So, I’ve already posted about 2015, a year some suckage leavened by some nice things. So, what’s on board for 2016?

First of all, I won’t have a new novel out. That’s mostly because I didn’t complete one in time to have a novel out in 2016. From the time a novel is sold, a publisher usually needs at least nine months and often more than a year to get it ready for release. And by “ready” I mean not just editing and printing, but also positioning it with a marketing campaign and finding an advantageous slot for it in the release schedule. So, for me to have a book out in 2016, I would have had to finish writing it sometime in late 2014 or early 2015, so an editor could edit it, so I could revise it, so an art director and book designer and cover artist could make it pretty, and so on. Unfortunately, taking care of two elderly parents was more than a full-time job that didn’t leave much physical or emotional energy for new writing.

And I did actually write a new book in the last months of 2015, but it won’t be ready to go out on submission until early 2016. And then I’ll start another book, as one does if one is the sort of person who does that.

Am I bummed not to have a new book in 2016? Not really. I released three new books in 2014 and 2015, and three books in two years isn’t half bad. And I do have a few things slated to come out in 2016, such as a paperback release, a short story in April, and possibly a comic book project or two. (The comics stuff is in very, very early stages of development, but I’m hopeful.) And I’m thinking of a direct-to-reader project or two to fulfill the requests of folks who have been asking me for sequels to Norse Code and The Boy at the End of the World. We’ll see if that’s something I want to do and if it makes sense to do it.

Other than career stuff, we’re planning another trip to the UK in summer. And possibly another in winter. There will also be hundreds of beach walks, dozens of sunsets, and probably no sunrises because holy crap who wants to get up early enough to see a sunrise? If the sun’s there when I wake up, then I’m happy to leave the sun to its morning business without my supervision.

Mostly, 2016 will contain a lot of who-knows-what, because that’s the truth about every life and every year. We don’t know what’s coming down the road. But we drive forward anyway, because we hope a good portion of the unknown things are good things. So, sunglasses on, windows down, tunes blasting, slightly exceeding posted speed limits, and let’s have fun and hope we don’t get a ticket.