2016 WRAP UP POST

A couple of folks have asked, so I’m finally putting together my wrap-up post for 2016: what I wrote, what was published, and what I read.

WRITING

Not much to report on this front. 2016 was not my most consistent year for creating new content. I didn’t blog much, and I didn’t really track how much writing I was doing, other than knowing that there were a majority of months where I didn’t write or edit at all. I finished a couple of stories, including “Chasing May” which sold to the anthology Kepler’s Cowboys from Hadrosaur Productions. I sent out a few attempts at getting reprints sold, as well, but not much came of that. (Admittedly, I didn’t make the strongest effort I could possibly have made.)

PUBLISHING

2016 saw the release of three anthologies with my work included:

• “Threshold” appeared in One Thousand Words For War from CBAY Books
• “Stress Cracks” appeared in Galactic Games from Baen (My first professional-rate story sale!)
• “Yeti” appeared in Robbed of Sleep, Volume 4 from Troy Blackford.

I also sold one story, the aforementioned “Chasing May,” which releases in just a few weeks from this writing.

READING

I set myself a variety of reading challenges in 2016. I managed to complete a few of them.

On Goodreads, I challenged myself to read 100 books. I read 105.

Here’s the breakdown of what I read:

• Fiction: 97 books
  • 4 anthologies
    • 1 noir
    • 2 horror
    • 1 fantasy
  • 1 single-author collection (1 urban fantasy)
  • 17 graphic novels
    • 11 super-hero
    • 4 YA adventure
    • 1 YA comedy
    • 1 comic strip collection
  • 12 magazines (all issues of Lightspeed magazine)
  • 43 novels
    • 1 crime
    • 1 mystery
    • 1 noir
    • 1  Fantasy
    • 1 historical fiction
    • 1historical fantasy
    • 2historical romance
    • 3historical urban fantasy
    • 3alternate history
    • 3 horror
    • 1 literary
    • 4  pulp adventure
    • 2 science fiction
    • 13 urban fantasy
    • 1 YA urban fantasy
    • 1 YA science fiction
  • 8 novellas
    • 2 horror
    • 3 fantasy
    • 1 science fiction
    • 1 urban fantasy
    • 1 mystery
  • 1 picture book
  • 1 playscript
  • 10 short stories published as stand-alone ebooks
    • 4 urban fantasy
    • 3 mystery
    • 1 modern romance
    • 1 thriller
    • 1 historical fantasy
• Non-Fiction: 8 books
  • 5 Memoir/biography
  • 2 History
  • 1 Writing Advice

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: 86 (including graphic novel artists); 34 of these were female authors. (I didn’t do a good job of tracking other sub-group metrics, such as writers of color, queer writers, etc. I’m going to make a better effort this year.)

Shortest Book Read: 20 pages (Forbid the Sea by Seanan McGuire)

Longest Book Read: 496 (Feedback by Mira Grant)

(Interesting that the shortest and longest read were by the same author, albeit one under a pen-name.)

Total # of pages read: 24064

Average # of pages per book: 229

Format Summary:

• 4 audiobooks
• 28 ebooks (5 Nook, 23 Kindle)
• 73 print
  • 17 hardcovers
  • 56 softcovers

On my Livejournal, I challenged myself to read 365 short stories (1 per day, basically), but I only managed 198 this year. I did not read as many anthologies or single-author collections cover-to-cover as I have in previous years.

