Stories of my year (7 published, 1 abandoned...and why)
Since it's mid-November, now, writers all around the internet are putting together lists of their award-eligible stories published in 2014. In a similar vein, I thought it would be nice to do a sum-up here of all the stories of mine that were published this year, for my own sake (because it's a lovely reminder to me that yes, I really did get stuff done this year, no matter how it sometimes felt) and also in case anyone had wanted to read them and missed them the first time 'round.
I'll also talk a little at the end about the bigger story that I gave up on this year, and why I really needed to see this list.
First, here are all the stories I published this year, some of them original (and therefore award-eligible) and some of them reprints (so, not award-eligible). They're all free to read or listen to online (except for Courting Magic and "Red Ribbons"), and I really hope you enjoy any of them that you do try.
Original stories published in 2014
(Both of these were published in online magazines aimed at adults)
"Lighting Candles" - for anyone who ever felt a moment of sneaking sympathy for the older sisters in fairytales...
"Clasp Hands" - mothers and magic and powerful aunts, oh my!
My one original novella, which, er, you probably HAVE seen me talk about here before... ;)
Courting Magic: A Kat, Incorrigible Novella - Magical mysteries and star-crossed romance - Kat's all grown-up and making her social début!
Reprint stories
"The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain" - a YA story of forbidden magic and romance in Victorian England.
"Foxwoman" - a flash fiction for adults about magic, marriage and unexpected discoveries, republished as an audio podcast.
"The Wrong Foot" - a frothy, romantic YA comedy of manners based on a skewed version of Cinderella and republished as an audio podcast.
"Red Ribbons" - wildly romantic, tragic, feminist historical fantasy for adults, republished in the anthology Wicked Women and available in ebook or paperback.
Aaaand...that's it! Whew. (I might be able to add one more story to that list if my story "Marking Time" gets published by Daily Science Fiction before the end of the year, but I'm guessing that won't happen until next year.)
Oh, but one more longer-form story did get republished - the Kat books came out as a boxed set! So that was pretty amazing.
And now, for the less fun but equally true and important part...
This was also a year when I had to give up on a book I'd been struggling to write for a year and a half, which was a hard and frustrating epiphany to have - I realized that I'd gotten so twisted up worrying about what other people would like, I had completely lost touch with the stories that I really wanted to write. (This is why I stopped talking here about Family Magic, alas. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to make it my book, but I can't even let myself look at it again right now.)
It was incredibly painful to make that decision - to decide that a year and a half's worth of writing was not, after all, going to lead to anything I would submit for publication - especially since I've had such limited writing time and energy ever since Baby X was born.
But.
Writing Courting Magic this year - letting myself write Courting Magic, which was a story I'd wanted to tell for years, but which (because it was linked to my Kat trilogy, and because it was a novella) I couldn't possibly try to sell to a publisher - was the best thing I've done for myself as a writer in a long, long time. It forced me to let go of that desperate, overriding question "But will someone want to buy this???" and instead ask myself only, again and again: "How can I have the most possible fun with my work?"
It reminded me that writing is supposed to feel good. (Hard, sometimes, but good, at the core of it.) It reminded me that I do my very best writing when I'm writing the stories that I personally find enchanting, not when I'm trying to write to some nebulous commercial ideal in my head that doesn't really match my own personal tastes.
And I realized I couldn't keep doing that other kind of writing anymore. Because it doesn't work for anybody. That was when I finally gave up on Family Magic for good.
(I'd sat down to write it, a year and a half ago, with the idea in my head that this would be my "safe" book. The one that people would like, the one that would definitely sell, because it wasn't going to be the kind of quirky book that I wanted to read, it was going to be the kind of solid, commercial book that other people would want to read. Well...long story short: that's a really, really bad way to write a good novel.)
It took a while, but I feel like I'm finally back in the right place again, now, as a writer. I'm juggling two different novels (one MG high fantasy, one adult historical), and as different as they are from each other, they both feel like me. That's such a better place to be in my writing life! I feel like everything is right again inside me when I sit down to write, nowadays. But of course I still feel like I've been shoved back a notch in my publishing career by having to give up on that last book.
