Not Another Noughties Review Post
No really, it isn't. The past decade has been - on balance - a bit of a shit, so I'm not going to dissect the whole thing year by year. Undeniable highlights of 2000-2008 include getting married, having not one but two great kids and getting my stories published for the first time. Aside from that ... well, let's move on, shall we?
While I'm not going to inflict ten years of analysis on you, however, I'm happy to examine 2009 in isolation. I took a big kicking from the global financial crisis, what with freelancers being the first against the wall when the money runs out, but if I ignore the money side of things I've actually achieved a reasonable amount in terms of my writing this year. Maybe that's because of the proper paying work drying up ... hmmm.
Anyway as 2009 wraps I've had just the one story published (Rights of Passage in the Grants Pass anthology), but have nailed four more stories for release in the next twelve months, with one more still waiting for a yay or nay and another on the boil for a project that should be given the go-ahead in early January. Meanwhile my story Just Us made the cut for next year's Best-Of anthology Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume 4, and let's not forget I finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel. It's rough as guts, but with rewrites, who knows ...
That doesn't sound like a whole hell of a lot, but there's been another side to the work that's crept in this year: editing. One or two proof-reading favours for the bods at Morrigan Books grew into my being asked to co-edit next year's Scenes From The Second Storey with Amanda Pillar. We've been on the case since August, coralling stories and working closely with the writers to get them ready for publication, and we're now within a whisker of a complete manuscript to farm out to readers. Add to that my decision to join the Australian Horror Writers Association critique group and I've spent a lot of time in the last twelve months pulling stories apart, seeing how they work and putting them back together again. Not only good fun (and hugely satisfying if it leads to better stories), but also very instructive when it comes to my own writing ... (Must. Avoid. Adverbs.)
Unfortunately I've not a great deal to report from the last couple of weeks. Like a car, I stop working if I overheat and that inevitably means sporadic writing at best during December and January. Instead I've caught up on my reading (six months' backlog of 2000AD, The Amazing Spider-man and the Fables comics, along with a decent-sized pile of books) and reacquainted myself with the concept of the siesta.
I've been idly tinkering with the idea of resolutions ... last year's (get fit, blog more often) were partial successes. I got fit in the summer, piled it on in the winter, and as for posting on here ... well it's been sporadic, hasn't it?
So for 2010, something achievable, perhaps ... how about 12 short stories or equivalent by the end of the year? Sound do-able?
Just have to wait and see ...
While I'm not going to inflict ten years of analysis on you, however, I'm happy to examine 2009 in isolation. I took a big kicking from the global financial crisis, what with freelancers being the first against the wall when the money runs out, but if I ignore the money side of things I've actually achieved a reasonable amount in terms of my writing this year. Maybe that's because of the proper paying work drying up ... hmmm.
Anyway as 2009 wraps I've had just the one story published (Rights of Passage in the Grants Pass anthology), but have nailed four more stories for release in the next twelve months, with one more still waiting for a yay or nay and another on the boil for a project that should be given the go-ahead in early January. Meanwhile my story Just Us made the cut for next year's Best-Of anthology Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume 4, and let's not forget I finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel. It's rough as guts, but with rewrites, who knows ...
That doesn't sound like a whole hell of a lot, but there's been another side to the work that's crept in this year: editing. One or two proof-reading favours for the bods at Morrigan Books grew into my being asked to co-edit next year's Scenes From The Second Storey with Amanda Pillar. We've been on the case since August, coralling stories and working closely with the writers to get them ready for publication, and we're now within a whisker of a complete manuscript to farm out to readers. Add to that my decision to join the Australian Horror Writers Association critique group and I've spent a lot of time in the last twelve months pulling stories apart, seeing how they work and putting them back together again. Not only good fun (and hugely satisfying if it leads to better stories), but also very instructive when it comes to my own writing ... (Must. Avoid. Adverbs.)
Unfortunately I've not a great deal to report from the last couple of weeks. Like a car, I stop working if I overheat and that inevitably means sporadic writing at best during December and January. Instead I've caught up on my reading (six months' backlog of 2000AD, The Amazing Spider-man and the Fables comics, along with a decent-sized pile of books) and reacquainted myself with the concept of the siesta.
I've been idly tinkering with the idea of resolutions ... last year's (get fit, blog more often) were partial successes. I got fit in the summer, piled it on in the winter, and as for posting on here ... well it's been sporadic, hasn't it?
So for 2010, something achievable, perhaps ... how about 12 short stories or equivalent by the end of the year? Sound do-able?
Just have to wait and see ...
posted by Pete Kempshall at 3:38 PM
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