2016 Writing Year in Review 2

Writing This Year

Novels: 0 completed, though I did several full edits on both Hunger Makes the Wolf and The Novel Formerly Known as King’s Hand. Oh, and I sold Hunger Makes the Wolf to Angry Robot (holy shit!!!!) which is why it’s got that as a title now rather than Fire in the Belly. Wrote 12K words on a novel project for someone else that has unfortunately been put on hold now. Also wrote a 10.8K-word outline for the sequel to Hunger Makes the Wolf because no I don’t have a problem you have a problem. I’m about 20K words into that novel now.

Novellas: 1

Novellettes:  1

Short Stories: 3

Flash: 1

Feature Length Scripts: 2

Paid Reviews/Nonfiction: 5 (plus 10 Book Riot posts)

Treatments: 4

Editing: I edited a short story anthology, No Shit There I Was and we’re in the final stages of getting it ready to go. I also briefly did some very low-paying freelance editing (of romance stories, of all things) while I was unemployed, during which I learned quite a bit.

Consigned to the trunk of awfulness, never to return: None this year, surprisingly. Maybe I’ve winnowed it down enough.

Best/Favorite story of the year: I think I’m obligated to say it’s Hunger Makes the Wolf, which will be my first published novel as of next year. And I’m very pleased with it! Sons of Anarchy meets Dune and all, thank you Mike Underwood for coming up with that awesome description. Second place goes to the short story I wrote recently that involves a Latina retiree in a punk band. I hope I’ll get to share that one with you at some point.

Magic Spreadsheet wordcount: I have been tracking on the spreadsheet since June 24, 2013.

  • Total words written: 465,741
  • Average words per day: 1,276 (better than last year’s 1,110/day)
  • Days in a row written: 1, 286 (3 years without stopping, still going strong)

Publishing

Queries sent: 36
Rejections received: 27
Pending: 4
Most rejections received: This year, it’s Excerpts from the Personal Journal of Dr. V. Frankenstein, MD, Department of Pathology, Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, with seven rejections, but I love that story and am going to keep trying.
Total earned: $7,791.47 which is the most I’ve earned from writing in any year, by a lot. I even turned a profit, technically, which is very exciting. I did my best to hustle freelance work while I was unemployed in the hopes that I could make a go at supporting myself, but basically many people seem to think that writers/editors don’t deserve to make even minimum wage for the amount of time they spend on things. (For example, paying $20 for a novellette that it took me five hours to edit well because it was such a hot mess.)

Published this year:

  1. Spirit Tasting List for Ridley House, April 2016 from Shimmer
  2. The Long Game from Kaleidotrope
  3. .subroutine:all///end in Shimmer #31
  4. Silver Fish from Lakeside Circus
  5. Fire in the Belly from Mothership Zeta 
  6. Game Review: Have You Met My New Birdie? He’s a Lawyer
  7. There Is No “I” in Lazer Team
  8. I Wish I’d Read Xenogenesis Twenty Years Ago
  9. A New Hope
  10. Lavie Tidhar’s novel Central Station is a mosaic of posthuman problems (Ars Technica)
  11. I Want the Longest Audiobook You have (Book Riot)
  12. Seven First Contact Novels (Book Riot)
  13. Buy, Borrow, Bypass: “Great Literature” I Hated in High School (Book Riot)
  14. Talking to Writers at Parties (Book Riot)
  15. What’s Being Done to Fix the Hugos (Book Riot)
  16. No Judgment Zone: Tie-in Edition (Book Riot)
  17. Unicorns and Swords: Nostalgia Reading (Book Riot)
  18. Books to Read at the Poké Stop (Book Riot)
  19. An Open Letter to a Novel I Was Certain I’d Love (and Didn’t) (Book Riot)
  20. Why Field Geologist Should Always Carry a Paperback (Book Riot)

Slated for 2017:

  1. Hunger Makes the Wolf from Angry Robot Books (available for pre-order!)
  2. Comfort Food in Haunted Futures
  3. Past the Black Where Call the Horns in Kzine
  4. Vaca Muerta and the Hounds of Heck in GigaNotoSaurus
  5. [REDACTED]

Goals for 2017

  1. Shut up and write.
  2. Get Angry Robot the next book, well-written and on time.
  3. Get Wrath written.
  4. Write at least one more feature-length screenplay, if not two.
  5. Keep submitting to festivals.
  6. Six short stories, including the birthday short. After five years, I think I’m going to keep on with that as a tradition, mostly because it feels nice to write a story with the aim of giving the money to charity. I have no idea what I’m going to do for this year, but we’ll see.
  7. Another anthology? Get it in development at least.
  8. Finally convince Bungie to let me write that Twilight Gap novel in the style of Killer Angels. I’ve got to have an impossible dream on this list every year, right?

Other Stuff

  1. This was the year I finally got an agent, the inimitable DongWon Song. Holy shit.
  2. This was the year I sold a novel. Holy shit.
  3. I submitted one of my screenplays to a film festival and was a finalist. That was… unexpected, and confidence-boosting.
  4. Officially received my Feature Film Screenwriting Certificate from UCLA. For what that’s worth.
  5. Lost my job. Moved back to Colorado. Got a new job in a completely different industry. That was… a major change.
  6. I spent more days than I care to remember ripping cat pee soaked carpet out of my house and even more days in the bowels of home improvement hell as the flooring was replaced. Not the most fun I’ve had in my life.
  7. This is the year I came out. I’m still finding places where I need to change my name and I suspect I will be for a while.
  8. Still a Sunbreaker for life, yo.

2 thoughts on “2016 Writing Year in Review

  1. Reply Chris Gerrib Dec 31,2016 15:07

    Not to nit-pick, but I think you mean slated for 2017.

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