Chapter 2023 closed with a total of one interview, one chapbook, two articles in as many places, seven micro-chapbooks, eight stories in six places, sixty responses to prompts, and one hundred nine poems in many places. Such a year had never been noted before. Actually, no previous year had even been totaled before. A quick count of 2022 found only eighty-three poems, with ninety the year before, but these were exceptional years, so it is unlikely that any previous chapter yielded more. So, what may be ahead for chapter 2024?
With so many poems out and about, it seems that a new book-length collection (or possibly two) will be in order. Already, by the end of 2023, nearly twenty poems had been set for forthcoming release, and three stories set for inclusion in an anthology for children, with two more of a more general nature scheduled for early 2024. So, this new chapter is starting well.
Substantial progress was made in 2023 on another project, one that could reach a milestone of progress in 2024. That project is a 90,000 word memoir of childhood; a childhood of survival when suicide was longed for but never realized. Getting it to a waiting editor is the goal. Similar goals exist for two other manuscripts: find a publisher for a science fiction novel of similar length, and a publisher for an anthology of personal experiences with disabilities of various, but invisible, kinds. These projects deserve more attention than smaller pieces, so a shift of time resources will be required.
Might I be able to publish the collection of short stories I’d begun several years before, and need someone to make a better cover for? And, maybe even a second collection of short stories? I might have enough for a second one now. Or, would these be detours away from finishing the memoir?
And, what emotional wreckage lies in wait? Each of the past two years have contained emotional deaths that weren’t expected, that of my grandson being the worst. Then, I couldn’t function for months.
Or, might something unbelievable happen, such as the memoir being picked up by a major, “big boy,” publisher. It has happened to others, why not myself?
In each of the previous two years, books of my poetry have been favorably reviewed. Might that happen again? And, a publisher, to my amazement, came looking for me – requesting to publish a collection of mine! I can’t forget than amazingness!! WOW!!!
What does lie around the corner into 2024?
Okay, now I really am depressed. But, on an upbeat note, congratulations.