A Brief Year in Review (about my writing)
Overall, it's been a good year. I sold 217 of my various books. I made $1000.00. I had three full-length short stories published, two flash fiction pieces, and two poems. Also, I can't forget that Bottom Dog Press accepted my novel, Landscape with Fragmented Figures (which will come out in early February of 2009).
I did quite a bit of new writing, too. I wrote four full-length short stories, four flash pieces, three poems, a childrens book manuscript, a full-length movie, and two short film screenplays. I was able to see one of the short screenplays, "Sleepwalker" turned into a film that showed at the Hell's Half Mile Film Festival in Bay City.
Most importantly, I did a lot of reading this year. Thirty books! That's quite a few for me. Among my favorites from dead writers were Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, B.F. Skinner's Walden Two, Stegner's The Women on the Wall, Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, and Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
Of course, I can't forget David Boyer's Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (which I read twice in a row). I don't know if Boyer is dead or alive.
Among living writers, I enjoyed Paul Elwork's The Tea House (originally by Casperian Books, but being picked up by a bigger house), Jarda Cervenka's Fausto's Afternoon (Whistling Shade Press), William Walsh's Without Wax (Casperian Books), John Guzlowski's poetry collection Lightning and Ashes (Steel Toe Books), Dan Gabriel's Tales from the Tinker's Dam (Whistling Shade Press), and the anthology Bar Stories (Bottom Dog Press).
Overall, despite the economy, a very good year. I enjoyed all of that reading. I hope 2009 will be as good. After all of this novel editing and proofreading, I'm looking forward to doing some new writing.
I hope your own writing and reading is good in 2009.
I did quite a bit of new writing, too. I wrote four full-length short stories, four flash pieces, three poems, a childrens book manuscript, a full-length movie, and two short film screenplays. I was able to see one of the short screenplays, "Sleepwalker" turned into a film that showed at the Hell's Half Mile Film Festival in Bay City.
Most importantly, I did a lot of reading this year. Thirty books! That's quite a few for me. Among my favorites from dead writers were Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, B.F. Skinner's Walden Two, Stegner's The Women on the Wall, Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, and Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
Of course, I can't forget David Boyer's Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (which I read twice in a row). I don't know if Boyer is dead or alive.
Among living writers, I enjoyed Paul Elwork's The Tea House (originally by Casperian Books, but being picked up by a bigger house), Jarda Cervenka's Fausto's Afternoon (Whistling Shade Press), William Walsh's Without Wax (Casperian Books), John Guzlowski's poetry collection Lightning and Ashes (Steel Toe Books), Dan Gabriel's Tales from the Tinker's Dam (Whistling Shade Press), and the anthology Bar Stories (Bottom Dog Press).
Overall, despite the economy, a very good year. I enjoyed all of that reading. I hope 2009 will be as good. After all of this novel editing and proofreading, I'm looking forward to doing some new writing.
I hope your own writing and reading is good in 2009.
posted by Jeff Vande Zande at 8:19 PM
7 Comments:
I've enjoyed following your blog and your progress reports this year, and was well pleased that you hit your goal. Congratulations on all the writing throughout the year, and on the forthcoming novel.
The librarian in me can't resist a reference question, so I nosed around just a little bit about whether David Boyer is still alive. Though I can't say definitively based on what I found, I think he may have passed away about a decade ago. With a Google Books search, I found a section of a biography of John Cheever which discussed his friendship with Phil and Mimi Boyer, and how he encouraged their son David to go to Cheever's agent with what became Pigeon Kicker. The text also mentioned that the Boyers had an island retreat on the St. Lawrence. Then I googled the name David Boyer along with Mimi and/or Phil, and found something called The Grindstone Island News, dated July 18, 1999, that mentioned the passing during the year prior of several folks, including David Boyer, who had originally come to the island with his mother Mimi. So that sounds like it might be the same David Boyer as penned Sidelong Glances.
(This is probably more than you wanted to know, but my curiosity got the better of me.)
Sounds like an interesting book.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for the congrats and the info! Both are much appreciated.
Jeff
I read quite a bit this year. So much, in fact, I wouldn't even hazard a guess to how many. I generally read 2 books a week, including books of poetry. Of that genre I read this year, my favorite were Among Women by Jason Shinder and Poems: New, Used, and Rebuilds by you. And I'm not blowing smoke, I really enjoyed that book.
As for fiction, I suppose my favorite of the year was To Kill A Mocking Bird. I read that book at least once a year, and it's always my favorite. I also enjoyed The Chandler Heritage by Ben Haas. But, seriously, of all the books I read this year, those I liked quite a bit are too numerous to name.
My favorite book that fits neither in the fiction nor nonfiction category, because it's a little of both, is Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote.
I'm looking forward to your new book[s].
Hi there T,
Sounds like you do a good deal of reading!
Funny you should bring up To Kill a Mocking Bird. I'm reading it to my son. It's a longer book than I would have guessed, but he's enjoying it. Then, we'll rent the movie.
I'll keep you posted on my novel. It takes place in Bay City, which you might find interesting.
Jeff
I wish I could keep track of books I read and poems I write and films I see. Once in my life I did--for a year. At the end of that year, I amazed myself--I couldn't believe all of the stuff that passed into me and passed out of me.
I wish I could do it again. Congrats on keeping track, Jeff.
Yes, John, it is fun to keep track, but I also remembering reading somewhere that we can also get too-number oriented, which sucks the life out of things. Do I want to know (or does anyone want to know) if I wrote 214 words that morning. It seems anti-zen to count everything.
However, it can surprise you when you keep track of what you do in a year. I do it every year, but mainly it's writing accomplishments that I keep track of.
Hmm. . .you would think I would write down every time I hug my kids.
I read a blog this morning by a woman (a divorced writer) who gave so much of herself to her kids and taking care of them that she couldn't write a word. Months would go by, and she'd be hugging the kids and cleaning up after them and not writing word one.
It got me to thinking. A lot of the writers I've known have been obsessively private, detached from their lives and children. They probably don't even feel guilty about not keeping track of the hugs they don't give their kids.
Maybe we'll never break 10 grand in book sales but at least we hug our kids. Talk to our wives. Take out the dogs and feed the cats.
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