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2021 - Year in Review

 



Well, it's been a crazy year. Frankly, it's been a crazy life. I put off my pursuit of writing so many times, but as the whole country around me was on fire and my job disappeared at the end of 2019, it seemed a good time to focus on it an see what would happen if I took a risk, rolled the dice, and jumped out of the plane without a parachute. It wasn't until it was the only thing that I was doing that things started to happen.

In 2020 I got a short story published in a magazine, then two novelettes in two anthologies. It was exciting to see my words on the page in actual books. That got the ball rolling. As I look back now, on 2021 and the works I've managed to get out there, the ball of flaming fear, molten uncertainty, and corrosive anxiety has not gone away, but it's certainly shrunk. I feel a great deal of satisfaction seeing just how much happened for me this year. 14 anthologies housing 14 of my stories (a novella, several novelettes, and a couple of shorts) and one batch of 5 drabbles (100 word stories):

Sackcloth and Silver, The Feathergate Hotel, Children of Brechor, The Tiger and the Ox, Black Spire Isles, The Weight of Rebellion, Custodian, Hearthshare, The Selection Process, Solyn the Slayer, Hatchling, Podfall, Upon Reflection, Pyrofang.

All out there in circulation in 2021.

While I have stories from the last two years out there, three scheduled for release early next year, and hopefully several more (currently in various stages of development), I'm hoping 2022 is the year I manage to pump some actual novels out as well (which I've been working on between the stories mentioned above). For the hardships I've endured this last year, I have to take a step back and really appreciate the fortune I've had in finding homes for many of my stories so far.

So, a thankyou to Dragon Soul Press, Mirror World Publishing, Cloaked Press, Blood Song Books, and Jay Henge Publishing for putting my work out there. Also, to the other authors who told their tales beside me (and especially those who took the time to write to me), my friends who read some of my stories before they were submitted, and those who picked up the books in which they appeared and read them there, and of course those who simply liked/loved the announcements on social media to show moral support. I appreciate all of you.


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