 | My second novel published and significant progress on the third. Dozens of 99-word stories and a few longer short stories released into the world. Well over 100 blog posts and three articles published in print magazines. Lots I haven’t managed to do this year, of course, but those omissions will ensure I’m not bored in 2018. For now I’m celebrating another satisfying writing year. |
| The highlight has to be the publication of my second novel, Underneath, with a fabulous launch party back in June as well as another milestone on my author journey with my first one star review. Fortunately that negative review doesn’t seem to have impacted on sales as, thanks to targeted advertising via my publisher, well over 1000 Kindle copies have been generated, and hopefully a significant percentage have been read. |  |
My own contribution to publicity was primarily through guest blog posts and a 29-stop blog tour. With 122 other posts on my own blog during 2017 (mostly reviews, but 40+ being articles), it’s not surprising that, halfway through the year, I began to wonder whether I was neglecting my fiction for other writing, although an audit of desk time suggested not.
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In consolation, I was delighted to have three non-fiction articles in print publications, especially as I got paid for two of them: the first, on using your own experience as a springboard for fiction, I featured on the blog in October; the second, on speech-recognition software, which has just appeared in The Author, I’ll post here sometime next year. (The third on clinical psychologists in fiction was geared towards a psychology audience, so might not make it to the blog.)
 | With the accumulation of non-fiction articles – on topics ranging from publication and book promotion; writing technique; general well-being; and the interface between psychology and fiction – I decided it was time to give articles a web page or two of their own. |
| Satisfying as these achievements might be, fiction is my passion. Thanks to the Carrot Ranch prompts, I have written just over 50 99-word stories, often surprising myself in the process. In addition, I’ve had ten short stories of various lengths published this year in online literary magazines, bringing my overall total to 79 (and, yes, I am a little embarrassed to have counted them so carefully). I’ve also edited about 30 other stories and signed a contract with Inspired Quill for publication – pending further editing – my first short story anthology next year. |   |
 | Meanwhile, I’m onto the fourth title of my current novel-length WIP (originally Closure, then Secrets and Lies, for a few months High Hopes, and now Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home). Fortunately, working on it intensively over the last six months, I’ve done more than change the title. It’s taken three years and five drafts to discover a workable structure and plot and I’m currently cutting as much as I can in preparation for begging people to read it and tell me what needs changing. I want this one to be my best! |
Thanks, as ever, for your support over the year, both for my blog and my fiction. I’ll be back before midnight on the 31st with my reading roundup. Meanwhile, what have been your highlights of 2017?
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