2023: A Short Long Reflection
End of year reflections feel bittersweet to me. I say that because I almost never feel I “accomplished enough.” What does “accomplish” even mean? I suspect it means some of us (me, anyway) aim for perfection, or the impossible, or the gold star, and don’t take into consideration the every day triumph of just getting along from year to year as well as we can. That might be the greatest accomplishment of all.
Before I go on, a quick housekeeping note:
In early 2024, this newsletter will be moving from Substack to Buttondown. It will remain a free-only newsletter. I produce a newsletter to keep people apprised of what I’m doing, what is available, and what is forthcoming. Thank you for reading. I mean that in the most sincere way.
Please be patient with the molasses slow speed of the newsletter transfer while Buttondown’s support team walks me through the transfer. While I am basically conversant with online, I find this kind of thing counter intuitive to the way my brain works, so there will be much gnashing of teeth.
My goal is to make the transfer seamless on YOUR end. Hopefully by mid to late January it shall all be done, but who knows? We shall see.
So, what did I accomplish in 2023?
Not enough! Never enough!
First off: I had two books published in 2023!
It seems so weirdly long ago that I had two actual books published, and yet it was in fact this year that it happened.
THE KEEPER’S SIX (a fantasy novella) and FURIOUS HEAVEN (Sun Chronicles 2) were both published in 2023. Both should be available most everywhere worldwide (English editions, no translations) in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. In the UK (Head of Zeus), FURIOUS HEAVEN is out in paperback as well, with a paperback edition coming from Tor Books USA in Spring 2024.
I’m hopelessly behind deadline on LADY CHAOS, Sun 3, for which I will be forever apologizing. I do have 50,000 words written, but it’s been a struggle. In November/December, I used Aeon Timeline to create an extensive and multilayered outline that allows me to see clearly how each event in the massive narrative interacts with theme, plot motion, location, and characters. Completing Sun 3 will be my major focus for 2024.
As I’ve mentioned before, from May - October 2022, in a much needed creativity re-set, I wrote a “grand piano drops into my head out of nowhere” standalone and quite long fantasy novel that takes place in a completely new Kate Elliott universe.
In spring/summer 2023 I spent three months revising this novel into a duology, a task which included adding about 50,000 words of new material—which I hasten to add wasn’t precisely “new,” as it all involved scenes and chapters I had intended to write, and had outlined, but which I cut for length reasons during the initial drafting because I was trying to force the story to remain a single volume. I consider the story far the richer for it now containing what I felt obliged to cut but had wanted to include all along.
The duology has not yet been announced officially, but I hope it will be announced in 2024, for an expected (I hope) 2025 publication date (with the second volume to be published within six months of the first). I can’t say more than that as I don’t know more about any announcement schedule. Anyway, you heard it here first (actually, my patrons on Patreon heard it there first, and have seen some of the story, but this newsletter second!).
As well, in 2023, I wrote two short stories for anthologies, one not yet announced and, as for the other, I haven’t heard if the story has been accepted. Short stories are incredibly difficult for me to write. In the case of the second story I was about to withdraw from the anthology because, as I told the editors, “I only have vibe, not plot,” and the editors wrote back that “more vibe than plot” was fine with them, so that’s what I went with. We shall see.
This past July I announced that Fairwood Press will be publishing THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BEGINS IN ICE: Stories and Essays From the World of Cold Magic in August 2024.
In the fall I completed the final two stories for the collection. One is a novelette at the high end of novelette word count and the other just barely edges into novella territory, at the low end of novella word count. These two stories, original to the collection, will join nine previously written stories and eleven previously written essays. The collection will feature a pen & ink style illustration for each story, with some fantastic illustrators on board (more on that later). It will be published in ebook and trade paperback, and there are tentative plans for a deluxe hardcover limited edition. Be assured you will all be hearing a lot more when pre-orders are available.
At the request of Tor.com I wrote a long essay on Five Lessons Outrigger Canoe Paddling Has Taught Me About Writing.
As well, I continue writing regularly for my Patreon.
The Dead Empire partial is now completely up, and readable, for patrons, although alas the novel (Black Wolves 2) remains unfinished since I do not have the rights to any of the three books of the trilogy.
I also continued to write Patreon posts about writing craft and the business of publishing, with a focus this year on characterization as well as answering some quite interesting questions that were put to me. I also included several photo-laden posts about a truly fascinating trip to Central Asia that I took in September.
I’m not going to add up word count for all these Patreon posts, but it’s a fair amount. Honestly, besides being so incredibly appreciative and grateful to the people supporting me on Patreon, I also want to say that without that goad, I wouldn’t have written all these posts on writing craft. In the past, I’d have said: next week, next month, I’m tired. As it is, I say: No, I’ve got to post something this week for my patrons.
I was a guest on a number of fun and informative podcasts, and completed Season 3 of my Narrative Worlds writing vidcast as well as started Season 4.
So perhaps my year doesn’t look quite so terrible in terms of raw “accomplishment” (if by that I mean how much I wrote in cold, hard words, which I estimate to be upwards of 160,000). To be honest, I will feel uneasy and unsettled until I have a complete first draft of Sun 3.
In addition to the above, I am always poking at back burner projects.
In 2023, I wrote openings to two new projects, one in the same universe as the not-yet-announced duology and the other in a potential brand new universe. What will come of these projects I do not know; oftentimes nothing comes of them, yellowing paper in a file folder, but I always like to have something simmering in the shadows just in case it turns out to be edible.
Maybe, to follow the cooking metaphor, the texture and fragrance of back burner projects helps keep my creative brain working, as it needs to do to write both the work that is on the plate in front of me and to slowly stir up new stories and new worlds. Most of my novels result from a process of years of simmering, of playing around, of false starts and fragments set aside only to be picked up later. My worlds need time to grow in ways I can’t truly explain. It happens deep within that strange and mysteriously powerful organ we call the brain, where networks pulse and fade, where connections tangle and tunnel into visions and into the desire to transfer impulses into words.
Finn wonders what’s in store for 2024.
As always, thank you. I could not do this without you.
With all best wishes for a Happy New Year to you all, and may you find what you need.
Kate Elliott