My 2023 in Review
Hello Funny People,
Screenshot from Threads
🎄 Happy Holidays 🎁
Art by Devora Johnson
Another year is about to end, and I have to say, it's been a pretty good one. Like all years, there's been highs and lows, strokes of good fortune and not-so-good. I've had successes, and I've had failures. Still, this is the time of year when we count our blessings, and I've had more than enough worth mentioning.
Let's Start at the Bottom
Let's end this thing on a high by starting with where I fucked up. Like most people I have a good memory for my failures, sometimes better than I wish I had.
The biggest faux pas of the year undoubtedly goes to my efforts at querying. After thinking my first novel was ready by the end of January, I sent out about a dozen queries to some of the top agents I knew about, most of them people who represented the work of authors I admire. Out of those, a good quarter never responded, and the rest outright rejected the query, saying the book wasn't for them (whatever that means, you seldom get a reason). The one highlight: I got a single partial request—or as my colleague Ray Daley would call it, a delayed no, which it indeed ended up being.
As such, I've yet to secure literary representation, which means I'll still be working towards that in the coming year.
On a secondary level, I've also failed to secure a second pro-rated story sale. Don't get me wrong, working with Todd Sanders at Air and Nothingness Press last year was a thrill, and seeing "Urtext Redux," in an actual print book i got to hold in my hands—sheer bliss.
But now I'm paranoid about being able to repeat the experience. In my worst mental health valleys, impostor syndrome rears its ugly head all the time. Was it a fluke? Did Todd including me in that second anthology because he felt bad for me? Or was it because every other story he could've picked from simply sucked more than mine did, and I won a TOC spot by default? I don't know. My old music teacher, James McKay, who taught me upright bass used to say, "Once was luck. Twice is skill." If you manage to do something well once, you lucked out, but if you repeat it successfully, then it means you've grasped the skill needed to do it well.
And I've yet to do that, despite all the years of effort...😔
Success is like any highly addictive drug. Once you get a small taste of it, all you want is more. And sometimes, the world simply doesn't cooperate with your hankerings.
Negativity Aside, Here's the Good Stuff
Despite these unfortunate setbacks, I've had my fair share of upsides this year.
Last year, I made it a goal to draft one (1) new novel and sell one (1) short story. I wanted to keep my controllable goals small and potentially achievable. What I did anticipate was just how thoroughly I'd blow past them.
Working diligently from February to mid-July, I got my one new novel drafted. I then proceeded to draft a second unplanned novel from September to now. All I can say to that is...well, holy crap.
Admittedly, I drafted the second novel because I'd expected it to take a lot longer to write the first. Keep in mind, my standard of comparison for novel-length first drafts was limited, as the last one I'd completed had taken me three (3) years to complete. Imagine my surprise when I finished one in just under five months. So, I figured I had some year left; why not try and write something completely different just to see if I could manage a second long project in a year. The book came in at 73,033 words in total, so clearly it's possible.
Both novels are in typical first draft shape, possessing the bones of the story I wanted to tell while also needing a lot of work. I strongly suspect the space opera is actually still too short to even consider querying at this point. But that's the part of the process I enjoy the most, so I'm looking forwards to that. And now, with two (2) more arrows in the quiver, my options for getting an agent have increased because I have more potential material to put in front of them.
On the short story front, I absolutely overshot my goals.
I'd sold one flash story in January, nearly the same week as when "Urtext Redux" appeared in The Librarian Reshelved. Following that, I sold four (4) more stories, two to markets I'd yet to crack. And I'm not including my contribution to Nature Fights Back in that count. If that doesn't scream "overachieving" I don't know what does.
Funnily enough, upon reflection I realize that, since 2021 (the year I sold "Oscar Ambrose's Magicpedia Guide to Modern Mirror-Making" to The Angry Noodle), I've sold two (2) more stories each year more than I did the previous year:
2021: 1 story
2022: 3 stories
2023: 5 stories
That's a pretty nice ascending line of progress. Of course, now that I've said that, I'm sure I'll fail to sell anything next year and make a total ass of myself. Similar things have happened. My karmic scales are highly sensitive to any show of ego on my part.
So, What's Next, Smart-ass?
Heading into the new year, I'm again keeping my goals graspable. Over on Threads, which has become my defacto platform since the long slow death of the Ex-Bird App began, people have been posting what they plan to do come the new year. This was my post 👇
The list is simple:
1. Query First Novel
2. Revise Second Novel
3. Draft the Next Novel, which I think will be a Portal Fantasy with Screwball Comedy Elements
4. Get Back to Short Story Writing to Replenish the Backlog
5. Sell One (1) Short Story
I'm not hoping to snag representation. I'm not hoping to win any awards. I'm not even hoping to get published in any prestige venues, as awesome as any of those would be. Like last year, I'm keeping my goals graspable, things that I have complete control over, and I'm asking for nothing else beyond that.
Here's hoping it works out well.
— IMC 🙃
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