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Fantasy Short Stories Volume IV has been released. This one contains my story “A Man of his Word”, a story that I really like… a story with dragons in it. Link here.

I have my own unboxing video (well, sort of…)! Tule Fog Press shows the unboxing of proof copies of Pale Reflection. Link here.

My story “Virtuoso” has been podcast by Centropic oracle.  You can listen to it for free, right here.

Future Syndicate II has been released. This one includes my story “Burning Down the Puta Mierda”.  Link is here… and I love the cover, reminiscent of crime books from France in the seventies (at least to me).

My forthcoming collection – Pale Reflection – has cover art.  And it’s beautiful and evocative.  Look!

The fantastic year 2020 continues apace. This wonderful book will mark my first appearance in Italian (cool, as it’s the language of most of my ancestors), and the first appearance in any language of my story “Drawing the Line”. And look at that cover.

My story “Changing Times” has been purchased by Every Day Fiction–I’ll let everyone know when it goes up.  I love selling to Every Day Fiction for several reasons, but mainly because the readers leave plenty of comments, so you know who loved the tale and who hated it (they aren’t shy about it either!).

In my final year of eligibility (it’s for amateur writers), I finished second in this years N3F short story competition with my tale “The Safety of Thick Walls”. I’ll miss competing in this one, as it’s been a staple on my calendar (and a contest I’ve done very well in over the years), but at least I’m out for a good reason. Link to the File 770 announcement here (it’s item 13).

Write Ahead / The Future Looms, Volume 7 has been published. This one contains my story “Inner Peace”. Link to the purchase page here.

I’m doing my year-in-review piece in January so it doesn’t get lost amid all the others.  Why?  Because 2019 was a special year for me, and I want everyone to take notice.

The numbers were wonderful, with about 40 short stories published and a similar amount of sales, as was the income, my best year yet.

But even more than that was the experience of being a writer this year.

I got to do three things I never thought I’d get to do.

Chronologically, the first was to attend the prize ceremony for the Jim Baen Memorial Award thanks to my runner-up finish in the contest.  This contest is a big deal put together by a major publisher, so it was an honor to be among the winners.

After that, I got to launch a book at WorldCon in Dublin.  That is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done as a writer.  To be able to stand up in front of a group of fans and talk about my book and my writing process was a true honor.  My publisher, Guardbridge Books was super-supportive, and are absolutely wonderful.

The book in question?  Off the Beaten Path, which you can purchase here (or kindle here).

While still in the UK, I got confirmation that I am now an active member of SFWA.  This has been a long time coming, and was one of those career goals that looked incredibly far away when I was starting out.  It’s the one thing that, in my mind, always separated professional authors from the ones still working to get there.  Getting that approval was huge.

In addition to science fiction and fantasy, I also published a literary book entitled Love and Death, which I am inordinately proud of.  It’s the one book I can recommend to any of my readers regardless of what genre they read in.  It talks to everyone’s experience, and sometimes, leafing through it, I can’t believe I wrote it.

You can buy it here.

Finally, my bestselling book of 2019, launched before the other two, in March, was a creature feature which surprised most reviewers by actually being well-written.  A mad adventure in Antarctica, it found a welcoming audience and sold a bunch of copies which makes me both happy and able to purchase beer with the proceeds (someday I hope to say “able to purchase yachts with the proceeds” but that day is not today).

You can buy that one here.

Anyway, a great year, and one that I will remember for a long time.