A Look Back at My Year in Writing – 2019

Wow! Another year gone. Time to give you a quick recap of some the things I accomplished this year [Voice of God from the heavens:] in…the writing…of the fiction.

1. I Kept Writing Despite Setbacks

The thing I am most proud of this year as a writer (and a person) is that I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop writing. I have told myself on numerous occasions this year: “If a bullet didn’t stop you from writing, nothing will.” I even put this slug line in the manuscript I’m working on:

[It was at this point precisely that the author was shot…To continue…]

If you want to learn the whole bizarre story of how I got shot, it’s here. And for my fellow Americans, that post has some thoughts (and leads) on how to get involved, informed, and heard in our much-needed, ongoing debate on guns in this country. I hope you seriously consider this issue, for your sake and the sake of your loved ones.

So, that’s that. And honestly, while realizing that I am extraordinarily, infinitely fortunate and lucky in so many ways, I would rather just move on from that incident. End of story, as they say!

2. My Word Count Stayed High

I also had a good, super solid word count. Adding to a piece I have been working on for some time. It’s a long slog, but the words keep coming. Some days are great, most are good, some are bad, and a few here and there really suck.

But the words keep coming! As of today, my total word count for this year is 81,929 (and I plan to write on Dec. 30). That comes out to about 2,000 words or so per writing session, I figure. I post an exact word count total after each writing session on my Twitter, in case you’re into that sort of thing.

3. One Story Was Accepted for Publication

And burying the lead a bit here, but…Good news! I had a story accepted for publication just last month. It will appear in early/mid January. It’s my story “Pacha-Mama” and I will share details here as soon as it’s out.

It took a lot of time for this one to see the light of day and it got tons of rejections, but I’m glad it’s almost here!

4. I Changed the Look and Pace of the Blog

Finally, back in February, I totally revamped the look and feel of this blog. I really like how it turned out and it seems all of you do too: it’s almost  back up to the old, regular monthly visit numbers we had last year, despite Google having to re-index all the pages.

Also, I slowed down the pace of posts to once a month.  While I don’t like this, it has let me stay sane and kept the workload manageable. After all, people, I have a full-time job, AND write fiction, AND have a life with family and friends and everything. So, sometimes you have to cut things down to size. I did and I am glad.

That’s it for now! Tune in on Jan. 1 and I will share a little bit about where my writing is going in 2020. There are a few neat tweaks on the horizon.

See you then! Happy Holidays!