Looking back: year 8 in the books

2020. What a year. I don’t know too many people who are coming to the end of it whistling Dixie. So much happened to us all as individuals and as a society. It’s hard to put into perspective. Maybe we won’t truly understand it until this year is far in the rearview mirror.

There’s an understandable impulse to want to move on. To “get this thing over with” and start with a clean slate in 2021. But in our rush to turn the page, it’s easy to miss the diamonds scattered in the 2020 rough.

So, as I do every year, it’s time to reflect on the sound and the fury and all that was year 8 in the books.

It’s getting drafty in here

I started out the year writing the second draft to what was meant to be the prequel to my upcoming epic fantasy series, The Swordspeaker Saga. That draft was eventually sent out to a few beta readers and the response was mixed. Based on the feedback, and some of my own reservations, I decided to table the story for the time being, even though I already had a cover made for it.

To prove that no writing goes to waste, the crafting of that story had ripple effects on Truesilver, book 1 of the series. It went into a lot of the conflict that serves as a backdrop for the events of the first book. I ended up doing another draft of Truesilver in late spring to incorporate the new developments. After that, I finally had the story nailed down. I then did another three drafts over the next few months to smooth and polish the prose.

When at last it was ready, I went searching for an editor and eventually found one who fit what I was looking for. After getting the manuscript back, I sent it off to a copy editor for some fine-toothed, nitpicking.

While the editors did their work, I kept myself busy banging away at the keyboard on the first draft of book 2. For now, we’ll just call it The Blue Book. I cranked out the entire draft in three, frenzied months and then washed up on October’s shore, a battered castaway from having gone through six drafts of full-length novels in one year.

Just around the corner

But the fun wasn’t over with drafting. After taking some time off to recover from my summer and fall writing marathons, I ended the year by reworking a 17K short story I had written several years back. It was meant to be a companion to book 2 in The Null Stone Trilogy, but after releasing The Last Motley, the series got put on hold as I decided to go in another direction.

This story features a rather naive prince in an Arabian-style kingdom who is dragged into some political intrigue and finds himself very much in over his head. This tale has been sitting in my files for quite some time, predating even The Last Motley. Since The Null Stone Trilogy is on indefinite pause and I don’t know when book 2 will come out, I decided to release it this short story anyway, since I really do enjoy it and it didn’t seem right to keep it locked up forever.

I hope to offer it as a free download to my newsletter subscribers in January. So if you’d like to pick it up, be sure you’re signed up!

Got you covered

The year was not all writing, though. I continued to work with my fabulous cover designer and we got the cover for Truesilver early in the year and then moved on to the cover for The Blue Book later. Based on some of the design decisions for the second cover, we went back and actually touched up the first cover so that they would be more consistent.

Late in the year, I finally got a proof copy of Truesilver. I’m not ready to do a cover reveal just yet, but trust me when I say that it came back gorgeous. Working with my new cover designer has been an absolute dream. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the covers are turning out.

I’m currently in the process of getting more proof copies, including a hardback version of Truesilver. I have never released a hardback version of my books before, which has me doubly thrilled to be doing so this time.

The deep breath before the plunge

And so we come to the end of my writing journeys for 2020. I had hoped to release at least something this year, but that was not meant to be. It’s hard as a writer to have all these stories in various stages of completion and none of them crosses the finish line. Both professionally and personally this was not my most favoritist of years.

But I feel this year has put me in a great place for next year. I grew as a writer. I feel more confident in my process. I love the work more than ever. And I have hope that next year will be a prodigious year. Lord willing, I may release not one, but two books if everything falls into place. At the very least, look for my free short story coming in January.

And to those dear handful of you who follow my work in this obscure little nook of the literary world, thank you. For your kind words, your prayers, your reading and reviewing of my work.

I feel in many ways that I am just a partner with all of these wonderful readers and writers I’ve met on my journey. We’re in this together, my friend. In rough seas or fair, thank you for helping me see these stories sail. Yo ho ho, a writer’s life for me.