2012 will always be the year I first started writing, but not my first full year of writing. I only started about half way through the year (I have one short story from before that. It was only late spring of 2012 that I started wondering if I could really make a go of it with writing) and barely wrote at all in the last two months of the year. Given that I have to say I’m really proud of what I accomplished in my first half-year of writing.

I wrote 5 short stories that I considered worthy of submitting to paying markets, and 2 more stories that are part of my ongoing fantasy serial. I have another story “finished” and awaiting it’s turn with the online critique group I joined. I have one more I’m half done the first draft of.

I also wrote about 30 pieces of flash fiction, 24 of which are available for reading on this website.

I submitted stories I wrote to magazines 24 times. The stories were rejected most of the time, but 3 submissions are currently waiting for a response.

One of the stories I submitted was accepted and so I made my first money as a writer in this first half-year of writing. The story was called “Salatis and The Dog” and it was accepted by JukePop Serials. That story became chapter 1 of an ongoing fantasy serial I’m writing called Empire and Animal.

One more bit of success is more recent and you’d only know about it if you follow me on Twitter. Last fall Inkle Studios held their “Future Voices” contest that challenged writers to use their online interactive fiction writing program. I found out about the contest late and only had a few days to put together a piece of IF, but I did and it ended up placing fourth in the contest! Of course fourth is just out of the money (literally), but it does mean my story will be part of the Future Voices App being put out soon by Inkle. This app will let people read the top eleven stories from the contest on their smartphones and tablets. I don’t know how many stories were entered in the contest, but I do know the first round of cuts brought the field down to 50! So yeah, I’m very proud that my first ever attempt to write a piece of interactive fiction came fourth of more than fifty.

For anyone keeping score this means that when the Future Voices app is released there will be two free apps out there in the world that people can use to read my writing. JukePop has their own app that I highly recommend for anyone interested in reading serialized fiction. It’s free and gives you access to over 100 serials. It’s available in the iTunes store and on Google play.

So that was what I accomplished in my first half-year. All in all I think its a pretty good record and it leaves me with the feeling that if I apply myself consistently to writing that there is potential here for me. They might not come quickly, but they will come if I keep moving forward trying to learn and improve every step of the way.