2019 By The Numbers

Earlier than previous years, here’s my media round-up for 2019: what I wrote, what was published, and what I read, listened to, and watched.

WRITING

Not much to report on this front. 2019 was not a good year for creating new content. I didn’t track what little writing I actually managed to do – but I know there were more days where I didn’t write than there were days I wrote, by far. I’m considering it a “recharging” year, as I consumed and processed a lot of wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) books, television, movies, live theatre and music events. The writing I did manage was mostly work on previous unfinished short stories.

PUBLISHING

2019 saw the publication of one short story:

  • “Regardless of How Lost You Are Returning From, Regardless of How Far” appeared in Kaleidotrope magazine, edited by Fred Coppersmith

I also wrote a six paid book reviews for Strange Horizons magazine, and one for Out In Print (non-paid):

·         So You Want To Be A Robot: 21 Stories by A. Merc Rustad

·         Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

·         Forget The Sleepless Shore: Stories by Sonya Taaffe

·         The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag

·         Sealed by Naomi Booth

·         The History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

·         Of Echoes Born by ‘Nathan Burgoine (Out in Print)

 

READING

I set myself a variety of reading challenges in 2019. I managed to complete a few of them.

Goodreads Challenge:

I challenged myself to read 125 books. I read 144 books from approximately 73 different publishers.

Here’s the breakdown of what I read:

  • Fiction: 140 books

    • 6 anthologies

      • 1 crime

      • 1 horror

      • 1 romance

      • 1 fantasy

      • 1 science fiction

      • 1 mixed-genre

    • 12 single-author collections

      • 3 science fiction

      • 3 horror

      • 2 fantasy

      • 2 crime/mystery

      • 2 poetry

    • 33 graphic novels

      • 8 super-hero

      • 4 horror

      • 12 fantasy

      • 1 crime

      • 2 pulp adventure

      • 2 romance

    • 12 magazines (all issues of Lightspeed magazine)

    • 40 novels

      • 8 crime

      • 3 horror

      • 1 thriller

      • 1 mystery

      • 6  Fantasy

      • 8 science fiction

      • 3 paranormal romance

      • 4 urban fantasy

      • 1 romance

      • 3 pulp adventure

      • 1 suspense

      • 1 mythology

      • 1 Christmas

    • 34 novellas

      • 11 horror

      • 5 fantasy

      • 4 romance

      • 7 literary

      • 4 pulp adventure

      • 1 science fiction

      • 1 crime

      • 1 Christmas

    • 2 novelettes

      • 1 fantasy

      • 1 horror

  • Non-Fiction: 8 books

    • 2 Memoir

    • 1 History

    • 1 literary analysis

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: approximately 136 (including graphic novel artists; I need to be better at listing all of the creators of graphic novels somehow). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         39 female creators

·         5 Trans/Non-Binary

·         29 LGBTQIA+

·         10 Persons of Color

Shortest Book Read: 25 pages (Christmas with the Dead by Joe Lansdale)

Longest Book Read: 669 (Upon A Burning Throne by Ashok K.Banker)

Total # of pages read: 25,513

Average # of pages per book: 205

# of Rereads: 6 (including annual rereads of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 11

·         February: 18 (most read in a month)

·         March: 14

·         April: 7 (fewest read in a month)

·         May: 11

·         June: 10

·         July: 8

·         August: 14

·         September: 11

·         October: 15

·         November: 13

·         December: 13

Review-wise on Goodreads I gave 2 two-star reviews, 21 three-stars, 86 four-stars, and 35 five-star reviews.

