Year Out, Year In

Out with the old, in with the new

Although COVID-19 is still with us, 2023 saw a return to almost normal. I went to plays and concerts, I ate in restaurants, I spent a few weeks in Europe, and I wrote for three weeks at an arts residency. Pretty normal.

And what did I accomplish this year? At the end of last year, I evaluated my progress toward the previous year’s goals and set a few new ones. You can read about those here.

The biggest accomplishment of the year was that I found a publisher for my new novel and spent a lot of time getting the manuscript ready for publication. The Last Bird of Paradise will be published on February 22, 2024. It’s currently available for pre-order from the publisher (and on the usual online bookseller sites).

One of my goals for the year was to work on a new novel. Early in the year, I was actually working on two, one of which I decided to set aside. The other project is moving forward and is very different from anything I’ve done before. That’s about all I can say about it at this point, although I am enjoying working on it for now.

I also wanted to finally turn my attention to personal essays, but the only movement I made in that direction was to read a few collections of essays. Maybe next year will be the year. (I said that last year.)

Some other accomplishments:

I wrote a post in which I celebrated my 70th birthday by looking back at where I was at ten-year intervals. Some people found that interesting, and I did too. Nothing like a little self-reflection at significant moments of your life. (Maybe I did write a personal essay, come to think of it.)I posted the annual update of my Literary Magazine Rankings. This is something a lot of people appreciate as an aid to submitting their work to literary magazines. It takes a good deal of time, but I’m happy to provide it to the writing community.The audiobook version of my novel Oliver’s Travels came out. I didn’t have much to do with that other than approve the selection of the voice actor who did the narration.I did some book reviews and also provided blurbs for several new books.I converted my newsletter into a Substack with a bit more focus on writing. You can see past issues and subscribe for free here.

Plus, I have goals for the new year, of course:

The new book is coming out, but I need to do my best to spread the word. Keep an eye on my Events page for news of in-person and online appearances.I intend to finish a draft of my next book. It’s a short one, I think, so this should be doable. Famous last words.I’m definitely going to try my hand at a personal essay and see if I can get it published.I’ve written some poems I like and I plan to start sending them out to magazines.I’m going to be doing a bit of teaching, something I haven’t been doing much of lately.I’ll most likely make another trip (or two) abroad. Where should I go?

Finally, it was another good year in reading, although I just barely made my goal of reading 60 books for the year. There are so many wonderful books, including dozens in piles on the floor of my office, so I need to do better!

Happy New Year!