Writing Year in Review
Dec. 30th, 2014 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agilebritLet's recap 2013 first: 127,400 completed words across sixteen stories. Six stories placed. Three stories published. Pretty spiffy.
This year... wasn't as awesome. I was going to do the same "short story NaNo in January and June" that I did last year to great success, but a nasty illness completely derailed me in January and I never really recovered my writing groove after that.
That being said, I wrote 55,900 complete and submitted words across eleven stories. I sold four that I got paid for and were published: Cat-hoarding Dragon (Stupefying), Giant Bugs (DomainSF), Clockwork Necromancer (which I was invited to sub to "The Death God's Chosen" antho), and the Terribad story (Unlikely). I had another acceptance that may or may not see actual publication. Two that garnered acceptances last year were also paid for and published: the Steampunk Werewolf Western ("The Ways of Magic" antho) and the BearFic (which one reviewer picked as his favorite story in the "Far Orbit" antho).
I had a couple of firsts at Writers of the Future--a Finalist (which they are holding for a Published Finalist spot) and a Semi-Finalist. Both of them were Ben stories. I also garnered (yet another) Honorable Mention, in which Ben plays a bit part. And then there was the straight Rejection, which was my Hell's Process Server story, which no one loves as much as I do, apparently.
So, hey, not bad. I've got a story coming out in the Chronology antho from Curiosity Quills, where I'm sharing a ToC with Piers Anthony, on January 1. My Zombies! story should come out... sometime this year. And hopefully the other things mentioned above will pan out.
Also, I'm anxiously awaiting word on Angry Bitter Angel, which will hopefully be both soon and positive. I still need to work up more of the outline for the novelization for that, and if it's accepted at the place it's at now, maybe the parent company will take on the Rest Of The Story, which would be awesome, because trust me when I say I know what a hard sell this one is.
Several stories fizzled for various reasons, ranging from "I actually have no idea where I'm going with this" to "wow, how broken is that" to "well, this won't fit in 18,000 words, because it wants to be a novel." That third one? Yeah, it's Hitman in Hell and I'm nearly 10,000 words into it. Whoops.
I'll also be talking to an editor in either January or February about the Ben novel, so we'll see what happens with that.
The State of the Subs is I have twenty-three stories out, plus a Ben one that I'm waiting for some other shoes to drop on and that aforementioned talk with the editor about. But something pretty cool might happen there.
My plan for next year is a modification of the one I had for this year, and it's already undergone a change for new circumstances. However, the outline for the Hitman in Hell novel is mostly in the can, I've got a bunch of other outlines and story starts, and next year looks to be... interesting.
Considering everything, I'm fairly pleased and only a little disappointed with how this year turned out. Hopefully next year will be bigger and better.
This year... wasn't as awesome. I was going to do the same "short story NaNo in January and June" that I did last year to great success, but a nasty illness completely derailed me in January and I never really recovered my writing groove after that.
That being said, I wrote 55,900 complete and submitted words across eleven stories. I sold four that I got paid for and were published: Cat-hoarding Dragon (Stupefying), Giant Bugs (DomainSF), Clockwork Necromancer (which I was invited to sub to "The Death God's Chosen" antho), and the Terribad story (Unlikely). I had another acceptance that may or may not see actual publication. Two that garnered acceptances last year were also paid for and published: the Steampunk Werewolf Western ("The Ways of Magic" antho) and the BearFic (which one reviewer picked as his favorite story in the "Far Orbit" antho).
I had a couple of firsts at Writers of the Future--a Finalist (which they are holding for a Published Finalist spot) and a Semi-Finalist. Both of them were Ben stories. I also garnered (yet another) Honorable Mention, in which Ben plays a bit part. And then there was the straight Rejection, which was my Hell's Process Server story, which no one loves as much as I do, apparently.
So, hey, not bad. I've got a story coming out in the Chronology antho from Curiosity Quills, where I'm sharing a ToC with Piers Anthony, on January 1. My Zombies! story should come out... sometime this year. And hopefully the other things mentioned above will pan out.
Also, I'm anxiously awaiting word on Angry Bitter Angel, which will hopefully be both soon and positive. I still need to work up more of the outline for the novelization for that, and if it's accepted at the place it's at now, maybe the parent company will take on the Rest Of The Story, which would be awesome, because trust me when I say I know what a hard sell this one is.
Several stories fizzled for various reasons, ranging from "I actually have no idea where I'm going with this" to "wow, how broken is that" to "well, this won't fit in 18,000 words, because it wants to be a novel." That third one? Yeah, it's Hitman in Hell and I'm nearly 10,000 words into it. Whoops.
I'll also be talking to an editor in either January or February about the Ben novel, so we'll see what happens with that.
The State of the Subs is I have twenty-three stories out, plus a Ben one that I'm waiting for some other shoes to drop on and that aforementioned talk with the editor about. But something pretty cool might happen there.
My plan for next year is a modification of the one I had for this year, and it's already undergone a change for new circumstances. However, the outline for the Hitman in Hell novel is mostly in the can, I've got a bunch of other outlines and story starts, and next year looks to be... interesting.
Considering everything, I'm fairly pleased and only a little disappointed with how this year turned out. Hopefully next year will be bigger and better.
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Date: 2014-12-30 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-30 07:43 pm (UTC)The history of the Terrible Towel.
There are several versions. This is the one I have.
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Date: 2014-12-31 10:45 pm (UTC)