Yesterday I started taking Prednisone for this damn upper respiratory infection which is exacerbating my asthma, and that, combined with the short story rejection I received yesterday (for a submission that I thought was a sure hit), can only mean one thing:

PITY PARTY!

Yes, I went onto Twitter and whined about my lack of writing success, about how I started seriously wanting to become an established writer back in 2001 and having failed at that since then. Eighteen years seems like it should have been plenty of time, but I still have only a handful of publications in my portfolio, none of them pro-level. I’m definitely not making money, but that’s not what I am really concerned about; what I really want is for people to read and enjoy my fiction, and that’s not happening (that’s my huge ego talking, I suppose).

Oh well.

A recap:

In 2019 I wrote a lot. I wrote a couple of short stories, some flash fiction pieces, and finished up two novels, both of which went over well with my crit group. I submitted a lot of stories to magazines, but got no bites. I feel like 2018, with an honorable mention for “Burying Uncle Albert” at the Writers of the Future contest, was a better year for me.

A plan:

For 2020, I plan to…

• Focus on my strengths as a writer. I think I write good comedic contemporary fantasy, so I’m going to build on that;
• Work on my weaknesses. Specifically, I need to work on…
  • Creating emotional attachments between my characters and the readers; and,
  • Endings.
• Revise The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster based on feedback that I’ve received;
• Work on And the Devil Will Drag You Under, the NaNoWriMo novel I worked on in 2017 before I abandoned it;
• Self-publish Tales from Patwin County, a collection of short stories that take place in, uh, Patwin County (where The Winds of Patwin County is set); and
• Write a comedic classical fantasy short story of about 9,000 to 10,000 words.

There’s probably more, but that is all I want to put down for now.

This coming year is going to be interesting, to say the least, because library school starts on January 23, and I’ll be continuing my full-time job, AND I’ll be working on Daikaijuzine. I’m not feeling optimistic about my chances of making any money on my writing in 2020, but, you know, stranger things have happened.

For now, Happy New Year! If you’re a writer, keep writing. If you’re a reader, continue reading.

And since today was my birthday, and tomorrow is New Year’s Day, I’ll post again REAL SOON.