It’s been a couple months since I’ve last posted. First off, Happy New Year. Last year was an up and down year for me personally, for various reasons, but by no means a bad year. But I go into 2008 full of vigor and optimism that great things are in store. My writing productivity was signficantly up over last year, by about a 100,000 words (which probably says more about 2007 than 2008), plus I finished a new book which I’m quite excited about and which my agent has just gone to market with, published a number of short stories in some great places, and got started on another book which really has me stoked. I don’t like to talk about works in progress, for fear that talking about them will let the wind out of my sails, but let’s just say it’s a book that pushes all the right buttons for me.
And if I’ve learned anything at all from my years at working at my storytelling craft, it’s to write what you feel passionate about. Because at the end of the day, regardless of how your story or novel is received, whether it’s published to great acclaim or languishes in a drawer, you want to be able to say you pleased at least one reader — you. That’s really the only reader you can hope to please anyway, because it’s the only reader a writer truly knows. And if you write something you like, well, there’s a great chance others will like it as well.
So as odd as it may sound, that’s my main goal for the year — to write more books and stories I like. To remember to have fun tellling stories, because if I’m not having fun, then why do it? And to focus most on what I can control best, which is just putting one word on the page after another.