2021: A Recap

It’s been a busy year for me, and not only in the writing arena. But for me, busy is good. I’ve done more in the past twelve months than I’d realized prior to writing this post. I feel almost crazy thinking about it – but I’m also very pleased with all I’ve accomplished.

The Non-Writerly Things

As many of you know, my husband and I moved earlier this year. It wasn’t exactly a planned endeavor; we were going to stay at our old place until we found the “right home”. Well, we found it, we bought it, and moved in July.

In terms of moves go, it went pretty smoothly…until we came to the aquarium. That was an ordeal I don’t wish to repeat! That being said, I’ve made it very clear that we are not moving the aquarium again. (Meaning, I don’t plan to move away from our new house unless we absolutely have to. And then, someone else is going to move that aquarium.)

My work as a microbiologist has been good this year, too. I’m not going to go into details about my job here, or the accomplishments on that side of my life, because a lot of the work I do (particularly on the R&D side) can’t be shared. My job survived layoffs prior to the pandemic, and I’m still there, so I can’t complain. It funds my writing projects.

Now onto the more important stuff – the writerly things!

Projects Completed in 2021

I have a list. An actual list… This is madness, right? No, the truth is, I’ve written four books this year and a novella. One of said books is about to be published, and a second is about to go off for editing. The other two will come later, but I have a plan. (Yes, for the first time in my life, I have an actual PLAN for my writing. What is happening?!)

At the beginning of the year, I was working on The Mage War Chronicles series. I wrote The Triad Murders (book one) and Oracle (book two) before Memorial Day. I recently finished my self-edits of Oracle (December), and it might be my best work to date. I am very happy with how that story turned out.

In June, I started the gargantuan project of (re)writing The Relics of War trilogy. The original manuscripts were written when I was a teenager (with the exception of book three, in my very early twenties). The writing was a mess, the story was difficult to follow, and some passages were downright juvenile. I’d kept it around all this time, but was almost appalled when people wanted to read it. It needed A LOT of help. Despite all this, the story arc and ideas were worth pursuing – hence the rewrite project.

I finished writing The Moon’s Eye in late August, then it went through beta readers, edits, and revisions. It’s set to release on January 11, 2022.

I finished writing The Talisman of Delucha (book two) on black Friday. It’s now with beta readers, and I plan to release it in July/August 2022. (If you’d like a sneak peek of the cover artwork, it’ll be included in the back of book one. Also, I’ll share it with my newsletter in January!)

I took a short break between Talisman and book three in the series to pen a short, related novella, The Ballad of Alchemy and Steel. It features two of the Murkor characters from the series and gives the reader an in-depth glimpse of their culture and how the pair came to be together. It will be offered free to my newsletter subscribers. (If you’re not a subscriber and would like to be, you can sign up here. The newsletter is a once per month email and is separate from this blog.)

I’m offering it as a freebie for a couple of reasons. First, I consider it “bonus content” and it’s meant for fans of the series. Second, it’s a bit of a departure from my usual epic fantasy/urban fantasy works, in that it’s actually a romance story.

Before some of you get too excited, let me make it clear: It will be a bit different from my other published works. I believe most of the target audience for the series will enjoy the novella and the insight they’ll get of the Murkor people and their society. Look for the The Ballad of Alchemy and Steel in the April/May timeframe.

The 2021 Numbers…

Now, here’s where my true madness is revealed:

1 novella completed (The Ballad of Alchemy and Steel)

2 short stories completed (Condemned, bonus content for The Caein Legacy, and An Interview with the Summoner, bonus content for Hunted.)

4 novels written (The Triad Murders, Oracle, The Moon’s Eye, and The Talisman of Delucha)

8 newsletters composed and sent

45 books read and reviewed (My book reviews can be viewed here.)

48 blogs posted (including this one)

154 chapters completed

434,513 words written (not counting my blog posts or newsletter contents)

And this is all outside of my day job. It’s no wonder I feel a little crazy at this point in time!

This is a collage I put together featuring the covers of all the books I’ve read this year:

Plans for 2022

2022 is shaping up to be just as busy. As I stated above, I’ll be publishing The Moon’s Eye and The Talisman of Delucha, in addition to the related novella, The Ballad of Alchemy and Steel. I’ve recently started work on rewriting the final book in the series, War of the Nameless. It might be available in late 2022, but I’m anticipating it will release in early 2023.

I’ll plan to keep up with my blog and newsletters on their regular schedules, and once War of the Nameless is complete, I’ll be returning to The Mage War Chronicles. I have outlines ready for books 3 – 5 in the series, and I know there will be a sixth. We’ll see how far I get with those in the year to come.

Thank you

I wanted to take this as another opportunity to thank all of the readers I have. Without your support, your interest, and your feedback, none of this would be worthwhile to me. I will always be grateful to those who continue to follow my work, and for those who are new to my writing, thank you for taking a chance and giving my stories a shot.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year holiday. Until next year…