2012 in Review

Wow.  What a crap hole of a year.

Not much of a secret now, but I’ve separated from my wife of 15 years.  That was back in September.  Since then I’ve had to literally rebuild my life from scratch.  The holidays have been the hardest for me, but I‘m surviving.

Enough said about that.

 

Writing career is the rollercoaster ride it’s always been.  I went to World Con in Chicago and World Fantasy in Toronto.  I consider both conventions successes in that I achieved what I wanted to do at both events while having a great time.

Publishing was not so great.  Sold only one story, A Bunny Hug for Karl to the superhero anthology, Masked Mosaic coming out Spring 2013.

On the plus side I’ve all but finished my new YA urban fantasy novel, and have good feelings about that, mostly that I managed to write and rewrite the thing in just over a year.  That is on top of writing some new short stories, one of which is Bunny Hug, so for the first time in a while, I feel no shame about my writing output.

After some 40 years since learning that, not only did the place actually exist, but people can go there, I finally realized my dream, (and fulfilled a promise to my children) of visiting Disney World.  It was worth every penny.

I had my first colonoscopy.  Despite being the herald of old age, it did give me the satisfaction of knowing I’m healthy in that respect.

That’s about it, highlights and lowlights.  In spite of it all, I am looking forward to the New Year.  Short of death, things couldn’t get much worse, which means only better, right?

Right?

 

The Dangers of Having an Opinion

It's the new millenium and if you want to break into this wacky field of publishing new writers must dip their toes into the potential quagmire of Social Media.  It is the cheapest way to get your name out into the world.

It is also the fastest way to put your foot in your mouth, or having painstakenly gained a following, lose it because you are a human being with your own personal values.

The recent shootings in America has rekindled the old gun-control arguments.  I have an opinion on this.  An author I like to read has a differing opinion.  Needless to say, it has affected me and I wonder if I will read any more of this author's works.

This is the risk you take when voicing opinions on Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. Not such a big thing if you are an established author with a sizeable following, but when you are a small fish in a big pond, you might want to reconsider.  Every fan has the potential of selling an author's work to others by word-of-mouth.  Should you lose that fan, well, the opposite might happen.

One might argue this is my fault, that I'm not mature enough and should get over it.

Immature?  Then I should get over all the evil things Hitler did because, after all, he did pull Germany out of economic ruin, right?

Only a moron would bring Hitler into it.  /unfriend

An extreme example, but you get the picture.

I'm not telling anyone what to write on their blogs,  just be careful. Like it or not, at it's heart writing is a business, and like all good businesses, sometimes we have to make concessions to keep the customer happy even if it means biting our tongues now and then.