What to even say about 2020

A round-up post, huh.

Gods. What to even say about 2020. I have heart issues. My partner has asthma. So along comes a pandemic that we are both specifically vulnerable to.

I jokingly say a lot that we haven’t left our house since February. It’s an exaggeration, but not much of one.  Thankfully, with the way we’ve structured Faolan’s Pen and what we do, that’s entirely doable for us – entirely thanks to the readers who keep buying my books.

Despite all of 2020, we were lucky enough to escape most of it unscathed. We all remote-work from home normally, so we were spared the worst of the adjustments that hit people who hadn’t done it before. A number of projects were suspended or cancelled until things calm down – and it looks like we might be able to get some of those going again this coming year! More news on that as it becomes available.

For obvious reasons, we didn’t manage to attend many conventions this year. We did make it out to ConFusion in Detroit in January, which I really enjoyed.

2020 was a “stay alive” year, but apparently my response to stress is to write more. That meant we actually had twelve releases in 2020 – ten novels and two novellas:

• Conviction (January 2020) – book 1 of the Scattered Stars: Conviction series (also the first book in the Scattered Stars Universe, where I plan to write at least one more series and a few stand-alones)
• A Question of Faith (February 2020) – a Castle Federation prequel novella that had been rattling around my head for a while about the start of the first war
• Mountain of Mars (March 2020) – Starship’s Mage Book 8 and the last Damien Montgomery-focused mainline SM novel.
• Relics of Eternity (April 2020) – Duchy of Terra Book 7
• Wardtown (May 2020) – The first of a series of Fantasy Westerns I’m writing as I have time because I really enjoy both the concept and the shorter length (Western novels traditionally run 40-50K, and tying a story up in that length is an interesting challenge)
• The Peacekeeper Initiative (June 2020) – Peacekeepers of Sol Book 2
• Deception (July 2020) – Scattered Stars: Conviction Book 2
• The Service of Mars (August 2020) – Starship’s Mage Book 9 and the first Roslyn Chambers-focused mainline SM novel
• Pulsar Race (September 2020) – the first stand-alone Starship’s Mage novella
• Shadows of the Fall (October 2020) – Duchy of Terra Book 8
• Raven’s Course (November 2020) – Peacekeepers of Sol Book 3
• Blood Ward (December 2020) – Teer and Kard book 2

 

Damn, just writing all of that out and linking it does help drive home how busy a year I’ve had!  No travel, no cons. I can’t say no distractions because, well, 2020, but it was a good year.

880,000 words, give or take.

Looking forward, I just finished my March release (A Darker Magic, the tenth mainline Starship’s Mage novel, which is a weird thought to me) and I’m taking a bit of time off from writing. Not quite a vacation, I have a few other things to handle (like this blog post), but it’ll be a quieter week to end the year.

I hope everyone is staying safe and having a wonderful set of holidays, whatever you celebrate.

Happy reading!

Glynn Stewart