In November, I’ll attend Author Nation in Las Vegas. With 2,000 attendees, it’s one of the largest writers’ conferences in the world. This year, they’re producing three anthologies, including a sci-fi one with Andy Weir (the author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary) who is this year’s keynote speaker.

What I wouldn’t give to have a story of mine in a book with Andy Weir! But I wasn’t able to submit to the sci-fi anthology because that was only open to last year’s attendees. (Congratulations to my friend Donovan Scherer, whose story will be in the anthology!)

Instead, I submitted to the thriller anthology. They were looking for a short story, 8,000 words or fewer, with thriller elements and the premise “Your luck has run out.”

New Book Idea

I take months formulating an idea for a short story, but in this case, I only had ten days. Luckily, I had several short story ideas bouncing around in my head that I thought might work. So, I wrote up a logline, which included a short description of the protagonist, her goal, and the antagonist who is trying to stop her. I submitted that together with the working title and a summary.

I thought my chances of getting into the anthology were slim — remember there’s 2,000 people attending this conference. And I thought my story was more sci-fi than thriller. But I decided to give it a try. And when I did, I realized I had the premise for my next book project. This is huge.

Mourning My Characters

I’ve been mourning Paul, Gaige, and Jaelyn as I’m in the final edits of the last two books in The Devil Particle series. I was going to miss these characters and their world, but I also had no more book ideas. Writing the third Leo Townsend book is definitely on my radar, and I have 30,000 words toward that, but then what? Now I know, and that’s really exciting!

Author Nation’s Feedback

Author Nation decided not to include my short story in their thriller anthology but gave me this wonderful feedback:

Kristin, this is a really compelling concept, and the final loop is genuinely unsettling. It’s the kind of idea that lingers after you finish reading.

Where I found myself hesitating was in how the story fits within the focus of this anthology. I’m leaning toward stories where the tension builds through a clear chain of decisions and consequences, and where the “luck runs out” moment is directly tied to those choices. In this case, the shift is driven more by a larger conceptual reveal, which gives the piece a stronger speculative feel.

Because of that, it reads more like science fiction than a thriller, and it feels slightly outside the tonal lane we’re building for this collection.

That said, this is a strong idea, and I can absolutely see it thriving in a speculative anthology or expanded into a longer work where the concept has more room to fully develop.

I’m grateful you shared this with me. I truly wish you all the best with your writing.

I’m encouraged and eager to get to it! I’d like to finish and release The Runner later this year and The Renegade next spring, and then work on this new project. I’m keeping it under wraps for now, but I’ll share it with you once it’s fully formed.

In the meantime, be sure to read The Devil Particle and The Vessel before the last two books are released!