Year in Review: 2015

Numbers

36 stories published:
23 originals
13 reprints

33 acceptances:
1 short story collection
14 original stories
17 reprints
1 non-fiction essay

13 new stories written (45k words*)

* I don’t track my daily wordcount, so my yearly wordcount is based only on finished stories. My actual wordcount is probably somewhat higher. But definitely not high enough. Generating more words is really something that I need to work on for next year.

Year in Review

2015 has been big for me in a lot of ways. I had 23 original stories out this year, which is far more than I’ve ever had out in a single year. It’s more than twice as many as I had in 2014.

I sold a short story collection, which is coming out from Fairwood Press in August 2016! I am beyond excited about this, because it means that next summer I will have a book. Earlier this month, I turned in the final manuscript to the publisher, which means the table of contents is set. We have a cover. It is all coming together. I am still kind of beside myself, though. I’m going to have a book!

Also this year, I wrote a commissioned story for Drabblecast in 6 weeks. I wrote a novelette in 18 days, for an anthology deadline. I wrote an invited essay. I’ve always sort of suspected that I’d do well writing to a deadline (I’ve written things on short notice for submission windows before), but it is nice to know that when I have a true deadline, I can hit it.

I did my first ever reading (at Armadillocon), and later did my first ever reading where I performed a song in front of a roomful of people (at World Fantasy). I was a complete mess of nerves before both readings, but from what people told me afterwards they went pretty well. Success!

Goals for 2016

Really and truly revise the Middle Grade novel that I have been working on forever. I am halfway through my third revisions pass on this, and there is a lot going on in this novel that I love. My main problem is that every time I really get going on the novel I blow out my wrists, so clearly I need to learn to pace myself better.

More words. 2015 was great in a lot of ways, but my wordcount was relatively low. I wrote almost exactly the same number of words in 2014 as 2015, despite having more writing time this year. Partly this has been due to wrist issues–I have reinjured my wrists on a couple of occasions this year, and after that my productivity completely grinds to a halt. My default work style is to write in bursts, and in my ideal world I’d sit down to write a story and not stop until the draft is finished–but (as with novel revisions) I need to figure out how to force myself to take breaks without completely losing momentum.

More conventions. In the past I’ve only made it to a couple cons per year, but for 2016 I’m hoping to make it to at least four: Norwescon, MidAmericaCon II, World Fantasy Con, and Orycon.