2015 Year in Review
Seems like everyone’s doing a year-in-review post. I meant to do one a couple of days ago, but I’m just now getting around to it. New Year’s Eve I was busy plotting instead of writing. Yesterday I spent much of the day doing a First Day Hike at Shades State Park. So today, you get a blog post!
So 2015. This was the second full year of publishing as an indie author. I published my first story in August 2013. I wrote a total of 235,788 words in 2015. About 140,000 of that was Stormseer, another 20,000 was The Midwinter Royal, just over 50,000 was my NaNoWriMo project, and the rest were in blog posts and various short stories.
What I published in 2015
- Stormseer – Published July 28, 2015
- The Midwinter Royal – Published December 20, 2015
What I did (professionally) in 2015
- I went to Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie, Indiana, for the first time. Had a great time, pitched to an agent and an editor, spoke with a tax consultant, met some amazing new writer friends, and learned a ton.
- I was the hashtag leader for #SeptWritingChallenge on the Monthly Twitter Writing Challenge. It was great!
- I went to author fairs at Tippecanoe County Public Library in the spring and Allen County Public Library in the fall.
- I did a reading, Q & A session, and book signing at Main Street Books in Lafayette, Indiana.
What I plan for 2016
- I hope to release the next two Amethir books, The Weather War and The Weather Price. Right now I am hoping for a May release date for War and a September release date for Price. We’ll see if that changes as the year goes on.
- I also plan to publish the first of my modern fantasy novels, Maze of Moments hopefully in August. If all goes well, I want to release Come Ye Back, the sequel, in November.
- I’ll be attending the Allen County Public Library Author Fair in November.
- I will be organizing the Lew Wallace Author Fair for Small Business Saturday, in November, as part of a year-long “Lew Wallace Festival of Words” at my work.
I know that’s a lot for one year, but Maze of Moments has been basically publication-ready for some time. It’ll need one more pass of minor revision, copy edits, and cover art, in order to be ready. I’m releasing it later in the year mostly because I want to focus on the next in the Amethir series. A lot of people have been asking me what happens to Azmei and Vistaren and the others, and I want to address that before embarking on a new series!
Things I loved in 2015
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – I’ve seen it twice in the theater, and I’m hoping to get in one more time before it leaves the big screen.
- The 100 – If you’re not watching The 100, you’re missing out on a show with some fearless writing and great characterization! I know its appearance on The CW makes it look like your typical teen melodrama with pretty people (not that those are inherently bad) but it’s not. Set 97 years after a nuclear war on Earth, it follows the fate of 100 teenage delinquents dropped from a space station to Earth to find out if the planet is livable yet. The first two seasons are on Netflix, and January 21 is marked in big red letters in my planner, because that’s when Season Three starts!
- Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The Girl of Fire and Thorns series by Rae Carson, the Lynburn Legacy books by Sarah Rees Brennan, and the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.
Best wishes to you and yours for a great 2016! What do you hope to accomplish and experience in the coming year?
