A Look Ahead, a Look Behind

Some years, you look back and you don't think you did much, even if you did. Other years, they're the years that will mark your future forever, and you know it even now. I had one of the latter sort, not the former. Lots of big changes happened this year, and they were all good changes. I look behind, and I look ahead. Behind: As holidays wind through, and gift cards roll in, I urge you to consider purchasing one of my books. In particular, LAST DRAGON remains, selling here and there, and being talked about for the four years it has been in print. The Audio Book arrived from Audible this year, and I am very excited to see the first audio edition of my work. Collecting completionists might be interested in a Polish edition, my first, of NEVER KNEW ANOTHER. They put out a beautiful product, and I can only assume the translation is good because the Polish reviews are good (that I can tell via Google Translate's grumpy, stuttery translation device). Also out in the world, my first major shared world project, NIRVANA GATES, with the amazing cover art of Mats Minhagan, and the gentle editorial guidance of Phil Athans, the Fathomless Abyss falls down and down, and then down some more. I write high fantasy monsters and creatures, there, and enjoy the work of my peers therein, with Cat Rambo and Phil Athans both the proud writers of other Novellas and more to come, soon. So, on top of all the usual book-related noise and announcements, these were big steps, for me. First big audio book, first foreign translation? (Not quite as big a deal as my wedding last September, but not bad.) Women and Monsters is still out there, stepping forward, ever forward. The unexpected return to the Kindle store was a nice treat this holiday season after months of unresolved issues that are, thankfully, behind us. Looking ahead, to the new year, I've got a full plate. I've got to turn in the last Dogsland Book soon, and it's ready. A little paperwork, and then the editing begins. I'm shopping around a steampunk novel that is about as much like a steampunk novel as Last Dragon is a fantasy quest novel and Dogsland are urban fantasies. It is a very strange, little book, and I seek a home for it, now, that celebrates that strangeness. Time will tell when one could see it. I'm currently scribbling away on the next Abyss novella. My working title is "Garden of the Dead" and it is a riff on a throwaway character in Athans' novella, "Devils of the Endless Deep" that will attempt to bring in a few other characters that appeared and disappeared in some of the short stories. Do not expect this title to remain, but it does involve gardening, and the importance of gardening in a world without either grocery stores or meaningful wildernesses spaces wherein one could hunt and forage. I would expect a world like the Abyss would be a place where calorie-dense bio-intensive gardening is a means of survival for all sorts of different races of creature and thing. I've got a very rough draft done of an epic fantasy novel that's inspired by American Westerns. Once the dough has a chance to rest and rise again in my subconscious, I will return to it and try to turn it into something. It's not ready. "Western Imperial" is what I'm calling it, for now. Let it rest a while, and maybe it will be ready to touch again in the spring. I've also got about half of a science fiction mosaic novel trundling along in my hard drive. No one has seen these little stories, yet, and I won't send any out until I get through the whole gesture. I mentioned this one a little in my interview with Sanford Allen, if only because he's seen a few of these early gestures of a book through a group of local writers, but it's not there, yet. It's growing. Time moves on. The thing to do is to keep working. Just keep working. Everything that can happen to creative careers will happen, with ups and downs and all sorts of crazy in-betweens, but no matter what, just keep working. I am going to get back to work. Have a Happy Holiday Season, everyone, and be well.