There were many highlights this year, if you can look past Trump, Brexit and the many celebrity deaths.
We had a new Harry Potter book, Pokemon Go took over our summers, Captain America 3 was awesome and Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar! (Also, my son was born.)
It is important for my own sanity that I focus on my writing highlights. I failed to published a book this year, but I need to remind myself of the other little victories along the way. In no particular order...
1. My third Nephos novel - My third untitled Nephos novel is underway with 83,151 words already written. I'm nowhere near finished but hopefully I have written too much to give up now.
2. My story was on the radio - My story, The Queen of Hearts, was performed on Brum Radio as part of the popular Tall Tales series. You can listen to The Queen of Hearts on MixCloud.
3. BWG Writing Competitions - The Birmingham Writers' Group has two short story competitions each year. I judged the Summer Competition which was a huge privilege involving lots of infographics and I won 2nd prize in the Winter competition for my Guy Fawkes story. My certificate is pictured. 10/10 for enjoyableness!
4. Festive Treats - I may not have published anything myself in 2016 but my short story, A Partridge in a Tree, was featured in the Festive Treats anthology which is free for Kindle. I was proud of my Roald Dahl-esque story but also proud to feature alongside so many talented self-published authors. It also led to some fun content marketing, such as my post titled how to win a Christmas pub quiz.
5. Short stories - I wrote a total of five short stories this year. Five is not a large number but I have been focussing on my third Nephos novel after all. Excuses, excuses! There was Knock Knock, a horror story about an evil optometrist; Error 404, about a fugitive robot in Tsukiji fish market; The Secret of Poy, a rhyming story about whether printed books or electronic books are better; A Partridge in a Tree, a festive bit of magical realism for Festive Treats; and The Last Honest Man, my Guy Fawkes entry for the BWG Winter Competition. Each will be a fine addition to my next short story collection.
But it wasn't all good news. Here are my writing lowlights...
Sign up to Simon's newsletter to hear more about his reading and writing projects.
We had a new Harry Potter book, Pokemon Go took over our summers, Captain America 3 was awesome and Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar! (Also, my son was born.)
It is important for my own sanity that I focus on my writing highlights. I failed to published a book this year, but I need to remind myself of the other little victories along the way. In no particular order...
1. My third Nephos novel - My third untitled Nephos novel is underway with 83,151 words already written. I'm nowhere near finished but hopefully I have written too much to give up now.
2. My story was on the radio - My story, The Queen of Hearts, was performed on Brum Radio as part of the popular Tall Tales series. You can listen to The Queen of Hearts on MixCloud.
3. BWG Writing Competitions - The Birmingham Writers' Group has two short story competitions each year. I judged the Summer Competition which was a huge privilege involving lots of infographics and I won 2nd prize in the Winter competition for my Guy Fawkes story. My certificate is pictured. 10/10 for enjoyableness!
4. Festive Treats - I may not have published anything myself in 2016 but my short story, A Partridge in a Tree, was featured in the Festive Treats anthology which is free for Kindle. I was proud of my Roald Dahl-esque story but also proud to feature alongside so many talented self-published authors. It also led to some fun content marketing, such as my post titled how to win a Christmas pub quiz.
5. Short stories - I wrote a total of five short stories this year. Five is not a large number but I have been focussing on my third Nephos novel after all. Excuses, excuses! There was Knock Knock, a horror story about an evil optometrist; Error 404, about a fugitive robot in Tsukiji fish market; The Secret of Poy, a rhyming story about whether printed books or electronic books are better; A Partridge in a Tree, a festive bit of magical realism for Festive Treats; and The Last Honest Man, my Guy Fawkes entry for the BWG Winter Competition. Each will be a fine addition to my next short story collection.
But it wasn't all good news. Here are my writing lowlights...
Sign up to Simon's newsletter to hear more about his reading and writing projects.