Wow, 2019 was like a decade of its own, wasn’t it?

Let’s look back at what I intended to get done:

• • Finish drafting and revising Graveyard Mind 2
  • Revise An Excuse for Whiskey
  • Systematic finishing of the short stories I’ve started writing but not finished. I would like to get at least six new stories out the door this year
  • Separating my IP from a work-for-hire project that didn’t pan out.
  • Be ready to write that new book by November for NaNoWriMo
  • Read more

Not a lot crossed off the old list last year, I’m afraid.

I took Graveyard Mind 2 from roughly 50K to 75K. I know all the story now, and have a few scenes left to write and a number of chapters to flesh out to get a full draft up to length. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons I’ll get to later, I pulled the pin on working on this book. Had I stuck with it, I would’ve likely had a completed (finally) draft, but it would’ve still needed substantial revisions before I submitted it to be published.

Sandra and I talked about an Excuse for Whiskey at Can-Con in Ottawa, and at the end of the year we did make a strategic plan to move forward, after reacquainting ourselves with the material. I think there’s a lot of strong writing there, and we should be able to go forward on this book strong in 2020.

I submitted four new stories this year, not the six I’d aimed for. Three of those stories were accepted to the markets they were written for, and the fourth I just snuck in at the end of year (on the last day of submissions, with fifteen minutes to spare to catch my bus to my New Year’s Eve celebrations) so I won’t know if it sold for a while yet. Pretty happy that I pushed through on that last piece, despite not hitting my six story goal. I also realize my approach in finishing stories has not been remotely systematic any of the last few years. I just grabbed whatever stubs of writing and unfinished stories seemed to fit various open calls or invitations and honed them down and built them up until I had something to send off. I mean, I guess it’s a system…Of the four stories I submitted this year, three were stubs of old material that I fleshed out, and one was pretty much all new material. Two were set in the Graveyard Mind/Midnight Man ‘verse, and two were part of the Thunder Road ‘verse. I also subbed one older story that suited another open call and had two stories (“Cheating the Devil at Solitaire” in On Spec and “The Enforcer” in Earth: Giants, Golems, & Gargoyles) published. Not a bad year for short fiction for me.

When I abandoned Graveyard Mind 2, it was already mid-November, so too late to start writing a new book for NaNoWrimo, and I knew how my Decembers usually go, so starting a new book from scratch didn’t seem like something that I was in the head space for, so I prioritized that last story instead. But I did also have that completed book written for a work-for-hire project that didn’t work out. I think one of the reasons this task sat as long as it did was I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do to replace the magic system/gods and religion that were part of the old IP, and the story I told didn’t really suit being placed in any of my existing writing worlds. Over the course of 2019, I figured out what I wanted to do with it and spent the tail end of the year finishing a draft. I stripped out the old company’s IP and replaced it with my own worldbuilding. There’s still a lot of layering to happen, and definitely another draft or two in its future, but it did cross one relatively big thing off my to-do list. I also think I want to add another POV character in the next draft, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m excited to get it done.

I read more in 2019 than I did in 2018, but it still didn’t feel like enough. Maybe because most of what I read was actually rereads or familiar series. As I got ready to move, I found I didn’t have the energy to concentrate on new books, so I stuck with series I’d already started, or rereading old favourites. Oh, and gaming books–so many gaming books. I started and finished Sam Sykes’ Bring Down Heaven trilogy, read a few Seanan McGuire novels in the InCryptid and October Daye series, and reacquainted myself with R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf and Icewind Dale trilogies, David Eddings’ Elenium and Tamuli, and fell waaaaaaay behind on my comic reading (Criminal was a stand out for me though) and checked out a bunch of new roleplaying games (City of Mist, Dark Streets & Darker Secrets, Forbidden Lands, Invisible Sun, Legend of the Five Rings 5e, Monster of the Week, Pathfinder 2e, Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, Tiny Supers).

I wrote about 80000 new words in 2019, which is up from 2018, but still well below what I’d like. I think for next year, I’m going to stop tracking my daily word count in the same way as I’ve been doing for the last five years or so. It’s had diminishing returns the last few years, and I spent time fiddling with the spreadsheet that I could’ve spent writing. Maybe I’ll just take one year off from obsessively tracking word count, or maybe not. Maybe I’ll only note the word count that goes out on submission this year. We’ll see how the writing goes.

So…

Why did I abandon work on Graveyard Mind 2?

A lot of shit was going on with ChiZine Publications that I should’ve noticed sooner, but there are some pretty good run downs available if you want to know more. Each new story of misdeeds by ChiZine that emerged was gutting, and I believe those who came forward, and appreciate their bravery in sharing. I’m also sorry I didn’t see what you were experiencing sooner. I’ll learn from this, and I’ll try to do better. While my time publishing with ChiZine was not as bad as others have described, I could not continue to have a professional or personal relationship with them. I asked for and received a reversion of rights to Graveyard Mind, so it will soon be out of print and unavailable. I do have some copies for sale at conventions for the time being. If you’d like to read it and can’t find it, please drop me a line and I’ll try to hook you up. I’m still deciding what I want to do with the book and series. Ideally, I’m hoping to find a new publisher for the series, but I’m also considering self-publishing a new edition of Graveyard Mind and possibly the rest of the series. What I choose to do will likely depend on the 2020 agent hunt. I’ll keep you posted.

While the year didn’t end the way I’d hoped, at the same time, I felt a renewed drive to create coming out of November. I had a great time at Can-Con hanging out with writer pals I see too rarely. So many people reached out to me during mid-November to check on how I was doing in the wake of the ChiZine news (thanks so much! Your support meant the world to me). I completed a new draft on an old book and finished one more short story before the bell tolled on 2019, so I’m feeling good about 2020’s creative prospects.

What’s up for 2020?

• Decide what to do with Graveyard Mind and Graveyard Mind 2 and implement those plans.
• Revise An Excuse for Whiskey.
• Finish short stories I’ve started but not completed. As before, I would like to get at least six new stories out the door this year, but this year I’d also like to write one of those stories for submission to the online pro markets rather than for open call themed anthologies, as is my usual way.
• Finish revising my WIP novel and get it out on submission.
• Restart the agent hunt.
• Read more.

Stretch goal!

• If I get my WIP out on submission, and Sandra and I finish An Excuse for Whiskey by November, I’ll take a run at NaNoWriMo again.

Write on, folks!