Yup, it’s that navel gazingish time of year again when New Year’s provides me with as good an excuse as any to to take stock of my writerly shenanigans.
So, 2013. It’s the year that came riding in on a wave of awesome, yet now looks poised to trickle out with a whole lot of meh. The first half of the year, I was feeling good about my writing (but not in an unhealthy and complacent I-don’t-need-to-improve kind of way), selling stories consistently at the pro level, and had gotten acceptances from a couple publications I previously hadn’t been able to crack. But that all came to abrupt end in September, when a months-long dry spell in both the writing and selling of things began, which in turn makes me feel like I’m back at square one. Again. So, um, happy new year?
Anyway, the awesome was awesome while it lasted, so with fond remembrance of its awesomeness, here’s 2013 in a nutshell:
Published in 2013
- “The Wounded House” (reprint) – Trespass, January 2013
- “Notes on a Page” – Intergalactic Medicine Show, issue 32, February 2013
- “The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen” – Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 124, June 27, 2013, audio podcast in issue 126, July 25, 2013
- “Memories of Mirrored Worlds” – Daily Science Fiction, July 5, 2013
- “The Swan Maiden” – Flash Fiction Online, October 2013
- “The Perfect Coordinates to Raise a Child” – Daily Science Fiction, October 8, 2013
Sold in 2013
Four of the stories above, plus these two forthcoming in 2014:
- “The Whole of His History” – Stamps, Vamps, and Tramps, Evil Girlfriend Media, February 14, 2014
- “The Perfect Instrument” – NewMyths.com, March 2014
Writerly Progress
Sadly, I’ve barely written a thing fiction-wise since September. Or blog-wise either, as you can probably tell by the silence and cobwebs here. Stupid non-writing life getting in the way. But before that, fiction was accomplished. I finished major revisions on an older short story and wrote six new stories. One of those stories went straight into the trunk, sure, but two of them sold pretty darn quickly, so I call it even. The rest, though, are traipsing around slush piles with heads bowed in shame as they collect more rejections.
I also managed to return to revisions on My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel this year. I didn’t get very far into them before my fall semester began and school work took precedence, but my brain has clearly still been plugging away at the novel even when the rest of me hasn’t. I recently had a big old revelation about one of my protagonists that is going to seriously change several things in the story. In a good way, I think. I hope. Mostly I’m just grateful that my brain had said revelation before I got to rewriting the parts of the novel it affects.
So, what awaits me in 2014? For starters, I intend to make some more headway in the novel revisions before my spring semester starts in late January. And then, LAST SEMESTER EVER, PEOPLE! By May, I’ll have my master’s degree and should finally have time to be a writer again. And I’ll be able to read for fun again instead of spending all my time on textbooks and dry academic articles. Damn, I miss fiction.
Barbara A. Barnett 