My 2024 in Review (Part 2): Points of Light
Hello Funny People,
1) "The Dragon Guide's Diary" in Androids and Dragons
2) "Boltstone and the Black Cat" in Fall Into Fantasy 2024
3) "When William Walker Faces The Firing Squad" in 42 Stories Anthology Presents: Book of 42²
4) "Fahrenheit 1500 Divergence" in Inter Librarian Loan Volume 2 from Air and Nothingness Press
Given that I spent last week's post ruminating on my failures from this past year, I wanted to pause and take a moment to reflect on what actually went well. Even in the darkest nights, the light of the stars might still pierce the gloom. And there were a few that I think are worth highlighting.
By nature, I'm a depressive. I tend to always linger and focus on the negative. So, every once in a while, despite how against habit it is for me to reflect on the good things, I try to do so. And, frequently, I find myself realizing that I had far more successes than I realized. 2024 was no different.
A) I Had Four Short Pieces Published This Year
At the start of this year, because of how badly my three straight rejections left me feeling, I thought I was once again finished as a short fiction writer. Yet, that wasn't what ended up happening. Four new pieces by me (three of which, granted, were finished stories I was just trying to find a market for), ended up making it out into the world.
That piece had been bouncing around forever in the submissions trenches, and it finally found a home. A small one, yes, in a zine few people probably read, but it's out there.
My favorite of the Boltstone stories I wrote in 2022 finally made it into the world. A locked-room murder mystery set in my fantasy world of Tegucia. And it has a talking cat in it.
This story had been in the pipeline since 2021, but it's finally out there. It's not only the shortest thing I've ever had in print (just 42-words long), but it's also my only foray into straight historical fiction (most of which isn't even fiction, but pure fact, taken from actual nonfiction texts). But I have a strong feeling the ghost of the repugnant William Walker hasn't quite escaped me just yet. He may worm his way into another project I have in mind in the near future. We shall see...
I never thought I'd ever get paid to write fan fiction, but boy am I happy I did. Getting a chance to work with Todd Sanders, who beside Max & Tom at FPSF, holds the rank of my top editorial experience in my career thus far. I only hope I get further chances to work with him in future.
B) I Did Make Some Progress On Two Novel Projects
Although I didn't finish either of the novels I started this year, I'm very close to finishing a first draft of both. The Dark Fantasy Steampunk is over the halfway line, with over 60k words down in rough first draft manuscript form, and the Portal Fantasy is nearing 70k. So, even though both will require extensive revisions, edits, and rewrites before they're even close to ready for querying (or maybe indie publishing, I don't know), they're not lost causes.
C) I Got To Attend the Repeat Offenders Workshop After So Many Years
From 2018 to 2019, I was able to attend the Writing Workshop in LFK each summer. Then, the pandemic happened. That resulted in the workshop being canceled, more or less, the same year Jim Gunn passed away. A lot of internal tumult followed (which I won't get into here), resulting in much upheaval on the admin side. It was only last year that the Workshop finally got back on its feet. And then, this year, I got to make a return. Sadly, I didn't get to see everyone I was hoping to see this past summer, but the new and old faces I got to see were wonderful. In addition, the pieces I had workshopped received a lot of helpful quality feedback, which will undoubtedly help me improve on the pieces to see them through to publication.
D) For the First Time (And Hopefully Not the Last), I Got Comissioned to Write Something & I Got Paid For It
My divergence of "Fahrenheit 1500" in Inter Librarian Loan was the first time I'd ever been asked to write something for anI anthology. Granted, I wasn't alone. All the available members of the Legion of the Librarian, the collective of contributors who had pieces published in the two preceeding anthologies and the card Catalogue, all got the chance to be part of it. But I have to admit, ir was a great feeling to receive the request. It means at least one editor out there, Todd Sanders, had enough faith in my ability to deliver a good, publishable story to ask me. Hopefully, it won't be the last time I get such an opportunity. Should I again, I fully intend to take advantage of it.
D) I Sent Out 100+ Queries
Okay, so out of all of them, I only had two (2/100), that actually led to anything and eventually crashed and burned. But that was effort. Fruitless effort, like plowing and seeding a field devoid of nutrients, but effort nonetheless.
E) I Got Two Full Requests
Again, neither went anywhere, but the fact that I got two spoke one solid truth to me. I wrote something that was not only good enough to entice agent interest, but that might also have a chance out in the marketplace.
Even one near miss like that is enough to keep a spark of hope alive for a piece of work. So, I plan to keep pursuing it.
F) I Received Multiple Hold Notices for Short Fiction This Year
Last year was the first time I'd ever gotten a hold notice for any story. Over the course of the year, I received three. Again, none of those parsed out into publication acceptances, but it was certainly a surprise change from the numerous instant rejections I'd gotten previously. And frankly, I expected those to be just that: aberrations. Flukes. One-shot experiences. This year, however, I got another three hold notices. More so, two of them came from pro-rate markets, and one of those remains pending. It's a small thing, but the fact that hold notices have started to become more of a regular experience (at least, for two consecutive year), it's a sign that something has changed. My abilities are improving as a short fiction writer. And perhaps that means I'm one step closer to placing a story in a pro-rate zine for the first time. Who knows?
Despite the dispiriting turns of this year, even the gloomiest cloud cover still let's through its occasional shafts of light. This year was no different. Here's to more to come. ☃️
— IMC 🙃
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