Okay. So I think I’m not alone in saying ‘holy hell 2013 you’re a mean drunk’. After seeing someone summarize their year when it comes to writing on a forum I frequent, I thought it’d be a good way to see where I started and where I am now. Especially since I’ve been struggling a bit in the last couple months (yay Plague!)
The Good
Technically I submitted my first story in 2012 to The Hero Comes Home 2. But I also submitted it on Dec 31st, so I’m counting that as 2013 regardless.
Before 2013 I’d never thought I could submit anything and have it considered being close to ‘good’. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go before I am considered ‘good’, but there was this weird invisible fence that I’d made up that kept me back from trying to get published.
Then this dude came up to me and tried to sell me this lady‘s book, and got all pushy about joining this writing thing called Nanowrimo. So I went and met a whole bunch of lovely people, who told me about markets and I joined the facebook groups and learned about what kind of markets look for what kind of stories.
I’d started writing a horror story about pomegranates when the Hero Comes Home 2 crossed my inbox and so I sat down and wrote, edited and sent off the story in 5 days. #thatshowIroll. Totally expected it to get sent back with a ‘definitely not. never. ever.’ in red text. Instead I got a personal rejection.
The pomegranate story received an offer, which I can tell you was even more surprising.
Call it beginner’s luck, or call it 15 years of writing in my basement and on RP sites finally paying off, but I’ve had a number of personal rejections this year that are crazy elating.
Cons Attended: Ad Astra, WorldCon, CanCon [panelist]
Total Submissions: 23
Form Rejections: 13
Personal Rejections: 6 (including 2 ‘you made it to the final cut’ heartbreakers)
WOTF: Q3 – Honourable Mention, Q4 – SEMI FINALIST
Pending: 2
Sales: 1!!
The Bad
So like I said at the top of the post, 2013 was a mean drunk. I lost a total of 4 family members in the first half of the year alone, including my grandfather and an aunt. To say that I was emotionally exhausted would be a bit of an understatement. While at first I kept writing, I realised that grief was taking a toll on the tone in my stories, so I set it aside for a while.
I didn’t want to ruin work that had potential by infusing it with a sadness when the story didn’t warrant it. I think that this was the right decision, although it did set off a cascade of missed writing goals in the last quarter of the year.
Upgraded (Neil Clarke’s Antho) – Missed
Chiral Mad 2 – Missed
Tesseracts 18 Submission – Missed
WOTF Q1 – Missed
Angry Robot Open Door – Missed
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
As of Midnight tonight, 2014 kicks 2013’s butt out of here. While I’ve never been big on resolutions, the change over and promise of a new start is refreshing.
I’ve got a solid job, solid friends and a backlog of stories plotted out and ready to finish drafting. Not to mention a novel that’s been tightened up and needs to be finished before I start harassing you folk for Beta readers. (it’s historical Spy-Fi because… hell yes?)
The health issues have lessened and I feel really motivated to get going.
The next month will be spent
1) Finishing up a story and polishing it for the Women Destroy SF issue of Lightspeed
2) Finish drafting the Q2 story for WotF
3) Getting back to that Novel
4) Sewing
5) Celebrating another year of continued existance with gluten free cake.
Hope your 2014 only improves on 2013!
xox, Alice
