Author name: Jessie

Jessie Mihalik has a degree in Computer Science and a love of all things geeky. A software engineer by trade, Jessie now writes full time from her home in Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing co-op video games with her husband, trying out new board games, or reading books pulled from her overflowing bookshelves.

A Peek at Book Two’s Plot Timeline

At a certain spot in every story, I get to the point where I can no longer remember which day it is (in story—happens out of story, too, but that’s a whole different problem). When I hit that point, I sit down and create a story timeline.

I usually use paper and a pencil because I’ve yet to find a digital solution that I like as well. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

This morning I hit that point because my characters were switching planets and timezones. And if I don’t write it down and keep track, it’ll be Thursday for the whole book. …

TQG Final Edits

For those of you waiting on news of The Queen’s Gambit, you’ll be happy to know that the final edits landed today. Overall, my agent liked the changes to the second half, so yay for that!

Thanks to various other things, it’s taken a bit longer than I expected (how are we already in mid-April?!?), but we should be getting preorder links up in the near future. I’ll post when they are available. :)

Busy, Busy

Copyedits for Polaris Rising are done and turned in! As part of the copyedits, I wrote the dedication and acknowledgements sections. That was fun and only mildly nerve-racking, especially because it came after the copyeditor looked everything over. If there are typos in those sections, you’ll know why. :)

The book-making machinery keeps inching forward. I wrote my author bio and now we’re brainstorming ideas for the title of book two so we can include an announcement in the back of PR.

Titles are hard for me and usually come at the very end, after the book is written. My Scrivener projects are saved as scifi, scifi2, and serial. That’s PR, PR2, and TQG. Authors who can title a story before they start writing are like wizards to me—amazing and possibly imaginary.

I also signed up for the RWA conference yesterday. I’m an introvert, so conferences tend to be exhausting and/or terrifying, but I am looking forward to meeting people and attending the workshops. As a new author, I’ll take all the advice I can get.

Now I must get back to making words happen on book two while I wait for title inspiration to strike, because clearly I am an artiste.

Updates, Polaris Rising Copyedits, and a Snippet!

My dad’s surgery went great and he’s recovering quickly; thanks to everyone who sent well wishes!

I finished the second round of edits on The Queen’s Gambit and sent it off to my agent for review. Thank you once again to the betas who generously volunteered their time!

On Friday, the copyedits for Polaris Rising landed a few days early. This is a very important step in the process of my little story becoming a Real Book™. To celebrate, here’s a new PR snippet. I can’t wait for you to get to know Ada and Loch! :)


We turned down an alley that stank of urine and worse. A lanky man several centimeters shorter than Loch detached himself from the wall and stepped into our path. He was younger than me but old enough to know better. A smirk twisted what would be a moderately handsome face into something cold and cruel.

“See here,” he said, “this is my alley. And I charge a toll for its use.” Another man, bigger, older, and stronger, stepped out behind us. I half-turned so I faced both threats. “A hundred credits each and you can be on your way,” the young man said.

“Move,” Loch said. He seemed completely unconcerned. …

Unpack Repack

Yesterday, we got home from our trip to Belfast. We had a great time and I’ll post about it when I’m not running on up-at-5AM-jet-lag brain. Today, I must do all the laundry and then repack. Tomorrow, I’m leaving for St. Louis. My father is having surgery on Thursday, so if you’d like to send any prayers or healing thoughts his way, I’d appreciate them. :)

I’ve heard back from a couple betas on the revised version of The Queen’s Gambit and they liked the changes, so yay! I think the story is better now, but it’s always nice to know that I’m not (entirely) crazy.

This week, I’m finishing up edits on TQG based on beta feedback, then continuing to write PR2. Copy edits for Polaris Rising are supposed to land next week, so it’s busy busy around here.

If you want to keep up with me more casually, I tend to post to Twitter more often than I post here. :)