Today, May 4th, is the second anniversary of the commencement of this blog. I started it on my return from a writer’s retreat which I credit for kick-starting my career as a published author. So this anniversary is my day for taking stock of how all that is going.

Here is what I wrote in the initial post, and here is what I wrote last year on this day.

In the past year:

• I have had my debut novel, TimeSplash, accepted, edited and published. I only have complete data from the first two weeks of sales at the moment, so I can’t even tell you yet if it is selling well.
• I have been promoting TimeSplash as much as I can online. I built TimeSplash its own website and it even has its own blog. For the past two months I have been running a blog tour which has had eighteen stops on it, Before that, I did a 24-hour, non-stop, round-the-world Twitter tour.
• I have had seven short stories published – two in anthologies
• I’ve won prizes in two short story contests – one being the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest 2009.
• I have continued to earn a trickle of money from short story publishing – but my production of short stories has dropped considerably. I wrote only six last year.
• I finished writing and editing my novel The Credulity Nexus and have begun querying agents for it. (I’ve written to two, so far, the second only about three days ago.)
• I have begun writing a new book, Loner’s Deep, which is a space opera set in the far future (and a sequel to my not-yet-complete Emissaries trilogy. (If fame ever comes knocking, I’ll have two great space opera trilogies ready to hand it.)
• I went to a writer’s festival.
• I have been increasing my presence in the various online social networks. My blogs (this one and the TimeSplash blog have over 1,000 unique visitors a month, and my Twitter following has gone from 0 to 987 in the past year. I’ve become a little more active on Facebook and quite active on Goodreads.
• In an attempt to raise my profile (and my writerly credentials ) I’ve joined the New York Journal of Books as a reviewer. I’ve done them 5 reviews on science and science fiction books so far. Early days. If this is successful, it will also one day become a writing income stream.
• I wrote a children’s story, Hangin’ With the Monkeys. I don’t want my career to go that way, so, rather than just throw it away, I’ve self-published it, and I’m giving it away free on Smashwords.

It all adds up to a very busy year – and a successful one. I’ve finally achieved my goal of having a novel published. I’ve made some great online friends. I’ve done loads of interesting things I didn’t expect I’d be doing. I’ve learned so much about writing and about the industry.

There are two things I didn’t manage to achieve this year – and that makes them my goals between now and next May. The first is to get an agent. It is patently obvious to me, even at this early stage, that TimeSplash would have done so much better if it had been agented. The second – and it may be related – is to start making some real money from my writing, not the dribble that has been coming in so far. And that is probably more a wish than an actual goal, but it’s what I have my sights on, so let’s see what can be done.

May the Fourth be with you too.

Future Fire #18: More firsts

With all this frantic editing and book publicising going on, I forgot to mention something very important to me. My short story, ‘All the Way’ has just been published in The Future Fire.

If you don’t know this magazine, you should probably download some of their PDF editions and have a browse. The Future Fire deliberately aims to provide speculative fiction that explores social and political issues – my favourite kind!

I also hope you will pop across and read ‘All the Way’. Publishing this story is a significant milestone for me – not just because it is the first time I’ve had my name on a magazine cover, and not just because it is the first time a story of mine has ever been accompanied by specially-commissioned artwork, but because this is the second one of my Placid Point stories to be published.

Placid Point is a place in a future world I invented and in which I have set a number of short stories. ‘Murathera’s Orgy’, which appeared in the print anthology Masques earlier this year, is a story from the distant future and is actually set in Placid Point, a massive, orbiting space station, packed solid with computers, in which millions of people live as simulations.  ‘All the Way’ is from a point in time just sixty or so years from now, when the first uploaded humans are learning to adjust to their new situation. At this time, Placid Point is known as ‘Omega Point’ and doesn’t even get a mention.

However, Omega Point features prominently in the novel I am currently writing: ‘The Credulity Nexus’. If this book ever sees the light of day, it will be great to know that Masques and The Future Fire, paved its way.

A key piece of the future history of Placid Point – including the background of one of its main characters – is contained in an unpublished short story of mine called ‘JimsWorld’. There is also a short story called ‘Last Christmas’  – the winner of last year’s ‘Spec the Halls’ competition – which describes the very end of the story. Any magazine or anthology editors reading this who want to be a part of this unfolding saga, just drop me a line.

The face of Masques to come

Thanks to Gillian Polack for the following response to my last post:

“Any bookshop can stock it – they order from the publisher, which is the URL you’ve given. Most overseas buyers tend to say “If the bookshop is going to order then tell me they have it in, why don’t I buy it directly?” And they do. I rather suspect this eyar they will do it more than ever, since the Aussie $ is so cheap that much bookbuying is possible.”

Did you hear that? The Aussie dollar is low so there’s a fire sale on Aussie literature! Talk to your local bookshop and get them to order in as much as they can find. As for all you impatient SFF fans who can’t wait, here’s that link again:

http://csfg.org.au/publishing/anthologies/masques

While you’re there, check out all the other great anthologies from CSfG.

As for the cover art on Masques, it’s sinister, it’s muti-textured, and it’s the perfect ice-cool companion for reading on the beach when the Summer comes.

Celebrating the Masques Anthology launch

It’s the Autumn Equin0x here in The Merry Old Land, the Spring Equinox elsewhere.

It’s also the night of my very first book launch. Not that the book’s all mine, I hasten to say, but a small part of it is.

So, if you’re going to be in Canberra at 5 o’clock this evening, you are invited to go along to the Masques Anthology Launch in the National Archives of Australia, Queen Victoria Terrace, Canberra.

If you go, make sure you get your copy signed by the various authors who are lucky enough to have been able to go. I would dearly love to be there but, as the next best thing, I hereby authorise fellow author and Masques anthology contributor Joanne Anderton to sign copies on my behalf.

And don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to listen to the talks, eat the nibbles, get your copy of Masques signed, chat to all the authors, the editors and the publisher, and still make it home in time to dance naked around the garden at midnight with a pair of goat’s horns tied to your head (or however your particular religion celebrates the equinox – frankly, I’m an atheist, but I still like to get out there and take part in the rituals.)

Even if you don’t go, you’ll still be able to order your copy from your local bookshop (full details when I have them).