2018 Year-End Wrap Up

2018 was certainly A Year for me. There were a lot of major changes life changes, and I didn't have a book come out this year. Let us not even touch on the Political Situation (TM). But I did have some celebrations and publications in 2018, so let's take a looksee, shall we?

Award Wins

In July of this year I learned that my poem "For Preserves" placed 2nd in the Rhysling Awards Long Poem Category! While I've been nominated for awards before, this was the first time I'd ever won anything (and coming in second place to Neil Gaiman definitely counts as winning in my book.) 

Short Story Publications

This year also saw my first publication in one of the Big Three SFF magazines. My story "The Adjunct" came out in the July/August edition of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which makes it eligible, for those of you who partake in such things, for the Hugo and Nebula Award in the short story category. You could also nominated for the Stoker Award, I suppose.

​In "The Adjunct" I combined Lovecraftian fiction with my experience teaching freshman composition as a college adjunct. Citation systems play a significant role. 

Poetry Publications

I had EIGHT poetry publications in 2018, which is, frankly, amazing! I hadn't realized how many I had until I started writing up this post. Here are the poems and where you can find them:

Summer Rain in Mythic Delirium (January)
Swarmers in Inwood Indiana (February)
Porphyria's Other Lover in Mythic Delirium (March)
Chthonia in Illumen (April)
Chronology of the Devouring Queen in Illumen (April)
The Collaborator in Illumen (April)
Wildfire in Liminality (December)

Looking into 2019

I'll be kicking off 2019 with a book release! My first-ever tie in novel, Halo: Battle Born will be released on January 1st. It's the first YA Halo novel, and it's written in such a way that it introduces the reader to the Halo universe--so if you've never shot a Grunt in your life, you can still enjoy the book! Here's the summary:

Saskia, Dorian, Evie, and Victor aren't exactly friends at their small high school on the middle-of-nowhere colony world of Meridian. Each has their own problems, from absent parents to supporting their family, getting into a good college to making the next hit holo-film. But those problems were nothing next to the threat now facing their world: The alien alliance known as the Covenant is laying siege to Meridian, for reasons that aren't so easily explained. 

With their village in flames, the four teens find themselves stuck above ground, locked out of the town shelter where the rest of the survivors are gathered. Together, Saskia, Dorian, Evie, and Victor are thrust into battle with nothing but a few scavenged weapons and an injured Spartan, one of the UNSC's super-soldiers. What's forged from the destruction will determine the fate of Meridian and tilt the battle for humanity's survival.

You can preorder it now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite indie bookstore!

---

My other big 2019 news is that I plan on launching a Patreon sometime in January. Every month, I'll be sharing one short story and one poem, both of which have never been published before. If you've ever downloaded my books illegally (no judgement!) you can now easily undo your bad karma for a dollar a month. I'll be sharing more information about this soon!