2010 Recap

Here we are, almost at the beginning of a new year.  I thought I’d take a little look-see back at 2010 and see if I actually did any work.

Books Written:

Magic on the Hunt

Dead Iron

So, that surprised me. I thought I wrote three books this year.  But it turns out in the calendar year, I’ve only written two (Magic at the Gate was turned in November 2009).  More on that below.

Short Story collection compiled

A Cup of Normal

Books Revised (to editorial comments)

Magic at the Gate

Magic on the Hunt

Dead Iron (revisions will be done by the end of this week)

A Cup of Normal

Books copyedited

Magic at the Gate

Magic on the Hunt

A Cup of Normal

Books proofed

Magic on the Storm

Magic at the Gate

Magic on the Hunt

A Cup of Normal

Books synopsis/proposals written

Dead Iron

Books 7-8-9 of Allie Beckstrom series (as three-book proposal)

Book 7 of Allie Beckstrom series

Books released

Magic on the Storm

Magic at the Gate

A Cup of Normal

With the juggling of five books in different written stages and four books in different unwritten stages, things were a lot busier this year. Still, I managed to go to a couple conventions and book signings, and gave several on-line interviews and guest posts.

But let me go back to that two books and not three written thing.  I should have finished the Allie Beckstrom book 7 by now.  But there were a few things that held it off.  One, we hadn’t sold it until late this year, and really, there was no guarantee that it would sell. 🙂  It is fully outlined, and I’ve even written a few chapters, but when push came to shove I took care of the books I had under contract instead of spending time on a book that might not have been picked up by my publisher.

However, since the Allie Beckstrom books come out every six months, I felt it wise to do at least a little forward planning so that if the last three books of the series did get picked up, I wouldn’t be too far behind the working curve to get the book turned in on time.

Two, I underestimated how much time I would spend putting the short story collection together. I rewrote a few of the short stories (the ones that hadn’t seen publication) and was involved in everything from cover art, back cover blurb, order of the table of contents, font choice, print size and more.  (Not to mention the time it took me to actually find all those stories on my hard drive. We shan’t talk about my organizational skills through several computer and word processing software changes, m’kay?) 🙂

Three, Dead Iron is a steampunk novel and takes a heck of a lot more research and time to write than the Allie books.  The style and language in Dead Iron is…I don’t know…maybe I could say it’s richer, a little more lyrical.  The storyline and world building is stuffed full of cool bits and bobs and told through five different point of view characters–six, really. It’s the kind of book that takes a little longer to write.  I knew that from the beginning when we first pitched the book, and I know the sequel to Dead Iron will also be a slower write, although I feel (and my first readers assure me) they are a very fast read.

But none of that erases the fact that I am stepping into 2011 with deadlines already looming.  And even though it means I’m going to have to hustle to hit all those deadlines, I honestly feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.

How was your 2010?