This Time, Last Year…

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Well, this morning I’ve been feeling somewhat nostalgic and have been looking back on my writing achievements.

It was only really last May (2011) when I decided to attempt to get some of my short stories published. And it all happened so fast!

In early June I had my very first piece of writing published; ‘The Silent Siren’ was published by Iron Bound.

Following that, July 2011 saw the publication of two stories (‘The Photograph’ and ‘The Eight Thousand And Third Day’). The same publisher then had my next story, ‘We Miss You‘, in August, with one of my favourites, ‘The Power Of Blood‘, being published in the Autumn 2011 issue of Mirror Dance Fantasy.

October 2011 was the month when ‘A Dead Vampire’ was published by Mad Swirl, and was the last one until the new year, because I was focussing the bulk of my efforts into writing ‘Touched By Darkness’, (originally called ‘Darkness Hunts’), a fantasy novel.

In January 2012 I decided to start work on an autobiography, which at the moment is called ‘Growing Up At The Goldsytch Stud’. I think it’ll just be about my childhood; I could always make it into a series later!

I finished the first draft of ‘Touched By Darkness‘ in February 2012, and at the moment it is still resting.

And then in March 2012, ‘It Doesn’t Matter Now‘, was published by Daily Love. My seventh short story!

By this time, I was already writing the first draft of another novel, ‘Spirit Of Fire’, which is the first of a 6 part series. I started writing this novel at the end of February 2012.

In March, I received an acceptance email for the publication of another short story; ‘The Creature’ was published by Yesteryear Fiction in April 2012.

In early May I decided to put together a short story collection, composing of new and old work, entitled ‘It Can’t Be Magic’.

By mid-May (2012) I had over 80,000 words of ‘Spirit Of Fire‘, with the last few chapters still to write. The deadline for completing the first draft is 30th June 2012.

And I am currently looking forward to the publication of ‘The Day Of Change’ by Yesteryear Fiction (July 2012). It’ll be my ninth short story to be published.

So, this time last year I was only just beginning to think about publishing, yet now I’ve got nine short stories out there, a fantasy series on the way, a completed first draft of another book, and several part-drafts of others. As well as the short story collection, which I am beginning to put together.

So, what will I be working on in the year to come?
• Draft 2 (and maybe 3) of ‘Touched By Darkness’.
• Draft 2 and 3 of ‘Spirit Of Fire‘.
• Draft 1 and 2 of the second book in the Spirit Of Fire Series.
• Draft 1 and 2 of ‘It Can’t Be Magic‘.
• My Autobiography.
• A new novel.
• Lots of short stories.