Ah, 2022 (aka 2020, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone), the year of low expectations. Humility does wonders for enjoyment of the little things, the overlooked details that keep us going, the common treasures often left unexamined and the world over is nothing if not humbled by the seemingly-endless pandemic years.
The benefit of low expectations? You can exceed them without realizing it. For me, that happened when I was accepted to Futurescapes, a writer’s workshop for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror writers. Before I had applied, I already decided 2022 needed to be a year of networking for me but I did not expect the timing and opportunity to line up so quickly and fortunately, in what even the Doubting Thomas in me would call serendipitous.
The workshop itself takes place over three days in early March. Until then, classes with authors, editors, and agents provide resources to prepare samples, pitches, and queries. Already we’ve learned worldbuilding from Hugo Award-winning author Arkady Martine, talked epic fantasy with agents DongWon Song and Lucienne Diver, and author Emily R. King, and practiced blending genres with author C.L. Polk, among other fantastic faculty. It’s been amazing to be around others in the writers’ tribe, especially those into genre fiction like me.
All of which lines up with my second goal, which is to (finally!) query my novel The Darkest Fate for the first time this year. The second half requires editing but the early chapters are pretty much done and out to beta readers (thank you Marty, Ashley, Nick, Alex, Sunni, Emily, Nancy and Holly!). As tempting as it is to just start sending them out as samples, I need to finish the whole thing, which will take . . . time (never ask me how long writing takes unless you want 900 answers). But ballpark by summer. Whether that is May or August, I’m optimistic for the former. If earlier, even better.
Almost as exciting as winding down the novel is starting new projects. John Vitale is a friend going back to our days in youth hockey, before he was a hotshot artist and a freakin’ father to boot. Our ambition for years has been to work on a comic together and John waited patiently while I toiled in writer’s block and then novel writing. With the latter receding, this is our year. The working title is A Classic Murder Mystery Party, using a story I developed for a role-playing game. It’s a pastiche and love letter to whodunits from Christie to Chandler in the vein of Knives Out. I’ve already written an outline for six issues.
My fourth and final (but not really) goal is to keep up with short story submissions, which I began last fall. I’ve heard it said to expect at least ten rejections for every acceptance. And that’s being generous, statistically. Till then, I’m collecting rejections as badges of honor.
My fifth and for real final goal is reserved if I finish the above. Ideas are cheap; the execution is where the money is. So I don’t want to spread myself too thin BUT I have an opportunity to have a spec script of mine critiqued by TheBlackList reader, which is not something I want to let lapse. To that end, if I could get a 90-or-so page script done by the end of 2022, I will consider this year to have been quite productive indeed.
Again, lower expectations. Make plans, God laughs etc. Let’s get to summer first.
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