story.

(by the way, if you want to look at the 2-D flat PDF version of this map, you can get it for free here. This is the version I originally created for mySeven Worlds role-playing game).

📬 UNTIL NEXT TIME…

That’s all the news from my corner this month! Keep your eyes peeled for that cover reveal — I genuinely cannot wait to share it with you.

As always, thank you for being on this journey with me. Your support means more than you know, and knowing that readers like you are out there waiting for this book is exactly the fuel that keeps the ship flying. 🚀

Clear skies.