I’m not dead yet!

However, I have been incredibly consistent in ignoring this website since August. Where did the last half of 2018 go? Let me take you back…

August and September were filled with planning outside of work and organising at work. With stocktake happening just before we broke into the Christmas Rush, it was a bit of a whirlwind of a month which left me feeling like a shell of a human. Then, right after stocktake my family began to arrive and we suddenly found ourselves with a full house. It was fantastic to see my Mom and Sister from Canada, along with my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin from Japan. Eventually, my best friend arrived from Canada as well and then it was time for the event everyone was here for and what we’d been planning…

The Wedding!

We’d chosen the winery for its beauty (and food choices… slow cooked beef cheek, amazing roast chicken, arancini, garlic scallops, just to name a few mouth-watering examples) and despite the weather being crisp (read: cold for anyone not Canadian) the rain stayed away, the skies remained clear and blue and the sunset provided beautiful lighting for shots against the stunning back drop of what appeared to be cherry blossoms. The reception went off with our amazing Musician/MC/Comedienne doing not only an incredible job, but fitting in with the family and managing to display her amazing skills as a human jukebox.

Shortly after this, my lovely new wife and I quickly got the hell outta there and to the airport where we planed, trained, and boated the thirty hours in transit to Venice where we spent an amazing few days roaming the city and taking in the sights. I virtually forgot what cars were after three days but we managed to fit in a gondola ride and try some amazing cuisine (Cuttlefish and black ink pasta? Surprisingly delicious!) then we set out for a cruise around the Mediterranean.

First off, cruising is amazing. Food? EVERYWHERE. IN EVERY TYPE. Sleeping? EVERYWHERE. ANY TIME. Books? LIBRARY. READ EVERYWHERE. Needless to say, I had a great time, and that was just on the ship. Seeing Sicily, Malta, Greece, Mykonos, Delos and Santorini was an incredible time that as a writer proved invaluable. I won’t go into detail on each place (despite my camera literally having over a thousand photos of the trip) but on the cruise I did discover Ursula Le Guin. As a fantasy writer and reader, I’m unsure as to why I was never told about her or heard of her stories. I brought on the cruise with me the Earthsea Quartet and I devoured the hundreds of pages in there, hungry for more. I ordered her collector’s edition recently and I’m very much looking forward to revisiting Earthsea and Le Guin’s writing.

So after the honeymoon (and the thirty hour trip back) it was back to reality. Work was super busy with Christmas around the corner and for some insane reason I entered NaNoWriMo with what I believe was my heaviest bout of exhaustion to date (insomnia aside). I managed to do well for the first two weeks and then simply threw in the towel. I’d managed fifteen thousand words but with work ramping up, social engagements at an all time high, Christmas shopping to do and the exhaustion from entertaining my family for two weeks and travelling for two more, I was SPENT. Let me paint you a picture.

One night, while sitting at my desk, I was in the fury of writing. Tap-tap-tapping away at my keyboard beneath nothing but lamplight and inspiration when suddenly it hit me!

And by it, I mean the keyboard.

I fell asleep while writing and my head bounced off the keys. I opened my eyes and I believe the sentence went a little something like… *ahem*

She took out the dagger and, took out the, thrusting it into her heart, she twisted the dagger bnkghj

Now, as you can see… I was already in the middle of a pretty brilliant work of literary fiction of the highest regard. I stared at the screen and nodded. Yep. I was done. So I closed the laptop and didn’t look at it again until the new year (oh yeah, that story is going to need *some* rewrites). Then Christmas came and went, then suddenly it was the New Year and now here we are.

2019.

What did I accomplish last year in my writing life?

I had my first ever agent REQUEST! She asked for the first 50 pages of my book and kindly told me that although it wasn’t what she was after, to keep trying (Thanks Rena Rossner, hope your own book goes well!).

I wrote a novella specifically for Tor in the US and I’m currently refreshing the submission page (still 310 in the queue) but they apparently get back to EVERYONE who submitted. I’m waiting with bated breath as my beta readers all had amazing things to say and it is a story I am *VERY* proud of.

I got rejected from a handful of agents which asked for my work from #PitMad on Twitter. I will find you dream agent, I know I will. (Is there such a thing as Tinder for Manuscripts and Agents? Just saying…)

I hit my reading goal of twelve books (and then proceeded to smash it)!

Lastly, I went to a few writer’s festivals and ended up splurging for a one-on-one with an Editor from Penguin Random House. This was quite possibly the highlight of my writing year. Thirty minutes and she’d read my first chapter prior but the thing I wanted to know most was if my writing was decent. “Your writing is certainly not the problem, I believe that you have a very good handle of the craft and I only saw one minor mistake of telling instead of showing. Other than that, you’re quite good!” We also talked about the scope and content of the world I am trying to create and she suggested I age it up. “I don’t think you’re a YA author, your content and themes are geared more toward adults and you may find more success in pursuing those publishers and agents.” As she was a Children’s and Young Adult editor, I understood her position. I also breathed a sigh of relief. My writing was good!

Now as I enter 2019, I am going to set some new goals for myself. Writing and otherwise, in no particular order.

• Visit Scandinavia
• Enter at least a dozen writing competitions
• Do at least two writing courses/workshops
• Attend three writer’s conferences
• Read twenty four books (on my sixth one already)
• Dip my toe in the world of freelance writing
• Rewrite Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse (fifth edit is the charm, right?)
• Participate in every #PitMad that comes up that applies to Jefferson
• Submit Jefferson out again (Potentially looking at small local presses first, Pantera Press and Harbour Publishing are in mind)
• Pay an editor to look over Jefferson after my final rewrites are done
• Do more research into self publishing

Okay, that’s fairly extensive. But I’ll leave it at that for now. Anyone out there beyond the screen have any writing goals they want to share? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook all @thetjedwards! Talk soon!