Apple-Obsessed Author Fella

RIP, 2015. Hello, 2016.

*darkness*

*starts flipping light switches*

HELLO IS ANYBODY HERE

*swats away cobwebs*

*shoos away the family of trolls that took up residence in the basement*

IS THIS THING ON

*eats old Cheeto found on floor*

*is not a Cheeto*

*is mummified centipede*

Ahem.

Well, hey, everybody.

I think I forgot that I had this thing. But then the blog came to me in a dream, its diaphanous white robe flowing behind it as it reached for me with outstretched arms…

Anyway. I’m back. Maybe not on a full blogging schedule, but a return to form just the same. It was hard — I got slammed after Thanksgiving by the Perfect Shitstorm: pneumonia, deadlines, and holidays. It’s like three tornados converging upon your location at one time, and one of the tornados (the pneumonia) pins you to the ground while the other two get in their licks. Pneumonia, for the record, is a… a super piece of crap. It knocked me flat for one week where I wrote nothing, then a second week where I wrote some stuff, and a third week where I was getting back to normal, and it really took me until Christmas week to find a morning where my wake-up ritual was not “stumble into shower and purge self of bodily humors with flesh-wracking coughs.” Pneumonia is a real asshole, is what I’m saying.

So, that perfect storm actually left me feeling a little crummy about 2015.

And that impulse is very, very wrong.

Because 2015 was fucking rad.

Let’s see.

We got a new Star Wars movie. A really good one.

And I got to jump a claim for a little postage-stamp size of canon connected to the Star Wars universe, writing Aftermath. Then Aftermath officially became a trilogy.

I released Zer0es, and it seems like it did pretty well? (Ooh, it’s still $1.99 for today.)

I finished the follow-up to Zer0es (which is not a sequel, though it does take place in the same universe after the events of Zer0es have happened — let’s call it “sequel-adjacent”). That book is called Invasive (it was Myrmidon, and though I’m sad to lose the original title, I quite like the new one). There’s a cover floating around out there but I’m not sure it’s the official one, so look for something officially official after the new year.

My agent re-sold the Miriam Black books to SAGA Press (S&S), and Blackbirds and Mockingbird have returned to store shelves, with Cormorant on the way in February. This year I also wrote the fourth installment of that series, Thunderbird, which woefully will not be out until 2017 (but then the next three books will be out one right after the other across that year). But, for an extra bonus, the Miriam Black novella Interlude: Swallow shows up in the Three Slices collection, buddying up with work from awesome pals Delilah Dawson and Kevin Hearne.

I re-released my “Nancy-Drew-on-Adderall” YA detective, Atlanta Burns. And I wrote the sequel (The Hunt), which comes out in February.

The final installment of my Heartland trilogy came out — The Harvest — in July. Thus marking the first time I’ve gotten to properly complete a series. (It’s Star Wars meets John Steinbeck, for those interested.) I’m proud of that one, and hope people continue to find the series.

Was able to nab the rights back to my Mookie Pearl books, and re-release both The Blue Blazes and The Hellsblood Bride all by my lonesome.

I got to write for two comics — The Shield with my cohort Adam Christopher, and Hyperion for Marvel, which comes out in February.

(I have a lot of stuff happening in February, apparently.)

This year I think I wrote — lemme do some quick math — five novels, around 500,000 words.

Then, blogging, which this year equaled out to about 200,000 words.

Plus four issues of comics.

Plus a film script this year.

AND PROBABLY SOME EMAILS AND OTHER NECESSARY CORRESPONDENCES.

It’s been a busy year.

Maybe kinda sorta too busy a year.

Not sure 2016 promises much different.

I’ve got two more Miriam Black books to write. (*vibrates with sinister glee*)

I’ve got more comics to write.

Got a new secret writing book shhh to write.

Not to mention one more SPACE WARTS book.

Overall, 2015 was pretty rad. The pneumonia sucked, sure. But I started working in the FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL BATTLESHED this year. Okay, I wasn’t a huge fan of the weird hate parade that ran right up through the center of Aftermath’s release — I still remember being at the midnight release party for the book in Atlanta, and then getting back to the hotel at 1:30AM and looking at the reviews and already seeing a bunch of one-star reviews stacking up. And that continued all through the weekend while I was at DragonCon. It bewildered and rocked me a little, I won’t lie — though, then, ha ha, the book landed on the New York Times list. And those who wanted that to be a fluke, well, it kept landing, and on the USA Today list, too (which it just hit again this past week). Plus it got written-in for the Goodreads Choice awards and hung in there till the last round so ha ha ha *wipes tears away with the contracts for the next two books* I guess thanks for boosting the book, haters. Your festival of crap gives me a reason to keep talking about the book long after I would’ve stopped. Plus, thanks for helping keep the Amazon ranking higher! So, keep the reviews coming if you really want. Keep feeding me, I’ll keep promoting the book.

2015 also saw me travel a whole lot. Various comic-cons and writing things. Lots of bookstores visited and great fans met. Nice too when I get to hang with fellow writer buddies. The family continues being awesome, as well — little B-Dub is smart and sweet and only occasionally like a coked-up orangutan someone let loose in a church.

Let’s hope that 2016 is of equal or surmounting radness, yeah? Keep an eye on releases like Life Debt, Invasive, The Hunt, The Shield, Hyperion, and maybe a couple other surprises. I’ll also be traveling around and will update my schedule as the new year commences.

Be well, all of you.

Your turn, now.

How was your 2015?

What’s on the table for 2016?

Oh, And — Terribleminds In 2015?

Rough blogging stats: 3.3 million visitors, and 8700+ subscribers.

Top 20 (edit, er, 21?) Posts This Year:

I Smell Your Rookie Moves, New Writers
25 Ways To Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story
Dear Guy Who Is Mad Because I Wrote A Gay Character In A Book
An Open Letter To That Ex-MFA Creative Writing Teacher Dude
25 Things To Know About Writing The First Chapter Of Your Novel
25 Things You Should Know About Writing Horror
25 Things A Great Character Needs
25 Things You Need To Know About Writing Mysteries, By Susan Spann
We Are Not Things: Mad Max Versus Game Of Thrones
25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction
25 Things I Want To Say To So-Called “Aspiring” Writers
Fuck You, Clean Reader: Authorial Consent Matters
I Stand By Irene Gallo
About That Dumb Star Wars Boycott
25 Turns, Pivots, And Twists To Complicate Your Story
How “Strong Female Characters” Still End Up Weak And Powerless (Or, “Do They Pass The Action Figure Test?”)
Star Wars: Aftermath — Reviews, News, And Such!
25 Things You Should Know About Writing Fantasy
The Obligatory Hugo Awards Recap Post
25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing
The Toxicity Of Talent (Or: Did You Roll A Natural 20 At Birth?)