2009: The Year in Writing

So, now that I've closed out my first calendar year of professional writing (and I don't have to put that in quotations anymore, woohoo!), here's what I accomplished in 2009:

(This doesn't count "A Wild Hunt" (approx 10k words) or the free microfiction pieces. Also does not include stories I started but haven't finished yet.)

Short stories written: 14
Short stories sold: 11 (two contracts are still pending)
Short story submissions: 29 (two pending. Four are from a non-erotic horror piece I've since stopped submitting for now)
Short story rejections (including revoked submissions): 16
Short stories published: 8
Total short story word count (final drafts): approximately 54,800

Times I thought I was done revising my novel: two and a half. I'm almost done with the latest one.

Number of agents I submitted my novel to: 18

Number of actual agent rejection letters: 10
Number of no-responses: 7 (and one who keeps telling me "give me another month or two.")

All in all I'm incredibly pleased. I've gone from "I can count the number of short stories I've finished ever on one hand" to "I have to start using my toes to count all the ones I've written just in 2009." And best of all, I've been working on something other than the novel! It's been so liberating!!!

I have a good start toward my goal for 2010: at least one story published per month. I'd like for at least six of those stories to be in anthologies. So far Mainstream Erotica is supposed to be publishing one of my stories in the January issue, and I have stories scheduled to be published in anthologies coming in February and May. The print version of Hungry For Your Love is supposed to come out in October, but I'm hoping not to have to count that one. ;) And one of the two submissions currently out is for an anthology scheduled for March (fingers crossed). On to April!