So, this is much overdue and I won’t even be able to cover everything that I want to cover here, like reading/writing stats and everything else. (I’ll cover this in January.) What I do want to take a moment to reflect on is everything that happened in 2018 and what I am looking forward to in this coming year.

Looking back

2018 had a lot of milestones for me. I finished my MFA at Seton Hill in January after spending two and a half years immersed in genre fiction. I’ve since taken months off writing and took more time to analyze how/what writing means to me. I’ve been working on developing my voice, while also doing reviews, writing shorter pieces, and some intermittent freelance.

I also went to my first academic conference where I presented my first paper ever on “Science Fiction and the Human Person” in Pittsburgh. It was a great time hanging out with people who are also wrestling with art, faith, and the greater human experience and it helped refine what I want from my work as a writer as well. I owe a lot to the people at Convivium.

Another milestone was the fact that I finally have a stable job that pays a decent wage. This may not be huge, but the day job is important for a growing family(and boy do I have one), so this if nothing else, provided a lot of peace for myself and my wife.

In August, we welcomed the birth of our second child, my son, who has so far been a joy if not keeping my wife up at all hours of the night. We are going to take some time before my wife and I contemplate having anymore children, but two kids in two years is more than enough for either of us. All things considered, he has been a love and a new treasure in our home.

Looking forward

Hard to say exactly what I have planned, but then again a lot of what occurred in 2018 just “came up.” I do have some calls to write proposals for that a due early in 2019 and I am currently outlining for a longer novella project I have going, as long as attempting to consider what my next *novel* will be. I want to keep working on short fiction, so there will be plenty of that.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to go to a conference or not. I might attempt to go to one later in the year, but those are few and far between.

I will also say that I have some larger news that I can’t fully share, but I can say that I will have a publication coming out this coming year(in print), which is very exciting! I can’t post more on it, but I’ll have more details as those emerge.

No kids this year! (Thank goodness) So, the home front will be much quieter, otherwise I have some collaborations with other friends that might come around, but so far 2019 seems quieter in some respects, which is okay. After this year, I would love a slower paced one.

Last thoughts

I want to thank all of you for reading. It means more than you know. I realize the books I review might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I hope that I may review something you might enjoy.

And as a reminder, if you have a book that you want me to review, please shoot me an email! Or @ me on Twitter. I love interacting there.

Otherwise, safe travels my fellow speculative fiction voyagers! I’ll see you out there!