Man, what a year 2016 has turned out to be, huh? Any year that starts off with David Bowie dying, involves Prince dying, too, along with Alan Rickman and other big names. Any year so horrific that the Chicago Cubs win the World Series and that is followed immediately by the biggest election disaster in the history of any Democracy - well, you just have to wonder. You have to wonder if life really is just random chance - personally, I think it is, but I leave it for you to decide.
As for me, it was a year of major changes. I got very sick in the first quarter of the year and then ran into more health problems come April that led to the diagnosis of diabetes. That led to major changes in my life and diet. I have lost a lot of weight - becoming a much thinner and healthier version of myself. So skinny that my mom is worried I am too thin now.
It was also a major year for my career. I wish that it was the year I started selling so many books and novels and audiobooks that I could quit my day job and just write books. That is not the case, but hoping for more in 2017.
It was still a big year for me, though. I published a lot, particularly at the start of the year. For example, in January, I published my collection of two novels and a short story all set in my fiction town of Knorr, PA, called Not So Sleepy. It was an exclusive for Kindle users.
In February, I published a very well-received short story called The Elevator Game that deals with elevators that lead to alternate worlds that drive people utterly, hopelessly, mad.
At the same time, I was doing edits and rewrites on the much-requested and highly anticipated second novel in my YA adventure series The Elementals. It was a rockin', epic battle between good and evil and I am very lucky that my young fans have received it well and are now clamoring for the third novel in the series (it still has not yet been written, but I hope to get to writing it in 2017). The Lord of Winter came out in March.
Then came April and while I worried about filing my taxes, I also decided it was time to publish my
vampire short story Vermilion on its own and exclusively for Kindle. The story first appeared in an anthology about vampires and then in my short story collection from 2015. This was the first time it was available all on its own.
During the course of those first few months I was also working with the fantastic voice talent Wendy
Almeida to create an audiobook version of my best-selling sci-fi horror epic The Man From Taured. That was finalized in March and came out in April. Thanks to Wendy's amazing talent and abilities, it quickly became the bestselling audiobook I have ever produced. It still sells well and her rendition is still the gold standard by which others will be judged.
I took some time off after that. Although the original plan was to produce one thing a month, it was proving a tad difficult given the full work schedule and my need to use spare time to write a new novel. So, I started working in a thriller that had come to me the end of 2015. A tale of a man who gets a video text that shows his family being murdered - a video from days in the future. He has to set about trying to figure out who wants him dead and what they are looking for. A mystery thriller with a supernatural bent that ended up exploring just how far into darkness a man would go to save the people and things he loved. TEXT came out in print and ebook editions in the summer - August.
That very same month, I had been working on edits and formatting for a print version of my bestselling horror novella Strange Fruit and the Slender Man. I wanted people who did not get into ebooks to be able to read it. These days, I am now working on an audiobook version of that one which should come around sometime during the first part of 2017.
The final publication for 2016 was the second novel in my planned apocalyptic trilogy called Rotate the Earth. The first one (the Drivers) had been published a few years before and I had worked for months on it in 2015. It then spent months in rewrites and edits and FINALLY was ready for print and ebook readers in October 2016 as my special Halloween release. Rotate the Earth: Book Two: The Starting Line is out now, too, if you want to see how the world ends and who makes it into the Race.
As for 2017, well, there is a lot planned. I have been working on one novel that is a straight-up genre horror novel for the past couple of months. It is such a straight-up genre novel my current plan is to shop it to agents and publishers to see if I can finally, finally, make 2017 the year I make strides in becoming a full-time author.
However, I am also working on two novels that are a bit murkier. One is a kind of companion piece, set in Knorr, and dealing with alternate realities and dimensions, called The Wraith. The entire town of Knorr is really in trouble this time and some of your favorite Knorr residents come back - but not all of them will make it out alive.
Finally, I am working on my first psychological thriller called Storyland. A story that deals with what imagination is, the power of it, and how using it can bring anyone to the very brink of madness.
As for other things. Well, I am plotting and making plans for the third Elementals novel. That one will be called The Water Witch. It has not yet been written, but I am working on it. I also wrote the third Deklan Falls detective novel in 2016 and it is with Beta readers. So, I hope to have that for rewrites and edits 1st quarter of 2017 with publication sometime in the spring of 2017. It's called Radiowaves.
I have ideas for more stories, of course. If I do get an agent and publishing deal, my own self-publishing may stall or be quieted. I have more straight-genre piece ideas, too. Yes, I do also plan to get to the third and final installment of the Rotate the Earth series at some point, too.
I am hoping 2017 will be a good year for my career. With your help, I think we can do it. As always, I wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a happy new year. I hope you do well and that you and your family also do well. I thank you for being here with me and for always being there to support me. I could not have reached this level without you and hope it is onwards and upwards.
Be well.
BWA