That's why this list feels so important to me. It's a reminder that no, this was not a wasted year for me as a writer in any way, shape or form. Things are moving forward, no matter how it sometimes feels inside.
Thanks so much, guys, for sharing this journey with me.
I'll also talk a little at the end about the bigger story that I gave up on this year, and why I really needed to see this list.
First, here are all the stories I published this year, some of them original (and therefore award-eligible) and some of them reprints (so, not award-eligible). They're all free to read or listen to online (except for Courting Magic and "Red Ribbons"), and I really hope you enjoy any of them that you do try.
Original stories published in 2014
(Both of these were published in online magazines aimed at adults)
"Lighting Candles" - for anyone who ever felt a moment of sneaking sympathy for the older sisters in fairytales...
"Clasp Hands" - mothers and magic and powerful aunts, oh my!
My one original novella, which, er, you probably HAVE seen me talk about here before... ;)
Courting Magic: A Kat, Incorrigible Novella - Magical mysteries and star-crossed romance - Kat's all grown-up and making her social début!
Reprint stories
"The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain" - a YA story of forbidden magic and romance in Victorian England.
"Foxwoman" - a flash fiction for adults about magic, marriage and unexpected discoveries, republished as an audio podcast.
"The Wrong Foot" - a frothy, romantic YA comedy of manners based on a skewed version of Cinderella and republished as an audio podcast.
"Red Ribbons" - wildly romantic, tragic, feminist historical fantasy for adults, republished in the anthology Wicked Women and available in ebook or paperback.
Aaaand...that's it! Whew. (I might be able to add one more story to that list if my story "Marking Time" gets published by Daily Science Fiction before the end of the year, but I'm guessing that won't happen until next year.)
Oh, but one more longer-form story did get republished - the Kat books came out as a boxed set! So that was pretty amazing.
And now, for the less fun but equally true and important part...
This was also a year when I had to give up on a book I'd been struggling to write for a year and a half, which was a hard and frustrating epiphany to have - I realized that I'd gotten so twisted up worrying about what other people would like, I had completely lost touch with the stories that I really wanted to write. (This is why I stopped talking here about Family Magic, alas. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to make it my book, but I can't even let myself look at it again right now.)
It was incredibly painful to make that decision - to decide that a year and a half's worth of writing was not, after all, going to lead to anything I would submit for publication - especially since I've had such limited writing time and energy ever since Baby X was born.
But.
Writing Courting Magic this year - letting myself write Courting Magic, which was a story I'd wanted to tell for years, but which (because it was linked to my Kat trilogy, and because it was a novella) I couldn't possibly try to sell to a publisher - was the best thing I've done for myself as a writer in a long, long time. It forced me to let go of that desperate, overriding question "But will someone want to buy this???" and instead ask myself only, again and again: "How can I have the most possible fun with my work?"
It reminded me that writing is supposed to feel good. (Hard, sometimes, but good, at the core of it.) It reminded me that I do my very best writing when I'm writing the stories that I personally find enchanting, not when I'm trying to write to some nebulous commercial ideal in my head that doesn't really match my own personal tastes.
And I realized I couldn't keep doing that other kind of writing anymore. Because it doesn't work for anybody. That was when I finally gave up on Family Magic for good.
(I'd sat down to write it, a year and a half ago, with the idea in my head that this would be my "safe" book. The one that people would like, the one that would definitely sell, because it wasn't going to be the kind of quirky book that I wanted to read, it was going to be the kind of solid, commercial book that other people would want to read. Well...long story short: that's a really, really bad way to write a good novel.)
It took a while, but I feel like I'm finally back in the right place again, now, as a writer. I'm juggling two different novels (one MG high fantasy, one adult historical), and as different as they are from each other, they both feel like me. That's such a better place to be in my writing life! I feel like everything is right again inside me when I sit down to write, nowadays. But of course I still feel like I've been shoved back a notch in my publishing career by having to give up on that last book.
That's why this list feels so important to me. It's a reminder that no, this was not a wasted year for me as a writer in any way, shape or form. Things are moving forward, no matter how it sometimes feels inside.
Thanks so much, guys, for sharing this journey with me.