If you celebrate and whatever you celebrate, Happy That! For me, it is Christmas and I want to share my favorite Christmas song with you:
This.
Absolutely.
I just… yes.
And now, onto something that kind of blew my mind. I saw other folks doing this and taking stock piqued my interest. I was floored when I laid my publications for the year out.
Sixteen.
That’s how many publications I’ve had this year… in print (the total number, if you include the podcasted stories and online drabbles, is 20… wait… 21?).
That flipping floors me! And this is on top of seeing my little movie, 271 Raeburn Avenue, take home 14 awards (!!!!!!) and premier in a Regal Cinema in New York City, being Guest of Honor at a fun con in VA (Author Con), actually seeing my “papers” on display (in part) at Pitt’s Horror Archive project, becoming the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association (so… I get to be Madam President (SFA) AND Madam Vice President (HWA)? SWEET!), and writing two novels, a novella, a chapter of nonfiction, and the rest of the stories I needed to finish up a short story collection (oh, the words floweth, folks).
YOWZA!
At first I wasn’t going to post this, but I decided to go for it because I think it could help the person who thinks they just can’t because they took a break from writing and they wonder how to get back in, they have work, family life, organizations they are active in, maybe even wonder if they can do it anymore because there are never enough hours in the day. All of those descriptors are me, except I wasn’t worried that I could do it anymore… I just hoped that writer’s block hadn’t dulled my edge.
All of this = Me.
But also me is having a passion for writing, a desire to grow, and a drive to write the kinds of stories I want to read.
Sixteen times this year I held something I’d written in my hot little hands. Sixteen times I told you all about it over and over again (sorry… not sorry, though! lol!) Sixteen times I looked at the output of my late nights and tired eyes and said, “Yasss!” Because if you know me, you know that is EXACTLY what I said!
This stuff doesn’t happen by just my effort alone. I want to thank all of the editors who read something they liked of mine and contracted to publish it. I want to thank my Falstaff Books Authors & Editors for understanding my slightly kookie vision and putting it out into the world. I want to thank Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC for helping me traverse a particularly dark alley. I want to thank my team who read my work and tell me what’s up in the most honest way they can (nameless, they shall remain, but they know who they are!). Gotta thank the folks in my house who deal with the late nights and the strange conversations – gotta bounce ideas around with someone, am I right? LOL! And I want to thank you guys for bearing with me, supporting me, reading me, talking about my words, and last but not least, feeling SOMETHING!
It’s that time of year…
It is awards season again and I am truly over the moon to have a few goodies eligible for awards this season:
- Short Non Fiction Category:
Title: The (Fear) Horror of Change
Publisher: Nightmare Magazine
**Change is inevitable, and that should terrify you!
(Stoker)
- Short Fiction Category
Title: “Anymore”
Anthology title: The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse
Publisher: Hungry Shadow Press
Release date: July 2023
**How could a simple shopping trip end like this?!?!
(Stoker, Nebula)
- Long Fiction (Novella) Category
Title: The Open Book.
Publisher: Falstaff Books
Release Date: February 2023
**One decision. A woman hurrying through an airport picks up some stranger’s fallen book instead of kicking it under a chair.
And the feeding frenzy begins. The strangely beautiful little volume passes relentlessly from hand to hand as if by magic, from a flight attendant to a barrista to a teen-ager’s mom to a sassy retiree and on and on and on. Anyone who peers inside finds themselves entranced by a story of unearthly horrors—a story that seems meant for them alone. The last story they will ever read.
(Stoker, Nebula)
Poetry
- Title: What the Water Brings
Book: Dangerous Waters; Deadly Women of the Sea (Print)
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Released: January 2023
(Rhysling)
- Title: Watch
Book: Shakespeare Unleashed (Print)
Publisher: Monstrous Books
Released: July 2023
(Rhysling)
- Title: I See
Book: Under Her Eye
Publisher: Black Spot Books
Released: November 2023
(Rhysling)
- Title: Nightmare
Book: Qualia Nous, vol. 2
Publisher: Nettirw Backwards (Written Backwards)
Released: November 2023
(Rhylsing)
- Title: Under the Blue Moon
Book: The Outlet, Bloom Where You Are Planted, Fourteenth Edition, pp. 48-49
Publisher: Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, Arts and Letters
Released: April 2023
(Rhysling)
YAYAYAYAYA (a la Crazy Taxi).
I am beyond thrilled!
This year was a whirlwind for me – these are the positives here but there were many days when I was behind, running to catch up, trying to make sure I had a handle on all the moving parts. But I am thankful for it – the pace kept me on my toes and made me work hard. Sometimes we need that!
Enjoy the rest of the year and reflect, folks. Think about where you’ve been and what you see for yourself next year. Read something fun (I have something for that!). Rest, relax, and reset!
Until next time,
L. Marie
L. Marie Wood 