This year started out quite differently than it ended. I imagine it is the same for most people out there. 2020 kicked the ever-loving crap out of me.
The triumphs
I published FIVE books this year. It takes my breath away every time I think about that. So many long nights, so many revisions and edits and headaches and tears and then more tears when each and every one finally came together. Just a whirlwind of emotions when I think about these books.
On top of these five, two audiobooks came out with a third in the review process for early 2021. J.S. Arquin has done an incredible job bringing Portents to life. I am so grateful for all his hard work on the project and can’t thank him enough for reaching out and suggesting the partnership.
The second half of the DSA’s opening season launched last spring. With each one I quietly freaked out. I waited for the readers to call me out for the hack I believed myself to be. See, the DSA is the largest story I’ve ever tried to tell. I don’t know the end, and coming from a plot-oriented writer like me that is scary as hell. Yet, that was what keeps me loving this series, keeps me dreaming up new twists with each installment. It’s all about the unknown, about something bigger out there than we can imagine.
I’m immensely proud of the season. It was a lot of years in the making.
Greystone-in-Training finished up its run over the back half of the year. That was never the intention. My original premise was to launch one per year. The plan was that would give me time to map out the rest of the main series, so there wouldn’t be a large gap between Greystone novels.
Soriya wouldn’t leave me the hell alone though. She hasn’t since then either. Greystone is going to be a big part of my 2021 writing schedule.
The failures
These are what I perceive them to be. Everyone else is quite understanding about how my schedule has been ripped from me. I, on the other hand, always push myself harder than I should.
The Final Gauntlet was written back in March. It was one of the most challenging drafts I’ve ever put together, thanks to the outside world collapsing at the time. I think the book came out better than it should have given the circumstances, yet I’ll always wonder if I could have done more – made it more – if the world would have just kept on trucking.
Since then, there has been little in the way of drafting. That’s never happened before, not since I started this crazy train over 5 years ago. There has always been a project on my desk, always another edit to work on, something in the way of writing. But quarantine took over.
More than that, teaching took over. The kiddos won out over my priorities, as they always should.
The sad fact is that 2021 is going to be the lightest year of my career in terms of releases. Where I hoped to launch DSA Season Two and Greystone Book Six, where I thought Army in the Obelisk would give readers something to talk about every month next year, now there will be silence for a time.
Only for a time.
Everything is still here, jammed in the ol’ noodle and waiting for release. I’ve outlined twelve books this year, one of the few tasks I can squeeze in between Google Meets and math homework.
The End of the Year and Looking ahead
I find myself doing this more and more in the hopes of a better tomorrow. I hope you are too. That we can put away this dismal year and start dreaming again.
Please stay safe this holiday season. I will talk to you in the new year.
