Every year around my birthday I do a review post. Kind of like a New Year’s Resolutions thing, but evaluating my year and my schedule in my own time. This year’s post is running late but here it is…
In the past year I’ve published one novel (DECOHERENCE came out last fall) and written two new novels. I found this kind of interesting because I usually have 60-80 plot bunnies running loose at any given moment. Writing folders from years past are filled with snippets, ideas for new universes, lists of unwritten characters, and this year that hasn’t happened.
In 2016 I started 14 new writing folders (meaning I had outlines for more than one book in the series) and about 50 partially-sketched outlines for random ideas that popped up. In 2017 I have 5 folders. One of those belongs to BODIES IN MOTION and the Newton’s Laws universe and already has a finished novel in it. Another belongs to the FREE FALL universe and also has a finished novel in it. The other three are series ideas I carried over from 2016 and might write in November. Finishing two novels from start to polished in a year is a new accomplishment for me, and I think it’s largely due to the fact that I didn’t go chasing off after every idea that came along. I’m getting pickier.
It wasn’t perfect. BODIES IN MOTION was meant to be a novella under 40k and it became an 85,000 word novel. The story I wanted to tell couldn’t be trimmed down that far, and it kept spawning side stories. But they’re fun so I let them grow. Interesting things happen when you let stories run wild.
In other news… I managed to move my family from Alaska to Washington, safely traverse Yukon Territory, and settle in south of Seattle. Not bad, considering. I also had the opportunity to publish with the Unbound Worlds Cage Match and Uncanny Magazine’s Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction.
As years go, I feel like this one has been productive and focused. Here’s to another round of that!