I’m looking over my shoulder at 2015 and I’m shaking my head in bemusement. Damn, it was a difficult year. It promised a lot of things but either failed to deliver or under delivered. But there were surprises too. And new promises. Lots of new promises.

Kōsa Press brought out its first anthology These Broken Worlds and readers are loving it so far. The collection even received a mention on Tor.com’s Aurora Australis.

Also, Amazing Stories Magazine gave a fawning review of The Seals of Abgal that left me with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon and continues to make me smile to this day. Sadly, I’m yet to see any significant sales, but I’ll continue writing and one day I’ll reach my dream of having people clamor for my words.

*Sigh*

“Interspecies,” Kōsa Press’ flagship anthology had to be pushed back to February 2016 and my story “The Last Devil” did not make the cut. It was too long and required too much work to fit properly with the rest of the stories. If we had more time I could have cut some words, but the story would suffer.

Don’t despair though because I wrote a new–shorter–story and both beta readers and our editor have been generous in their praise. The story is called, “Babylon’s Song,” and deals with the origin of one of the characters from “The Last Devil”. Funny enough an outline did not precede its writing. Not sure what that says, but apparently I do better when I just write and don’t plan too much.

As for “The Last Devil,” the story will  not disappear into obscurity. Instead, I’m turning it into a novel in 2016. I wrote the tale originally to showcase one adventure against the backdrop of a greater story arc and with over 25,000 words already written it means the book is just waiting for me to continue. Given that the story takes place in the Drilodyte universe, the book will release through Kōsa Press, but the details are still under discussion so more on this later in the year.

But first, there is my The Collective SF contribution, “Hameln–13” (scheduled for release at the end of January) and my personal fantasy project, “The Dead God,” also scheduled for later this year. So, as you can see, nothing is lost. Just suspended for a wee while.

Oh, and “The Mercy Giver” is still on Inkshares, but I’ve stopped writing and marketing the book. I’m contemplating doing the story as a serial, but I’m not yet persuaded. We’ll see what happens with this one. Maybe a free serial on my blog every Friday and then publish it when I finish the story? Let me know your thoughts.

You know, I love my blog. Hard to imagine but this little blog received over 95,000 visitors in 2015. That is a great jump from 4,100 in 2014. In fact, it’s a ginormous leap. So, yes 2015 was not all bad. I’m going to introduce more regular features in 2016 like interviews with writers and write more book reviews, and maybe something else, something more personal. I know I said I wouldn’t get too personal back in The Education of an Aimless Man, but maybe I should inject just a bit more of me. Then again, I kinda already did with The Silent Art of Journaling where I gave a deeply personal account of how my father’s death affected me and how writing helped me. I suppose 2016 will show me in due course. #Art of Fantasy will continue uninterrupted, of course.

In the meanwhile, thank you. From the bottom of my fibrous heart, thank you for visiting my blog. I don’t write in a vacuum. I write for you. May 2016 bless you in abundance and spoil you many times over. May it deliver on promises and surprise you with things wonderful and amazing. Because you deserve it!

Happy New Year!