A New Year's Post!

So it’s a new year. Or at least it was four days ago. Some people use this as a time to reflect on the recent past and consider the near future. Some people think that’s dumb. As a writer/creative/whatever, I find opportunities for reflection and consideration, artificial or not, to be useful. So I thought I’d put some thoughts down, both on the past year and the one to come.

Outside of my own life, 2014 was kind of a rough one. At least from the news, the running theme seemed to be challenges to the established power structure, and violent response from that power structure. Whether it was GamerGate threatening women with rape and violence for daring to suggest they’d like to see women in video games who aren’t being raped or killed, or police bringing riot gear and tear gas to a protest of police brutality, there was definitely a theme there.

And, look, I mostly talk about comics here, so I don’t want to go too far down this path, and really so many other people have spoken more eloquently and with greater authority. So I’ll just say to those fighting the good fight (and, trust me, when you’re threatening to rape people or defending a police officer gunning down an unarmed man, you aren’t fighting the good fight): Keep at it. As a white guy, I can tweet my support, I can donate to causes, I can even show up at protests. I can support media that portrays women and people of color and other minorities in a positive light. Hell, I can even create that sort of media (or at least I can try). But at the end of the day, it’s gonna be you guys, fighting, sometimes an inch at a time. It may not seem like you’re gaining much ground now, but when you look back in a few years, (hopefully) you'll be able to say it was worth it.

To move on to lighter topics, in my personal life, it was actually a pretty great year. Anonymous Nancy issue 2 was finished, with the help of a Kickstarter. (Thanks again to all who backed and/or shared the link!) It’s even up on comiXology right now, along with issue 1. (Issue 3 is moving along quite nicely.) I’m mostly finished with a collection of three short horror comics. And I was able to write a brand-new short story every day! I’m almost up to 365 stories, which is kind of a huge deal for me. When I started that project, I was sincerely concerned that I would crap out after a few days.

I had tables at several conventions this past year, including Nittany Con, Sci-Fi Valley Con and WV Pop Con. Got to meet some cool people and had a really great time. Also slowing getting the hang of the whole “trying to get people to give a crap about things I write” thing.

More personally, and more importantly, I became the father of an amazing little girl. Five (and a half) months old now, and every day she’s challenged me, and every day is something special because she’s there when I wake up.

So that was my year. And for the coming year? Well, of course there’s writing. Always writing. Once I’ve finished up with all 365 stories, I’m likely going to put an end to that project. It was great fun, a huge challenge, and worth every story. The whole point was to get me writing every day. The problem is that now it’s taking up time that could be spent writing other, larger projects. So I’ll still be writing every day, certainly, but going forward it will be for larger projects; novels, full-length short stories, etc.

That’s one of my big goals for the new year, to write a novel, in full. I have a few novels that are close to being ready, so I’ll have to decide which one to write first. But it’s one foot in front of the other time. Time to get marching.

As far as comics go, there’s Nancy issue 3, hopefully I can have that ready to go by convention season, as well as this horror anthology, which I may end up running a small kickstarter for. I’d like to put together at least one more, but ideally two more anthologies. Similar format, three short, eight-ish page stories, but in different genres. Probably sci-fi next, and then maybe western or crime before coming back to horror again.

And of course, there’s the big project, Campaigners. This is going to be a pretty sizable Kickstarter, which I plan to run during the summer. If you’re not following the tumblr, it’s a story set in the year 2076, when presidential elections are decided by hand-to-hand fights, often to the death, and a young woman turning 18 on election day raises the ire of the entire country by declaring she plans not to vote. So check it out, share it, talk it up!

And of course, there’s more conventions to attend! People to meet, comics to sell! Friends to make!

Anyway, that’s my year-in-review, and my year-to-come. Best to all of you!