This year has been a new experience for me. After nearly a decade of staring at the screen filled with angst, sending out work, getting some pieces taken and more than most rejected dozens of time before finding a home, I have books coming out. Everything in my life seems to come in waves, and instead of having one book coming out  after all that time I’m lucky enough to have three out this year. Now all its all first-day-of-school jitters, that familiar “Will they like me?” pang, and driving forward.

The chapbook is finished, copy-edited, and in the process of being formatted as I write this. While it’s probably best to refer to it as a chapbook, I called it a ‘micro-novel in stories’ since that term feels more appropriate for what the work is. I’ll write more about the whole process of writing it later, but one week from today Bad Kids from Good Schools will be out in the word in both ebook and print format.

Last night I had an hour long conference call will my editor from Foxhead Books about the short story collection. I always thought of the collection as one composed of love stories, but after reading it my editor felt that the theme of work was maybe stronger in the collection and served as the context for all the love stories I wrote. With that in mind we’re tearing the walls out a little, removing the structure, and spending a week considering the order in which the stories should appear in the book. Once we know what order the stories should appear in the collection we will move on to the hard work of cutting them down to bare bones and building them back up. The title might change, but in the end I’m sure the book will be stronger for all our efforts. The publication date for the collection will be set soon, and once it is we will have a better idea as to what time frame we’ll be working under.

Edits for my novel begin in March and April, and I’m eager to get into that project when the time comes.

With all this going on I’m going to spend most of the year working on edits and focusing on smaller projects like short stories and brief essays. I have the start of my next novel underway, and an idea for a YA book, but those will have to wait until I have longer stretches of time to dedicate to them.

I’ll keep you posted.