Time for the annual yearly roundup again and, wow, I have to tell you 2018 was an utter git of a year for achieving those artistic aims. For a variety of reasons, finding the time, energy and focus for writing and music was a struggle. But we all go through those periods and then it clicks in again and we move forward. So it goes.
And, in the end, it doesn’t much matter if 2018 was a bit of a bust (one of I think only three calender years since I started writing in the mid-90s in which I published nothing new), it just means there’s a lot to look forward to next year. For starters, I’ve sold three new short stories to various anthologies scheduled to come out next year. I’ll promote each of them when the time is right, but look out for The Long Game (my anthropomorphic spy story, I mentioned last month), The Raveller’s Tale (a far-future fairy story) and Bunting (a creepy little slipstream piece which I read at Fantasycon last year). I anticipate there being a few more to join these too, but they’re not signed off yet.
I’ve just about put the finishing touches to new novella. It’s called The Packet and is set on an Atlantic packet steamer in 1920 (sort of, you’ll understand when you read it). You should see that next year. And I hope finally to be able to tell you about a new collection soon too. Super excited about both of these.
On the novel front, I’ve progressed pretty well with the new novel. The Poisoner’s Road is planned to be the first in a series of fantasy novels, closer to the traditional heroic fantasy adventure mode than my first two novels have been, with magic, monsters, an undead love affair, giant paper golems, sinister Men of Ember and a lead character who poison’s himself for fun. It’s been a lot of fun coming up with the Stuff of this new world, and I’m excited about sharing it with folks.
And music-wise? Ha, well. I did write a whole bunch of new songs, and have some rough demos of them and the old songs, but I discovered I needed to upgrade my gear and improve my recording process to be able to sit down and properly record them. I’ve done that now, so that’s a project that’s going to be carried on into 2019 too.
All in all, while it was a frustrating year in many ways, I’m hugely pleased with what I ended up achieving and I’m ganting to get into it all again next year.
ayeahmur 