Writing Goals 2009

Continuing my tradition of looking back on my goals from last year (and how well I met them), I think I’ve done pretty well. I did end up revising my first novel (Strange Fruit, cut—no lie—40 K words from it, and it is now in the hands of a prospective agent). I also revised my most recent novel (Knights of Breton Court, which is now at a prospective publisher).

On the publication front, several stories came out this year. Snapping Points (available online at Magus Press), Broken Strand (in Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest #12), Just a Young Man and His Games (Doorways Magazine), Dark Night of the Soul (Dark Harvest anthology), Orgy of Souls (Apex Books), A House is Not a Home (still available online from Legends of the Mountain State 2), Rite of Passage (Space and Time Magazine #105), and Night of the Living Baseheads (A New Dawn).

A couple of my older stories saw the light of day again: Soul Food (Dark Harvest anthology) and Just an Old Man on a Bench (available online at Apex Books).

I managed to make my goal of writing a half dozen short stories: “Warrior of the Sunrise”, “Bricks in the Wall of Shadows,” “House of Blue Lights,” “A House is Not a Home,” “Shadow Boxer,” “Collateral Casualties,” and “Long Live the King.” And instead of a novel, I produced a new novella (inspired by Nate Southard’s Just Like Hell. I read it and thought “dang, I wish I’d written something that hard hitting.)

Though I did lose my column for Indy.com after a near three year run, I have four projects scheduled to come out this year. No point in announcing them since a couple of them were scheduled to come out a year or two ago.

As for new goals for 2009, I want to write 6 new short stories, revise a screenplay, write a new novel (the problem is that I have three bubbling around in the back of my head with no clear favorite), write a new novella, and revise my second novel (Pantheon of Dreams) down to a novella. With any luck, I’ll be able to get back to doing more reviews and blogs so it should be a good year.


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Writing Goals 2007

Looking at the results, I think I got about half of my goals and resolutions for 2006 accomplished. This year, I’m keeping it simple. I want to finish two short stories, a novella, and a novel this year. I have the ideas for all of them already, I just need to find the time to work on them. I have a bunch of projects lined up for 2007, far too few of them involve me actually writing beyond my regular blogs and columns. Although, to be honest, I am trying to leave myself some flexibility for stories and articles that I’ll be asked to write. I’m just saying.

In the meantime, I need to finish my novella collaboration with Wrath James White. One reason I dreamt of doing this was to stretch me, to experiment with each other’s wheelhouse, and it’s pretty much going as I expected. Mental note: don’t bait Wrath (in one of our e-mail exchanges, he said that we “were ready for a teleological argument for God”. I said that I wanted to cut a woman in half first. He then wrote back, rather ominously, “really, is that how we’re playing now?”). Wrath will always rise to that occasion. A friend of mine is reading the rough draft so far in the other room. I keep hearing shouts of “Oh my God”. I’m just going to pretend that he’s having an impromptu praise service.

I also need to finish my novel collaboration with Steve Shrewsbury. Steve is what I’m now calling a “testosterone plotter”. I’m doing my level best to hang on and provide the atmosphere and grounding for the mayhem.

Simple goals. At least it sounds simple right now.


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