My Amazing and Productive Writing Year

At 12:19pm on 12/19/2012, I find that I’ve finished Novel #2 for 2012, a/k/a MIRIAM MULLINS, a long in the works YA about emotionally stunted, 25 year-old Courtleigh, who tries to relive her teen years by pretending to be fifteen again, but with heartbreaking and tragic consequences.

Here is the breakdown of what I’ve accomplished this year in terms of my fiction writing career, which I post not so much as braggadocio as a peek into the level of commitment and discipline it takes to make it in the publishing business:

Jan-Feb—Revision of Fellow Traveler, pre-writing on Let The Glory Pass Away

Feb-Mar—Revision of Mansion of High Ghosts, pre-writing on Let The Glory Pass Away, writing of short story ‘Trailer Trash’, revision of numerous other short stories

Apr-May—submissions, pre-writing on Let The Glory Pass Away

June-July-Aug—writing of Let the Glory Pass Away, prep of Fellow Traveler for publication

Sept-Oct—Revision, Submission of Dogs of Parsons Hollow, prep of Fellow Traveler for publication

Nov-Dec—Promotion of Fellow Traveler, revision of Dogs, writing of two new short stories that completed a linked collection called The Night I Prayed to Elvis, revision and submission of 15 separate and unique short stories most of which only needed a polish, writing of Miriam Mullins (with 100 pages already done, but revised before continuing). 

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For all the effort, we finish the year with awards, publications, a new novel in print, and a possible breakout novel sitting on an editor’s desk at one of the big six. Not bad, with only more to come. Scroll down through this post for a rundown of what I have planned for 2013, and beyond.