Format Summary:

  • 17 audiobooks

  • 31 ebooks

  • 96 print

    • 25 hardcovers

    • 71 softcovers

365 Short Stories Challenge:

Each year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. I read 401 stories in 2019, beating the goal handily. The shortest was approximately 7 pages and the longest approximately 61. Those 401 stories appeared in:

  • 12 Magazines

    • Nightmare

    • Lightspeed

    • The Dark

    • One Story

    • Analog

    • The Strand

    • Interzone

    • Lamplight

    • Black Static

    • Abyss & Apex

    • One Teen Story

    • Uncanny

  • 9 Anthologies

    • Resist Fascism

    • From Sea to Stormy Sea

    • If This Goes On

    • A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Godds

    • The Many Tortures of Anthony Cardno

    • Fool For Love

    • F is for Fairy

    • At Home in the Dark

    • Devil Take Me

  • 15 Single-Author Collections

    • The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Physics by Carlos Hernandez

    • The Time Machine and Other Stories by H.G. Wells

    • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

    • Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs

    • Untranslatable by Alma Alexander

    • Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert

    • Trans Space Octopus Convention by Bogi Takacs

    • Oriental Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

    • Spinning Around A Sun by Everett Maroon

    • A History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

    • Acres of Perhaps by Will Ludwigsen

    • Under the Sunset by Bram Stoker

    • Two Todd Tales by Joseph Pittman

    • In Re: Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth

    • Forget the Sleepless Shores by Sonya Taaffe

  • 5 published as “back-matter” in the following novels

    • If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear

    • Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother

    • Rosemary and Rue 10th Anniversary Hardcover Edition

    • That Ain’t Witchcraft

    • The Unkindest Tide

  • 16 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in e-format)

    • Seanan McGuire (Patreon)

    • Lucy Snyder (Patreon)

    • Sabrina Vourvoulias (Cast of Wonders audio podcast)

    • Lydia M. Hawke (author website)

    • Jim Butcher (Evil Hat website)

Those 401 stories were written by 232 different authors. The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         104 female creators

·         6 Trans/Non-Binary

·         33 LGBTQIA+

·         32 Persons of Color

I gave 13 two-star ratings, 208 three-star, 157 four-star, and 23 five-star ratings. The shortest story was 7 pages long and the longest 61.

Graphic Novel Challenge:

Because I own so many, I challenged myself to read one graphic novel per week. I didn’t make it, reading a total of 33 from 11 different publishers:

·         DC Comics: 7

·         Marvel Comics: 8

·         BOOM! Box: 8

·         Dynamite Comics: 2

·         Image Comics: 2

·         Hard Case Crime: 1

·         TO Comix: 1

·         Scholastic Books: 1

·         Panic Button Comics: 1

·         Dark Horse: 1

·         Self-Pubbed: 1

Non-Fiction Challenge: I didn’t do as well on this one. I challenged myself to read 24 non-fiction books in 2019, and I only read 4.

Read the Book, Watch the Movie Challenge: Completely bombed this one. Planned to do at least 10 of these and did 0.

Complete the Series Challenge: Bombed this one too. Planned to read 3 complete series, totally 16 books, and read 0 of 16, completing 0 series.

 

VIEWING

I tried tracking the movies, TV and live events I watched this year. Here’s how that went:

Movies: Apparently, I only watched 17 movies this year. (I suspect I forgot to enter a few things into the database.)

·         9 on DVD

·         2 on Netflix

·         6 in the theater

 

Live Events: I attended 15 live events this year.

·         10 plays

  • 6 straight plays (4 on Broadway, 2 high school, one attended twice)

  • 4 musicals (1 Broadway, 1 regional, 2 high school)

·         4 concerts (Dennis DeYoung, Greyson Chance, Blue Alien Mystic, and the Mahopac High School Pacapellas)

Television: I watched approximately 162 hours of episodic television:

·         Arrow (20 episodes)

·         Batwoman (9 episodes)

·         Beyond Stranger Things (7 episodes)

·         Black Mirror (2 episodes)

·         Doctor Who (1 episode)

·         The Flash (21 episodes)

·         Game of Thrones (1 episode)

·         Good Omens (6 episodes)

·         Great Performances (1 episode)

·         DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9 episodes)

·         Planet of the Apes (14 episodes)

·         Stranger Things (25 episodes)

·         Supergirl (22 episodes)

·         The Big Bang Theory (2 episodes)

·         Vera (1 episode)

·         Vicious (14 episodes)

·         Watchmen (6 episodes)

·         Young Sheldon (1 episode)

 

So there you have it: my writing, publishing, reading, and viewing by the numbers, for 2019.

Earlier this week, I posted about my reading challenges for 2020. I plan to post about my writing plans, and possibly viewing plans, next week.