2016 - The Year Ahead

2015 was a crap year to be honest in terms of writing. I didn't get nearly enough done as I wanted and hit a few major stumbles along the way. So, here we are, a week into 2016 and let's lay bare my goals. I have a novel in process, which I think is about 60% complete after scrapping half of the first attempt. Six of the first seven chapters are complete, as are the last four, which leaves 5-6 in the middle to write. I'm swapping between two POV characters every few chapters to show more of what's going on behind the scenes. First person works for me in story telling, but doesn't give a good view of the players and events in motion. My goal is to have the draft done by the end of January and then start a slow rewrite. I might miss a submission window for a particular publisher, but that just gives me more time to revise it.

Aside from the short stories, there's the ongoing GRONK! series of stories that need attention and my assassin, Henri, has a few stories waiting in the wings. I have a collection of short stories that are crying out for attention, so I need to revisit them and see if I can find them homes individually. Last November I attended Living Dead Con and sat in a publisher's panel. I asked about single author collections and the universal consensus was they sold like crap. Anthologies weren't much better, but offered a different experience. Peddling them as a collection is on the back burner and I've dabbled in the single story sales of e-pub. That angle needs to be explored further. I sold my second erotic bit of fiction and received some good feedback. There was a rejection on a third piece and what I think to be an amusing bit of feedback from the editor. They liked the “action” scenes, but not the framing story, so I was doing things half right I guess.

I've got a few cons on my agenda with an eye on those dealing with writing and other interests. One of my friends suggested SakuraCon here in Seattle just of the experience and I'm definitely looking at Emerald City ComicCon, plus Norwescon. November promises BizarroCon which I had a blast at last year. Not as a writer, as my mind isn't bent that way, but as a consumer. I don't mean bent in a bad way, cause these authors put out some seriously good stuff. My fiction's more strawberry and chocolate ice cream vs. the vegan coconut milk orange toffee surprise variety.

I still have a stack of books to read, more Fallout 4 to play, and looking forward to the next Marvel movies. There's even a good chance I'll see some tabletop gaming this year on a regular basis. Oh yeah, X-Com 2 is on the way, so more alien killing goodness. There's a trip to see my dad planned for later in the year and not because there's a BBQfest being held in that area. Nope, not at all.

I hope that everyone has a great 2016 and let's see if I can do more than one blog post a month.