[insert placeholder greeting/intro here in case people are somehow unfamiliar with end-of-year lists; make it game-show-y, in fitting with the theme of the post]
THINGS WHAT WAS PUBLISHED
I had two short stories published, wrote and published the fifth and final book in the Exponential Apocalypse series, and contributed to a textbook about transplant psychology. HERE IS A LIST:
“Maple Daydream,” Red Fez, January 2018
“Hatchet,” 101 Fiction, September 2018
Black Hole, Son!, Jersey Devil Press, March 2018
Psychosocial Care of End-Stage Organ Disease and Transplant Patients, “Patient Perspectives,” Springer, December 2018
THINGS WHAT WAS NOT
On the other end of the spectrum, I wrote three new short stories — a weird Western, a darkly comic sci-fi short, and what could best be described as an episode of Black Mirror — that no one wants; two plays that went nowhere; edited and completed my transplant novel, This Is Gonna Suck, twice; I wrote 50,000 words of Once Upon a Time in Jersey, a magical realist coming-of-age novel set in a video store in 2002 that I kind of hate now; and I’m 15,000 words deep into Never Did Run Smooth, a post-apocalyptic survivalist Romeo and Juliet/A Midsummer Night’s Dream hybrid that I don’t hate and am currently pinning all of my professional hopes and dreams upon.
SPEAKING OF THAT LAST BIT
Here are the final stats for my 2018 agent search: I submitted This Is Gonna Suck to 49 agents and heard back from 24 of them. 8 requested a full manuscript; 1 is still pending while the other 7 declined; 3 of those did, however, request that I send them something new once I have it completed, which is nice.
THERE WAS OTHER STUFF TOO
I got sick for the first time since the transplant which sucked, but was ultimately not really a thing — the antibiotics were worse than the infection, and neither was really all that bad, considering. (I’m fine now; did I not mention that?) The incident did, however, reset my annual trips to Stanford to a more quarterly basis and set off a new bunch of testing. There is also now increased scrutiny toward my sinuses which will almost certainly result in surgery. We are still taking donations towards those costs, if you’ve got some cash to spare.
WHAT ELSE …
I’m writing for Comic Book Resources now, which is cool.
I started going to the gym — regularly for, like, two months, and then I got sick, and now it’s a lot more sporadic, but, still.
My dogs have their own Instagram now, which, rightfully, has more followers than my own account.
THAT IS ALL
[insert outro/closing]
GOODNIGHT