2020 Awards Eligibility Post and End of year wrap up

Today is the 28th, just a few days until we leave 2020 behind and hopefully 2021 brings us some joy.

First, in case it’s all you’re here for I only have one thing that is eligible for awards and that is Stone and Steel, my novella from Neon Hemlock. It came out September 5, 2020 so should be eligible for any novella award for 2020.

Now! On to the reflections!

I still have a few days left and I am a believe in pushing hard to the end. This year I wrote or finished writing three novel projects: The Vampire’s Wife, Lycanthropy and Starbringers. I’m happy with that and at the same time when looking at my word count for the year I know this was a struggle. I think I could have gotten more done but given it was 2020, I’ll take it. I also did finish Nano and even had a couple days to spare which I was happy with. In 2021, the game plan is to do some editing. I want to edit Harkemans, a novel project I queried in 2019 and got some feedback on. I’d like to get the book back out and edit at least one other project. I’m glad to have three other things to look at.

I only wrote 3 new short stories this year. Which sucks. I also only edited a couple of stories and I only sent one story out to short story markets. I appreciate the efficiency of short stories, novelettes and novellas and I’d like to try to write some more of them in 2021. Maybe I’ll submit some more as well. We’ll see. A bunch of venues I’m thinking about.

Reading wise I am two books shy of getting by 75 book goal completed. Feeling good about that. I think I can finish it up in these next couple of days but even if I don’t it was not a bad reading year. Again, considering it was 2020 I did good. In 2021, I’m planning to read more new releases or recent releases to understand the market better and stay on top of whats coming out. In additional I’m only adding 25 books to read as my goal for the year, mainly because I want to be better about learning from what I’m reading as well as enjoying it and focus on joy rather than ticking the box.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my growth as a writer this year and acknowledging this fear I have that I’m not growing and just sort of stuck in the same place. My hope is to see some more improvement in my craft in 2021. As well as working on appreciating my growth more. Looking for signs that things have changed.

How has your 2020 gone? What did you achieve? What are you looking to do in the new year?