2012

At the beginning of 2012 I made a promise to myself: To try harder. Well, I think I accomplished that…with some minor set backs.

In January, I got my black belt in kung-fu. I also found out that my story with Scott White, “Pinocchio, or The Stars Are Not Wanted Now,” would be published in Dark Horse Comics’ Once Upon a Time Machine anthology. I also submitted the final script for my story with Charles Fetherolf, “The National Pastime ” for inclusion in Fulcrum Publishing’s District Comics: An Unconventional History of Washington DC.

Good. Start. 

In February, I tore my ACL in kung-fu. I didn’t know that was what happened, however, as my doctor told me it was no big deal and I should just lay-off kung-fu for awhile. So I took up running. In March, I ran my first 5k. By the time May came around, I was doing ten-mile runs. However, I noticed my lateral motion was not improving and got a second opinion, which is when I discovered I tore my ACL.

Meanwhile, I decided to commit to a series of sci-fi shorts for kids to be released for the Kindle every month. I managed to release one every month, starting in July. Those shorts are…

The Girl Who Could Live In Yesterday
The Little Particle That Could (with Noel Tuazon)
The Monster Hunter (since declared PD)
The End of Stars
The Boy Who Could See Through Mountains (which also contained “Detective Know-It-All and the Glittered-Up Glue Stick” and “Rocket Ruiz Builds a Warp Drive”)
Pinocchio, or The Stars Are Not Wanted Now (with Scott White, which also contained “Anita’s Dreams”)

I got surgery in August following a trip to Disney World with the niece and nephew. Rehab was terrible. However, under the haze of Percoset, I somehow managed to land a three-book deal with Fulcrum Publishing for a series of graphic novel anthologies about the colonial New England and Mid-Atlantic regions.

District Comics and Once Upon a Time Machine were both released to rave reviews. District Comics was even named one of the top-20 books of 2012 by the Washington Post. 

In December, I started going back to kung-fu.

So, with a little knee surgery messing it up a little bit, I can say I definitely tried harder this year. 

2013? Try even harder. I need to deliver the first Colonial Comics book by September. I have six more children’s shorts to launch. By the end of next year, I will have those collected into a single edition, hopefully with a publisher putting it out. And I think I’ll finally submit a comic to the Magic Bullet. 

Never stop moving forward, right?