So it’s been a hell of a year, huh? But in terms of writing – well, let’s see how I did this time around:

– Finish the current draft of Silver in the Ashes (Argentum in Aqua #2). Nope, but that’s alright – rather take it slow and steady than rush it and post chapters I’m not happy with.

– If I manage the above, post at least one chapter of Fire in the Sky (Argentum in Aqua #3) before the start of 2023. Again, nope, but see above.

– Make at least ten story submissions. Only five, because running LARP doesn’t leave much time for anything else… and also because I sold two stories! Which means I am officially ending this year as a published author, which more than makes up for anything else.

– Finish and post the next chapter of Seventh Son. Alas no. Sorry, poor hiatused project – maybe I’ll pick you back up after I’ve finished running the game in August.

– Get at least 25,000 words done for NaNoWriMo 2022. And how! 50k done, even with running LARP and a mildly busted writing hand. Really bloody pleased with myself for that.

– Finish, edit, and submit another short story. Done and done – and, not only that, it was one of the two stories I sold, and it sold to the first place I submitted it to.

I also wrote over 300,000 words this year, which is definitely not nothing! Managed to virtually attend the Nebulas, Flights of Foundry, and WorldCon again, as well as participating in a fair pile of Twitter writing games and similar to keep my brain ticking over.

All in all, a pretty damn solid year (and, again, now officially a published author and slowly building my eligibility for SFWA membership, so!)

And, without further ado:

2023 WRITING GOALS (which are pretty much entirely 2022’s goals all over again)

– Finish the current draft of Silver in the Ashes (Argentum in Aqua #2).

– If I manage the above, post at least one chapter of Fire in the Sky (Argentum in Aqua #3) before the start of 2024.

– Make at least ten story submissions.

– Finish and post the next chapter of Seventh Son.

– Win NaNoWriMo 2023.

– Sell another short story

– Write at least 10k for at least one Camp NaNo event

– Earn enough from writing to qualify for SFWA Associate Membership

So you might remember that back on the 31st of October I made a post explaining why everything had been a wee bit quiet around here. You also might remember that in that post I said that I was going to have a bash at doing NaNoWriMo this year, and opined that this sounded a wee bit daft given the whole health situation.

Well…

The NaNoWriMo 2022 winner badge

So it turns out that I’m a stubborn bastard when I put my mind to it, and that I can in fact write 30k in a week if I want to (and I’ve got the time away from the dayjob).

I was aiming for 25,000. But then I hit that, and kept going, and then once I’d got to 30,000 there was more behind me than there was ahead of me. And then I hit 40,000 and at that point I was going to get to 50,000 if I had to pull an all-nighter to get there.

And… here we are.

The eagle-eyed among you might also have noticed that a pile of new chapter headers have appeared on the index page for Silver in the Ashes. Those chapters all exist thanks to this last month, and we’re not done with the story yet. So hang on tight – the ride’s only getting rougher for our heroic crew from hereon out.

Well, not entirely.

So… as some of you may know, Twitter’s currently kinda death-spiralling thanks to being taken over by someone who thinks sacking half their staff with no warning is a great idea. With that in mind, while I’m still going to be active over there for the moment, I’ve also spun up an account over on wandering.shop (an SFF community mastodon instance).

If you feel like following me over there, I’m over at house_of_five as per usual. Currently don’t have much posted there, since I made the account less than an hour ago, but should hopefully be posting the usual kind of stuff soon (and probably a lot less yelling about transphobes, since I’m a damn sight less likely to see them quoted into my timeline… which is probably going to be very good for my mental health, all things considering).

So you might’ve noticed that there’s not been much in the way of posts around here for a wee while. Long story short, I wound up out the end of one of my meds by a month due to a scheduling error and my GP surgery deciding to choose the worst time to update their systems, which has had a whole pile of knock-on effects on both my physical and mental health.

Everything’s now sorted, but I’m still working my way back up to where I was before all that happened (and my hand’s still not back to 100% functional, which isn’t exactly helping). So… yeah, that’s why we wound up with another unplanned hiatus.

