2015 was a great year. First original fiction sale, first original poetry sale, first reprint fiction sale. Feeling some pressure to try and at least equal it in 2016, challenged by the ridiculous lack of time for new material since August, but that's how life goes.
Let's start with the stats:
- 115 submissions
- 5 fiction sales, 4 published this year
- 1 fiction reprint sale
- 6 poetry sales, 3 published this year
This included my first ever sale, professional or otherwise to Daily Science Fiction. Actually, I ended up with all of my fiction and reprint sales this year at professional markets (based on SFWA standards). This was more happenstance than anything in that I started with pro markets first for all of my subs.
The poetry sales were a pleasant surprise, and I'm looking forward to January when The Rambutan Man goes lives, since that particular poem is my favorite so far.
Frankly this is all too fantastical to be true -- I started the year with zero sales and hit active member status in SFWA by the middle of November.
So without further adieu, a rehash with comments and links of my publications this year:
Fiction
A Revolution In Four Courses, Daily Science Fiction, July
My first sale, which arrived while I was out for dinner in early February, was also my first publication. This one looks at cultural erosion of cuisine in an oppressive fantastic setting. I later sold this as a reprint in October to a venue I love dearly.
Infinite Skeins, Crossed Genres, August
My first non-flash sale of the year, arrived in July and I could not have been more thrilled. This was the second story I wrote ever, and I had gotten to final consideration a few times with it, but it took the twelfth submission to get there. Crossed Genre's "portals" theme was a unique fit to this piece involving a couple grieving the loss of the child and the depths one of them will go to get her back.
This piece received a very positive review from Charles Payseur at the Quick Sips Blog, as well as at Tangent Online among other places. It's probably my favorite amongst my 2015 publications.
Broken Winged Love, Strange Horizons, October
My first of two sales to Strange Horizons this year, this short little piece was written in one sitting and sold on its first trip out on submittal. It also garnered me my first podcast. Another bingo square!
Copyfactory, Nature:Futures, October
I was very familiar from my college days with Nature the scientific journal, but I had no inkling when I first started submitting that it had a fiction column, let alone that I would sell a story to it. This was also my first print publication, and there was certainly a moment when I held my author copy in my hands.
Poetry
I had no inkling in 2014 that my fiction writing would take off, let alone that I would end up with three poetry publications in the year.
Origami Crane / Light Defying Spaceship, Liminality, September
This was what kickstarted my poetry writing this year. I wrote this poem in almost a single sitting in the second month after my son was born. There was a certain degree of chaos around me, and while I didn't have time to write stories, I on a whim thought that perhaps something smaller like poetry might whet my appetite so to speak. I was happy enough with this poem that I thought I'd throw it to the winds and see what happened. Matt & Shira at Liminality were kind enough to look favorably on this poem and bought it for their Autumn issue
The Sky Is My Heart, Through The Gate, October
I wrote this poem originally for Inkscrawl's "atypical weather" themed issue. Bogi Takacs, the guest editor, wrote the most kindest rejection ever, commenting quite favorable on the piece though it wasn't quite the right fit for his theme. This gave me enough confidence to try submitting it elsewhere and I ended up selling it to Through The Gate. Needless to say, October was a great month for me.
Mage // Cirus, Inkscrawl, December
Bogi's rejection of my first submission was accompanied by an encouraging request to try again. I succeeded in my second shot at the theme with another parallel poem involving cloud entities binding with earthbound mages. The final issue was an incredibly strong one and I was glad to share the table of contents with other poets I met online.