Well, things were somewhat decent, given the time constraints I had in 2025. Working to get more done in 2026. Here are my goals:
1. Publish the final Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn.
2. Complete the first draft of Tempted, the second title in my new Demonkiller series.
3. Re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections, Dead or Alive and Dirty Dozen.
Well, it seems as though I forgot to put any goals for 2025 this past January, but since I hadn't completed anything in 2024, I've just been working toward those. I didn't get everything done, but one big project is now completed. Hoping to keep the momentum going in 2026 (new goals post coming a little later), but here is how things compared to my goals for 2025 (from 2024):
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn.
I was actually able to buckle down on this novel, which will in fact be the final in the Aston West series of novels. I was able to complete the final draft, and expect to be able to publish this sometime in the new year.
2. Complete the first draft of Tempted, the second title in my new Demonkiller series.
Progress on this novel was put on hold due to my focus on finishing Before the Dawn. I was able to get another 10K words completed for a total of 43K. I do plan to focusing on this one in the coming year.
3. Re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections, Dead or Alive and Dirty Dozen.
With all the focus on finishing Before the Dawn, I still didn't get this worked.
4. Write four new Aston short stories (one per quarter).
Didn't get anything written on these, and given my focus next year on Tempted, I don't anticipate much work getting done in the new year either.
Here's hoping I can keep the momentum going on the coming year.
Well, things didn't go so well through 2023. Working to get some things done in 2024. Here are my goals:
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn.
I am currently at about 35K words. I have a good idea of the path I
want the story to take, so now it's just a matter of getting the writing
done. However, this will likely take a back seat to my Demonkiller novel below (unless I run into blocks on that one).
2. Complete the first draft of Tempted, the second title in my
new Demonkiller series. I am now at 33K words on this one, and the plot is coming together nicely. This will likely be my primary focus for this year, since I only have the one title in this series (sorry, Aston fans).
3. Re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections, Dead or Alive and Dirty Dozen. Have not looked ahead to the convention schedule for this year (some ended their runs this past year, so things may look a bit different), but hoping to have them available soon.
4. Write four new Aston short stories (one per quarter). Wanting to work these back into the goal rotation, so that I can get some accomplishments (hopefully) completed.
Here's hoping I can work to complete these goals this year.
Well, sometimes life gets in the way, and 2023 was one of those years. My father passed away in June, and that same weekend started my new (second) job as an Associate Pastor for a local church after nearly 23 years at our former church as a layperson. This involves a lot of classwork as I work toward ordination in our denomination, reading textbooks, writing papers and such. But due to other circumstances in my new position, I've also been tasked with a fairly regular cadence of developing lessons and sermons, so that has been good for working up my writing cadence, but had no effect on my original writing goals. Nearly five months after that, I changed positions as my first job so there has been a bit of a learning curve and stresses involved in that. Then, earlier this month, my wife had knee replacement surgery and so the last half of this year was a bit of a struggle all-around on the fiction writing front. Hoping to get back on track in 2024 (new goals post coming a little later), but here is how things compared to my goals for 2023:
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn.
Work on this novel has been at a virtual standstill, as I have been focusing most of my limited availability on finishing my second Demonkiller novel. I have only gotten another 5K words this year, for a total of 35K.
2. Complete the first draft of Tempted, the second title in my new Demonkiller series. I am only at 20K words on this one, but have a rough plot outlined for this one. Hoping to be able to sit down and get the writing done on this one as well.
Progress on this novel has been a bit more promising, with another 13K words completed here, for a total of 33K. I do have a pretty good plot forming on this one, so I'm hopeful to continue progressing on this in the coming year.
3. Re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections, Dead or Alive and Dirty Dozen. Not sure what my convention schedule for this year is going to look like, but hoping to have them available in the near future.
I didn't get a thing done on this other than mention it to my cover artist. I'm hoping that I get motivated to finish these in time for whatever my first convention of 2024 ends up being.
4. Not part of my original goals for 2024 (I try not to place goals out that rely on other individuals to complete), but Lyndon Perry and I were able to complete the third and final installment (Eureka) of the Max McCannor young adult/alternate history/steampunk series this year. If you haven't already checked out the earlier books in this series, or if you have read the others and need to catch the final title, check them all out.
Here's hoping that I can get a little more time to finish my goals this coming year.
Well, things were going well, writing-wise, through most of 2022. Hoping to get some more momentum going on these, so here are my goals for 2023:
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn. I am currently at about 30K words. I have a good idea of the path I want the story to take, so now it's just a matter of getting the writing done.
2. Complete the first draft of Tempted, the second title in my new Demonkiller series. I am only at 20K words on this one, but have a rough plot outlined for this one. Hoping to be able to sit down and get the writing done on this one as well.
3. Re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections, Dead or Alive and Dirty Dozen. Not sure what my convention schedule for this year is going to look like, but hoping to have them available in the near future.
Here's hoping that I can get some time to complete these goals this year.
Well, 2022 was a fairly productive year, although with two novels in work, not a lot was completely finished. Combine that with work stresses and several items around the house that needed to be addressed, it was good that I could get some work accomplished on the goals that I did. Here's the recap for how things went against my 2022 goals.
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn.
Didn't finish the first draft of this novel, but I have been working on it throughout the year. Now up to around 30K words and have a good handle on the direction I want to take it, including the ending!
2. Complete the first draft of my second title (Tempted) in my new Demonkiller series.
Didn't finish the first draft of this novel, but like Before the Dawn, I have been working on it throughout the year. Will be interesting to see which of these novels ends up finished first. Now up to around 20K words.
3. As the rights from Dead or Alive have been returned to me, it's time to re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections.
Didn't get this finished this year. No excuse, just didn't.
A follow-up post for my new goals will be coming soon. Hoping to gain a little momentum and have 2023 be an even better year.
It has been a great long while since I've posted, and even then, most of those had been my regular writing goals posts (end of the year posts are coming soon). But I'm happy to announce that my latest Aston short story "Turnabout" will be published soon in a magazine. It has been over a decade (11-12 years?) since my last official magazine publication, so pretty excited about that. Will let everyone know when it comes out (e-published and print both).
Readers of my very first short story "Little White Truths" (in the now-defunct Ray Gun Revival, issue #33 - also re-printed in the Aston short story collection Dead or Alive) will be in for a special treat with this one. It's been over 15 years since that one came out for the first time, so if you've forgotten the story, go back and re-read it in preparation for the new story arriving.
Well, I neglected to put out a set of goals in 2021, and almost did the same here in 2022. I guess it's only a month late (not making excuses, but the past month or so has been a train wreck, health-wise). Here they are:
1. Complete the first draft of my fifth Aston West series novel, Before the Dawn. I have several chapters written on this one, so I am expecting to finish this goal. That said, I have been "pantsing" this story, which has not turned out that well for me so far (Some good material, but it seems to be wandering a lot with no real direction).
2. Complete the first draft of my second title (Tempted) in my new Demonkiller series. I do have a rough plot outlined for this one, so planning to flesh that out a bit more, and then start in on the draft. Stretch goal will be to get it published this year, but we shall see how things go the next few months.
3. As the rights from Dead or Alive have been returned to me, it's time to re-publish and re-brand my two short story collections. Planning to get that done this year as well. Perhaps in time for Air Cap in November.
Completely doable, so now it's just a matter of bearing down and getting on these goals.
