Yes, my last "productive" year was in 2013, five years ago. And most of that was editing a couple of books and publishing them, that I'd had in the works for some time. I did write some short stories, which can be found in book two of my Ethereal Worlds anthology in 2013, but not much else, that I recall, at least. It was the last year I did NaNo before 2018, but like this past November, I didn't finish then either. The last year I finished NaNo was 2010.
But, despite all that, 2018 has been a more productive year than any since 2010. That was back when I was writing all the time, up until 4 am, going to a full time job, then coming home and working on writing until early every morning. That all ended in May 11 of 2011. That's when I discovered my wife had been having an affair. That's when my fantasy and sci-fi writing came to a full stop until almost two years later, for varied reasons. But by the time I started to get back into it in 2013 is when my Parkinson's symptoms first appeared and it tended to zap all motivation to write, not to mention the physical difficulties in doing so. That was the main reason for my big break in getting much writing done, if any, for the last five years.
Until now. 2018 will go down as a much more productive year, primarily because of the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery I had back in September and October of 2017. It not only has made me physically able to type up a storm again, but also has brought back the motivation to do so. So much so that I've finished two novels during 2018--the final book four of The Virtual Chronicles series and a stand-alone novel I've titled Rebellion--pulled together and did some edits on a couple of non-fiction books I've had in the works--one of them I'd been planning on pulling together since 2003 or 2004--started another couple of novels, as well as writing a few short stories here and there, one of which I'm thinking would make a good first chapter for an episodic style novel. I've published two novels this year, the previous book four of The Virtual Chronicles: Reality Game, and another novel I've been editing for some time now, first written back in 2008: The Magic Within, I recently went full bore on editing that one here in the last days of December. Though it will have a publishing date of Jan 2019, I did all the work publishing it in 2018, obviously.
So to say I've been productive is a bit of an understatement, at least if your the kind that believes that getting out one novel a year to be productive. I know others who regularly put out three to four books a year will find it productive, but not overly so. Still, for me, it was very productive, thanks to DBS. That's the wibbly wobbly, timey, wimey aspect of this past year, in that I feel sort of like I did back in 2011 right before the affair happened.
So, what are my plans for 2019? Yep, I'm calling them plans instead of resolutions. That's because they are plans that can change, not outside demands that I must fulfill if I want to be true to my word.
As far as publishing, I have so many books in the works which could potentially be published this year, I could have as many as four or five books published this year. On the novel front, I have at least two that I'm planning on publishing this year: Rebellion and The Dragon Within (a sequel to The Magic Within I just published). Once those novels have been published, it will put my total novel count at nine novels published (not including my three anthologies)! That's novels, not total books, which at that point would be more like around sixteen books. If I publish three novels this year, the extra would likely be Deep Brain Invasion. All depends on how quickly I can finish writing and editing it as to whether I can get it in before 2019 ends.
Then the other two books I plan on publishing in 2019 is couple of non-fiction books: Healing Infidelity Through Faith, and Looking into the Orthodox Church. Both of those I wrote, complied earlier writings on corresponding blogs, and am currently in the editing stages. So I expect they will be ready to be published this coming year under different pen names: Rick Copple (my given name, if you can call that a pen name) and Timothy Copple respectively.
Aside from my publishing plans, I'm planning on finishing writing Deep Brain Invasion, and working on writing and editing book three of The Legend of the Dragons' Dying Field (book two, The Dragon Within is finished writing, save for a tie up chapter or two, and currently being edited), which I've titled The Dragon Without. I have a few chapters on that one, so a long ways to go. If I get writing on that one soon, I could publish it sometime in 2020. Also, my recent Christmas story about Joel, the mysterious Guardian Angel of Reality Chronicles fame, I'm hoping I'll get started writing more episodes of that one, enough stories to make it into a full novel.
That brings me back to the title of this post, because yes, I do feel Joel is quirky enough to be sort of like the Doctor, at least personality wise (sort of a combination of David Tennet and Matt Smith) with Holly as his "companion." Given the problems with Doctor Who this past season, it may be the only Doctor Who-like stories coming out anytime soon. The main difference is angels don't regenerate. Nor will he have a TARDIS. My big decision is what time period to place these stories in? Mainly in relation to the events that happen in The Reality Chronicles and The Legend of the Dragons' Dying Field. Because Joel's an angel, he could be in any time period. I could place if before any of that happened, or during those stories, or after?
I would think it couldn't be before, very easily, because for around 100 years before the story in Reality's Dawn took place, he was entrapped by his bell. During might be tricky only because I haven't finished writing the stories in The Legend of the Dragons' Dying Field where Joel occasionally pops in for appearances, without Holly tagging along. No telling at this point whether Joel will play a more major roll in any of those unwritten books, assuming I make it that far. So I'm leaning toward those stories happening at some point after those in TLDDF. How long after that is another question I'll have to answer.
Those are my thoughts currently on 2018 and the up and coming 2019 as I sit on a snowy, Colorado New Year's Eve day. I pray your new year will be a good one. No telling what all will happen in 2019! Let's go explore it!
No comments:
Post a Comment