Here's a look at how I did compared with the goals I "publicly" decried on this blog on Jan 3, 2012.
The goals are listed first, along with commentary on how I did
WRITING GOALS FOR 2012
1) Complete the Tesseracts Anthology. (IE, read submissions, select stories, get book to publisher) - okay, I'm already feeling overwhelmed.
Well that was an easy one. I completed the work on the anthology - and it was INDEED hard. What made it the most hard was that there so many fantastic submissions and I had to spend time agonizing over which great stories to cut. The resulting anthology, Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound came out in Sept 2012 and is something I am indeed very proud of. I'd call this goal successfully achieved.
2) Get the latest re-write of I, DEATH over to Atomic Fez.
I not only completed this, but the novel came back from my publisher/editor and I completed another go at it following the advise of his very wise red pen - and I completed both of those within the realm of 2012. (I just made it, as I had finished the last part with just days to spare)
3) Post live updates for the first 1/3 of the re-written I, DEATH to a blog so that people can begin following along the tale of Peter O'Mallick. (Started that yesterday by creating an I, DEATH blog - the story begins on Jan 18th - and yes, without spending a single penny you can read the complete first 1/3 of the novel, which, in and of itself, tells a complete story.
I had done this, but only now realized that something went wrong with the scheduling for the last 20 to 30 entries. Sigh. Completely missed that until now, so will have to go fix that. Let's call this a fail, since 80% of it is there, but the remaining 20% never went live when they were supposed to. Sigh. [Must make a note to myself to go and fix this]
4) Release a new digital collection of previously published (but not previously collected) short stories.
I did this with the release of BUMPS IN THE NIGHT, although it's a bit shorter (the collection contains 4 stories) and I really would like to release a full book's worth of stories. Good goal for 2013, n'est pas?
5) Release an enhanced text plus audio version of ONE HAND SCREAMING.
Fail. Never even got started on this. I looked at trying to re-purpose the recorded audio from my Prelude to a Scream podcast, figured it'd be easier to just re-record, and determined the time required might not be worth it. In 2014, One Hand Screaming will be celebrating its 10th anniversary, so perhaps THAT would be a good year for planning that.....hmmmm
6) Pitch a second book to Dundurn as a follow-up to HAUNTED HAMILTON.
Did this - pitched SPOOKY SUDBURY and was sent the contract for it just prior to the year finishing. Have to complete SPOOKY SUDBURY early in 2013 and get it to Dundurn by the end of March.
7) Promote the hell out of the fact I have 3 books coming out in 2012.
I, DEATH didn't come out - publication has been delayed, but I did indeed promote the hell out of HAUNTED HAMILTON and TESSERACTS SIXTEEN. So I'll say I did this - big time.
8) Do a big book launch for HAUNTED HAMILTON in Hamilton and work the "local book" angle in all forms of media.
Done - Over 100 people attended the book launch for HAUNTED HAMILTON at the central branch of the Hamilton Public Library. Also made it into The Hamilton Spectator with a wonderful article as well as onto CHCH Morning Live and an appearance on SPACE. I'd call this a BIG time success.
I also learned that publishing a non-fiction brought with it an interesting sort of prestige that I had never been privy to before. Wow. Imagine that - from writing a book of ghost stories. Whoda thunk? Have to admit I kind of like that.
9) Do combined promotions for HAUNTED HAMILTON, I, DEATH & TESSERACTS 16. (There's pretty much something for everybody - non-fiction, a novel, short stories)
Let's be honest, here, this was really me either padding my goals and repeating, or making sure I didn't neglect the importance of doing promotion for my books. See point 7, and point 8, oh, and point 10.
10) A little more promotion (just when I thought I wanted to rest)
Let's be honest, I was a self-promotion slut in 2012. I even mocked my own book, joking about re-branding "Haunted Hamilton" as "Fifty Shades of Hamilton" (shade being another term for ghost) Would you really expect anything less?
And now that I've outlined what my goals for 2012 were it's time to look at what I have planned in the year that now is . . .
WRITING GOALS FOR 2013
1) Complete SPOOKY SUDBURY and get it to Dundurn by the end of March
2) Pitch a third "Ghost Story" book to Dundurn by the end of February - Have had the idea for over a year now, I just have to start and work on the 3rd book in 2013 if I want to stay on track with this series
3) Publish a full book length short story collection in print (POD) and digital (eBook) format
4) Release a digital short tie-in to the I, DEATH universe for launch at Eerie-Con
5) Release a digital short Michael Andrews/Canadian Werewolf in New York as a precursor for the novel A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK
STRETCH GOALS (since the 5 above don't seem progressive enough, we'll see what else can be squeezed in....)
6) Release A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK in eBook just prior to the close of the year
7) Pitch a collection of YA Short Stories to a publisher. IDEAL pitch sees publisher do print with me doing digital
8) Sell at least 2 short stories to magazines/anthologies
9) Sell 1 non-fiction article
10) Either pitch a themed anthology to a publisher and/or raise funds for creation of an anthology (similar to Campus Chills) that can pay authors pro rates for their stories in said anthology.
There. That should be hard enough. Wish me luck.
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