Well, it’s been a while but finally I have something interesting to report. First, a word about internet journals. I am a prodigious reader, have been since I was a little kid. Reading so much, I of course, have favorite authors. Many of these are well known and have their own websites that I check periodically to see what they’re up to.
Most of these author websites have updates, journals or some section dedicated to keeping readers abreast of new things the author may have going on. Now, I’ve noticed that most these update sections fall broadly into two categories; 1) They are only updated infrequently or very seldom, generally when there is something important to announce, or 2) They are updated regularly but often have nothing important at all to say. If this is the case, these sections are often filled with gossip, personal activities and other non-writing topics.
When I started this journal, I never thought about other author’s websites. I rather naively, thought I’d have interesting things to say or report every few weeks. Hmmmm . . . I guess you can blame my ego for that mistake. I have learned the hard way (often the only way I learn anything) that a lot of the writing business is just grinding away on the keyboard day after day. Not that it’s all drudgery. I enjoy writing and find it very fulfilling but it is a bit lonely and sometimes quite frustrating.
Which leads us back to why I haven’t written in this journal for months; the truth is not much has happened for a long time. Oh, I’ve been writing away. I wrote a couple of short stories for my alternate Zeppelin world, and I’ve knocked out quite a few words on my long neglected swashbuckling colonial hero. I’ve even come up with some fun new outlines for future stories, both new pulp and horror. Unfortunately, there is no place for any of them in the immediate future. I’m not willing to talk too much about future projects; most writers aren’t. You let out a neat new idea and no telling who might grab it and run with it before you get a chance to write the story yourself. Also more than a few publishers prefer that you not announce new books before they do.
Adding to this lack of news is the fact that I only had two stories published in 2019, both very early in the year. I was hopeful that other projects might move forward but everything seems to be stuck in quicksand. I’ve discussed this before; the publishing industry moves at it’s own speed.
All this has changed in the last couple of weeks. I have been notified that two projects I have been waiting on are finally making progress. One book had been held back awaiting artwork, while the other anthology lacked a final story. Now both are moving forward. Quickly forward? Who knows? But at least something is finally happening.
More interestingly, there is positive news about a story I wrote nearly four years ago. I had almost given up on this story thinking the publisher had gone out of business but I heard from him last week. He was out of the business for a long while but he is back and intent on getting this long delayed book out. He event sent me back an edited copy of my manuscript for changes. This is a good sign, the changes needed are minor and having a professional editor at work on the stories means that we may actually see this long delayed anthology published sometime this year.
So, 2020 is opening on a hopeful note. Two anthologies with my stories in them are moving forward and a full book I have written is very likely to be published this year. Yessss! (Fist pump)
I knew 2019 would be slow in the publishing end of things, so I’m not too disappointed. I did get a lot words written just not anything major I can announce. But I have as strong feeling that 2020 will be different.
Hopefully, I will have more positive news in the future.
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