2018 in Review and a Peek into 2019

Hello there, hope everyone is doing well. It’s been a bit quiet around here lately and with the New Year approaching, I thought I’d take a moment to let you know what’s been going on. I know you may be thinking I’m over here wasting time, but I assure you I am not. Let me tell you how 2018 went for me:

In January I made the resolution to finally, after 35 years of dicking around and telling myself I should, get serious about my writing. See, I’ve always been able to turn a phrase, and I’ve always know I had a talent for it. But you know,  writing is hard. It really, really is. Even when you have a knack for it, it’s a lot of staring at blank screens, wondering if what you are doing is worth it.

Then, sometimes something passes all your internal conflicts and self-doubt and you finish a story for a change. Once that finished story comes stumbling out of your egg-shell brain, that’s when you have to look at the ugly thing as it twitches and squawks on your desk like some kind of baby monster from a bad 80’s horror movie. You resist every urge to grab a dictionary and just smash it right to death. 

I have smashed countless baby monsters over the years but in 2018 I forced myself to let them live; to feed and nourish them, to let them grow teeth and claws and segmented tails that drip venom. The thing is, that once that happens, they start to look really cool and you think that maybe you should breed these things because someone out there might want one of their own…

So in January I started writing stories and submitting them to publishers. I joined several online book clubs for feedback, advice, and marketing help, and as such, had a couple of stories picked up for an anthology.  In July, my first paid, published work came out and has been pretty successful. I won’t claim credit for that success, it was a combined effort by many writers and a very diligent publisher, but it’s been successful nonetheless, peaking at #1 in several Amazon categories. 

I’ve since launched this website, a Facebook page, a Twitter page, and done what I can to build followings there. And if you’re here, you’ll see that I provide several free samples to my work. My goal here is to have a new story posted at least every couple of weeks, but so far that has been slow going. Here’s why:

(This is a peek into 2019): 

Earlier in the year I took on the task of editing a collaborative anthology. Several writers, including myself submitted stories centered around a haunted and abandoned mall. I compiled and edited the stories and then shopped it to publishers. It was picked up and as of today, has a January 2019 launch date. More details on this to come. 

I also submitted stories to several other anthologies and some have been accepted. I’ve got at least two, possibly three books coming out in the first part of next year that I will be telling you more about as events unfold. 

(Okay, back to 2018):

So that’s what’s been going on with the writing. In addition to that, most of you know that I produce a weekly horror podcast called Scarydad. The podcast just reached its two-year anniversary and we’re working on episode 116, our New Year’s show. If you keep up with the show you’ll know we record two episodes per week so that we always have something ready to go. So on top of the writing, producing the podcast has been keeping me pretty busy as well. 

In addition to that, 2018 saw us in our second year of producing our local horror convention, Scarydad’s Haunted Halloween show. This is another of my babies and in its second year, it was nearly twice as big as the first. I’ll begin work on Year 3 in January or February.

I haven’t yet generated enough income to leave the 9-5, so there’s still a 9-5. I do all this after the kids go to bed and after a nice long day at work, so sometimes, just sometimes, I sit and stare at the wall and wish I could be a normal dude-bro who likes sports and sitcoms and isn’t compelled to create monsters. But then I shake it off and get back to work. 

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek behind the scenes. I know it’s slow-going sometimes and you wonder if I’m doing anything at all. Rest assured, things are getting done and hopefully here very soon I’ll have a bunch of announcements come one after the other. 

In the meantime, thank you for following me and my work. It rally means a lot and I can’t wait to share my next story with you. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I’ll see you all very soon. 

-Billy