2020 Recap

The day after Christmas is always a little bit of a letdown for me. Right now I’m sitting here staring at an empty tree, unwilling to brave the 35 degree weather outside, telling myself it’s a great time to write something. Something fictional. But the words don’t want to come for some reason—I’d love to blame to sheer amount of Christmas cookies I’ve eaten over the past few weeks, but for whatever reason, my characters are silent and my worlds are farther away than they’ve ever been. So, it’s a good time for a 2020 recap, right?

In 2020, I:

– published Faded Embers (Shadows of War, Book 4)

– drafted 40,000 words in an unfinished, unnamed Shadows of War book about a military reservist who crashes (literally) straight into political drama on an enemy planet

– wrote, revised, and published Treason’s Crown (Crownkeeper Novellas, Book 1), my first foray into straight fantasy

– published The Stars Wait Not (The Star Realm Saga, Book 1), a science-fantasy romance

 – published ‘Leaving Humanity’, my weird little space horror short

– published Last Mission, a military scifi novelette that wasn’t quite actiony enough for readers

– wrote, revised, and published War’s Crown (Crownkeeper Novellas, Book 2)

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Estimated words written: 100,000+

It’s a far cry from the 153,000+ words I wrote in 2019. And only Treason’s Crown and War’s Crown (60,000 words together) were completed—or even came close.

So what happened?

As much as I’d love to blame 2020, that’s not the whole truth. Maybe not any of it. The truth is, I’ve been struggling with writing since summer 2019, and things only got worse as the year progressed. Beta readers hated my work (so much that I didn’t use them for Treason’s Crown). Beyond the usual ghosts, one suggested I stop writing and take some classes before attempting another story. Two absolutely destroyed my work, rewrote my characters in comments, criticized my voice, incorrectly disparaged my grammar. And even more said my writing fine, good even, but the things I wrote . . . they were uninteresting, they didn’t make sense, they weren’t marketable, people didn’t get what I was trying to say. A few blamed my readers for not picking up on subtlety; even more blamed my writing for failing to get my point across.

So I began the unnamed Shadows of War book, hoping I could write something for me and find the joy once more. From the beginning, I intended to keep it private—as the advice goes, if you never share a story, you’re less inhibited, less affected by the criticism, less inclined to restrain your own words. But as I soon discovered, I’m not someone who can write just to write, just like I’m not able to hop in a plane and bore holes in the sky. I need a goal, and that goal has be something beyond typing the end.

Besides, the story shared the same problems as the other Shadows of Wars book—the main character was a woman (boo, hiss), who made decisions readers couldn’t understand and disapproved of. I ran her by a few other writers, trying to find ways to make her sympathetic, but in the end, it was too discouraging. Readers, once more, wanted something I didn’t want to write. Ultimately, I shelved the book, along with The Brightest Void, A House of Nebulas (the sequel to The Stars Wait Not), and three more Shadows of War stories I’d begun in 2018-2019. All had the same issues. I could find solutions for none.

And hence passed 2020—with quite of bit of publishing activity, yes, but not much else to show for it.

So what’s new for 2021?

Honestly, I have no idea.

I’m 2̶0̶0̶0̶ 18,000 words into the final Crownkeeper novella, Queen’s Crown, and plan to release the completed series as a standalone novel entitled Crownkeeper. If you see me putzing around on social media, tell me to get lost and get writing more Riette.

Rebranding work for the original four Shadows of War books (Asrian Skies, Unbroken Fire, Shattered Honor, and Faded Embers) continues. The amazing Stefanie Saw at Seventhstar has already redesigned the cover for the series, and I’m in love (you can see them covers in my Facebook group, Science Fiction with Soul).

And that . . . is sadly it, I believe. I don’t anticipate any 2021 releases beyond Queen’s Crown and Crownkeeper. At this point, I don’t anticipate finishing any new books. Don’t get me wrong—I wish I could! But I need to find my audience, and I need to convince myself that my voice matters. Maybe it doesn’t. 2020 has suggested as much. But somehow, I need to convince myself otherwise.

So as always, stay tuned . . .