Those 198 stories appeared in:

• 5 Magazines
  • Asimov’s
  • Cemetary Dance
  • Daily Science Fiction
  • Disturbed Digest
  • Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  • Lightspeed Magazine
  • One Story
  • One Teen Story
  • The Dark
  • The Strand
  • Three Slices
  • Unbound
• 10 Anthologies
  • Candle in the Attic
  • Clockwork Phoenix 5
  • Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop
  • Dark and Dangerous Things III
  • Ghost in the Cogs
  • In Sunlight or in Shadow (Stories based on the paintings of Edward Hopper)
  • Robbed of Sleep Vol 4
  • Shattered Shields
• 1 Single-Author Collection
  • Two Tales of the Iron Druid by Kevin Hearne
• 8 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in e-format)
  • Seanan McGuire (mostly from her website)
  • Jordan L. Hawk (email newsletter)
  • Lawrence Block (purchased in e-format via Amazon)

Those 198 stories were written by 166 different authors. 82 of those were women (again, didn’t do a good job of tracking any other author-identifying metrics). The work was published by 26 different editors, roughly (there were a few for whom I’m not sure who the editor was / who to credit).

So there you have it: my writing, publishing and reading, by the numbers, for 2016. (I was going to include other media consumed, like music, movies, and television, but I didn’t do as good of a job compiling those numbers in 2016. Oh well!)

2015 WRAP UP - Happy New Year 2016

Welcome to 2016.

Okay, yes, I know, the year is already almost a week old. We’ve all gone back to our day jobs and school and all the other fun stuff we have to do when it’s not the holidays (and which some of us have to do even during the holidays). But it’s my first post of the year, so welcome New Year!

2015 Wrap-Up

In 2015, I lost track of exactly how many stories I sent out to various open calls and limited open calls and such. But I do know I sold 5 stories: four originals and one reprint. The reprint was “Chasing Satellites,” which is now in audio form on the great StarShipSofa podcast. The four originals should all be out in print and ebook in 2016:

• “Stress Cracks” in Galactic Games from Baen in June (edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt)
• “Threshold” in A Thousand Words For War from CBay Books in May (edited by Madeline Smoot and Hope Erica Schultz)
• “And All Their Tearful Words Will Turn Back Into Steam” in Shroud Magazine when the next issue is released (edited and published by Tim Deal)
• And the fourth story’s venue I haven’t yet received permission to announce yet.

I also know that of everything I submitted in 2015, I still have 6 submissions that I’m still awaiting responses on.

I also wrote and recorded one new song, “Done,” with John Russo of the band Reverse Order. It’s available on my Bandcamp page, and all proceeds will be donated to the non-profit organization Reverse The Trend, which provides anti-bullying and pro-self-esteem concert programming to schools around the country.

On the non-writing side, I read 100 books (this includes graphic novels, plays, and singly-published-as-ebooks short stories and novellas) and 366 short stories (some as part of the aforementioned 100 books, most not). I met my Goodreads Challenge(100 books) and finished the To Be Read Challenge hosted in 2015 by RoofbeamReader.

2016 Goals

My goal is usually to double the number of story sales from year to year. In 2013 I sold 3 stories, so the goal (which I missed) in 2014 was to sell 6 (I sold none). I carried that goal over to 2015 and sold 5, so my goal for 2016 is 10. Of course, I’d love to sell more than that, but the official goal is 10 stories sold during the 2016 calendar year (regardless of when they’ll be published).

I’ve got the aforementioned 6 stories still out, and I’m in the process of editing stuff I wrote first drafts of in December to get then out into the world. I’m also stepping up my writing regimen a bit (given the realities of day-jobbery and other life commitments).

My Goodreads reading goal remains 100 books this year. I’m working on my own To Be Read Challenge since RoofBeamReader is no longer hosting his, and that’s overlapping with a few other reading challenges I’m setting for myself. I’m considering posting about those here as well as on my Livejournal.  Likewise, I’m considering cross-posting book reviews here, as well as the short story reviews I post in my 365ShortStories community on LJ — but I’m still not sure about posting book and story reviews on what is supposed to be my author website, so I’d appreciate any thoughts you all may have about that.

Of course, I’m also aiming to be more active here. I’d like to start posting author, actor, singer and artist interviews again and host guest posts from folks. I need to start reaching out. For now, I’ll be posting about my writing and reading progress.

Here’s to a great 2016 for all of us!