Current plan, as daft as it sounds given what I’ve just written above, is to have a decent go at NaNo this year and see if that at least gives me something workable to build on. While I can’t give you an exact date for when regular updates will resume for Silver in the Ashes, rest assured that I am actively working on it – if nothing else, I want to read peoples’ reactions when Certain Things Happen.

So it turns out I managed to prang a tendon in the back of my right hand a couple of weeks ago (and my perception of pain is miscalibrated enough that I didn’t actually realise I’d done something more than strained it slightly).

I do have two more chapters of Silver in the Ashes already written and ready to go, but I am going to try and rest up/not write for a while to give this time to heal up. We’ll see how that goes.

Just to keep folks in the loop: the current hiatus on Silver in the Ashes wasn’t intentional, but unfortunately, as you might have guessed, life happened (being a disabled trans writer in the UK right now is Fun and Exciting when it comes to having any spare spoons whatsoever, I’ll tell you that for free).

Am slowly getting brain back in gear, though have been a little derailed by the fact that our household just failed its con save vs covid, so things’re going to be a wee bit slower for the next few days while we deal with that particular hiccup.

On the less negative front, I do have some very good writing news which I’ll share more about in a month or so (and no, it’s not a contract for ARGENTUM – trust me, if that ever happens you’ll know).

But if you have the money, if you have a way to help:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/helpukraine-emergency-appeal

#RussiaInvadedUkraine

Russia has started the new wave of aggression against Ukraine.
Wherever you are and whatever you do, you can help Ukraine now. You can help Ukraine against Russian aggression.

🔗https://t.co/RM1eqXyfo9 pic.twitter.com/cZwiiOsWvv

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 24, 2022

So! Once again, we find ourselves at the top of a new year – and, like last year, it really doesn’t feel that way. But hey, onwards and upwards.

To get this out of the way, how did I do with my 2021 writing goals? Let’s have a look:

– Upload two chapters a month on Argentum in Aqua for the entire year (barring a planned break between Blood on the Snow and Silver in the Ashes). Didn’t manage this one, but I’m not beating myself up too badly about it – between work stuff, LARP stuff, health stuff, and, y’know, the current pandemic fuckery, this one was always going to be a stretch.

– Write, edit, and submit at least one new short story. DONE. Also a couple of pieces of flash fiction in the bargain.

– Make at least ten story submissions. DONE. I am legitimately really bloody happy with my submissions for this year – haven’t sold a story yet, but multiple personal rejections (including from pro-rate magazines) tells me that I’m on the right track.

– Add at least one chapter to Seventh Son. Nope. Still working on this, I swear.

– Win NaNoWriMo 2021. I tried, but it turns out running a LARP (including writing 5k of downtimes a week) plus dealing with a pandemic plus disability fuckery kinda eats up all the spoons I need for doing a proper run at NaNo.

– Write at least one new poem. Nope.

– exist, survive, do not have a mental breakdown. Unofficial goal, but probably the most important one – and hey, managed that one! (Wee bit shaky on the last bit, but starting this year with actual meds for anxiety and in a role at work which doesn’t eat quite so much of my sanity, so on balance that’s a win)

So in summary: didn’t quite manage a lot of my personal stuff, but did surprisingly well on the short story/submissions side of things and kept my head above water (which is probably the most important bit given everything right now).

Also managed to (virtually) attend the Nebulas, WorldCon, and Flights of Foundry, which were really bloody helpful for both boosting my creative brain and also just allowing me to feel more connected to the wider writing community.

And, with that out of the way, onward to the new year:

2022 WRITING GOALS

– Finish the current draft of Silver in the Ashes (Argentum in Aqua #2).

– If I manage the above, post at least one chapter of Fire in the Sky (Argentum in Aqua #3) before the start of 2023.

– Make at least ten story submissions.

– Finish and post the next chapter of Seventh Son.

– Get at least 25,000 words done for NaNoWriMo 2022.

– Finish, edit, and submit another short story.

Like last year, this is a fairly small list, but… *broad gesture at the whole pandemic/UK government situation*