Goals, Thanks, and Flying Penguins

Yes, those are flying penguins. Flapping, rather. In midair, World of Warcraft style. What do they have to do with the new year? Nothing, really. But hey, I thought they were cute.

I used to write a huge journal entry every new year's eve. It was kind of a tradition for me, in which I moped a whole bunch about the past year, and had better hopes for the future year. It was never a resolution type of post, since I'm not a huge fan of resolutions per say, but goals? Sure, I like goals. In retrospect, it was also a tradition to not look back on those journal entries full of goals because I usually never completed them.

2012 has been a little different, I'm happy to announce. I did write up a goal post for the year, but it wasn't quite in the same tradition as my new year's eve posts. Less mopey for one, which was definitely a step in the right direction! I'm also happy to announce that I actually completed all of the goals, and even rose above them. I wanted to finish Captive by the Fog and start submitting it to publishers. I succeeded, and saw it published in the same year. :D

I've been a little quiet on the blog front after Captive by the Fog's release (See? I really am bad about this blogging thing). Part of the silence is due to starting work on a new, big project-- a four part series of novels that will feature a cool host of LGBT characters and a fantasy universe complete with teleportation between multiple worlds. The project's a little ambitious and I have began writing on it, but found myself backtracking a bit in order to do some careful character planning. But fear not, I will journey onward! 

I also wanted to take the time during this new year's celebration to thank some very awesome people who made a difference during the release of Captive by the Fog:

• Clarissa Johal, thank you for the promotion help and for the random email commentary we've been exchanging as you read through Captive by the Fog. I love getting to see your reactions. :D
• Lyman from Gamut, our Guild Wars 2 guild, thank you so much for your awesome comments! Rereading this comment-- "I loved it! It was creepy and fascinating and terrifying and hot in all the right places."-- still makes me grin like an idiot. 
• Thank you to Sandy on Facebook, who approached me out of the blue and asked to be my friend after reading my lil' novel and enjoying it. That seriously made my day. <3
• Special thanks to my sister, Debbie, and her best friend Kim, for devouring Captive by the Fog and sharing plenty of reactions, encouragement, and great feedback!
• Mitch Sanford, thank you for being so awesome and enthusiastic about the joys of being a newbie writer, and for leaving wonderful reviews everywhere!
• Corrii, thank you for being, well, you. ;) For carting me around to see flying penguins, putting up with my half-drunken 4 am babbling, and everything in between.
• And last but not least, thank you to all the people who bought Captive by the Fog or intend on picking it up at some point! You're my unsung heroes.

Now, back to those flying penguins. 2013 is looking to be a decent year so far, and I hope I'm able to pull off what I've got planned. I don't have my goals for the year written up yet, but within the next month I'll probably be able to figure some things out and do just that.

Penguins aren't supposed to fly, and it sometimes seems just as hard to make a living off this writerly stuff. I've still got a ways to go, but with some luck and a little persistence-- I'll try my best to spread these wings and take flight. I'll never match the cuteness of a flying penguin, but hey, that's fine by me!

Big news! I uh, guess I'm an author now?

Oh, yeah, new site design, too! Finally got tired of the kinda-customized, default mountain-looking design. So now I made a slightly-more customized, weirdo star-themed design. I hope you like green.

Um, right. You're probably still wondering what I meant by the title. See the little "author" word in my banner? Yeah, that's right. Captive by the Fog, the novel I finished a couple months ago, is getting published! It tied for second place in the contest, which granted me a contract.

I actually heard the news a couple weeks ago, but was waiting to find out more details before I made a big announcement. It will be published through Musa Publishing, and will be published in e-book form. I signed the contract, and am now waiting to begin the editing process. I was told they're looking to release Captive during late October of this year, but that may change.

Exciting news! I'm still not completely sure I believe it, sometimes. I'd been throwing around short stories, thinking that if one of those hit a wall and stuck to it, that I'd maybe have a shot at one day stepping up to novels. But uh, seems the novel stuck first... the goofy LGBT alien novel based on a really silly dream about my dad, San Francisco, a hot girl, and well, aliens. This just in-- I'm going to be really bad at promoting this thing...

But yeah. That's my big news. The folks at Musa seem pretty awesome, so far, and I'm looking forward to digging my heels in the experience, and finding out about all the work that goes into publishing a book. I'm really looking forward to the editing process. Since I haven't had much exposure to professional critiques or editing, I'll finally be able to learn a few things about what I need to improve on. And well, that's important. I'm not done yet. Not by a long shot.

My next big project is already taking shape, in fact. I'm going to finally novelize the world that Quest was based on. What's Quest, you say? The fantasy world my friend, Heather, and I created back in high school. Originally, it was kinda based on a bunch of various books and sci-fi shows we loved, but as the world grew, and I realized I liked to write stuff, I started making Quest its own universe. And yeah, shaddup-- I know the name's silly. It's not staying!

It will probably take the shape of at least a four-part series of novels. I have the first two books loosely plotted out, and hope to start the first soon. Its tentative name is Wardens of Wandering, but that may change later down the road. It'll be awesome seeing the unique host of characters come to life.

I'm still planning on continuing submitting stories to WotF quarterly, but other than that, I think my focus will remain on these novels. Novels may definitely be my forte. I've always found it easier to work on longer pieces-- projects if you will. I love the idea of sinking down into the process of extensive world building, involved character subplots, and all that jazz.

Anywho, that's my update. I'm gonna be a published author! I'll keep everyone updated on Captive's progress!