The Spoons That Are My Ears!

It was an extremely good year for me in terms of books published. The Devil's Halo was published by Elsewhen Press, and frankly I think this is my best fantasy novel. The book features a Foreword by A.A. Attanasio. It is a philosophical adventure story set in the waiting room of Hell.

My collection of linked flash fictions, The Eleventh Commandment, was published by Recital Publishing, and it was also issued as an audio book, my first audio book in fact.

Eibonvale Press issued two of my books as hardbacks and paperbacks, firstly Robots in Love, a science fiction novella, an astro-pastoral romp, a futuristic retelling of the old story of Daphnis and Chloe, and secondly That Other Egypt, a collection of linked short stories themed around Egypt, real and imagined. Both books were many years in the making, so I was delighted when they finally appeared as real objects in the real world.

The thousandth story I ever wrote, the final piece of my massive 'Pandora's Bluff' story cycle, was issued by Raphus Press. Tangents is another set of linked flash fictions, exactly one hundred of them, and the final story in the set is a prequel to the very first story in the grand cycle ('Raindancing' written in 1989). So the loop is finally complete, exactly as I had hoped it would be.

And Trumpet Face, the first volume in the 'Knick Knack Trilogy', was published by Incunabula Press. I say more about this book in the 'Writing' section below.

Those are the books of mine that were 'trad published'. I also issued books under my own imprint but I am aware that self-publishing is quite a different beast from being published by others. Therefore I will only mention one of these books, namely my Dabbler in Drabbles Omnibus, which contains one thousand drabbles (stories exactly 100 words long).

At the beginning of the year I completed my City Life project, which will hopefully be published early next year by Raphus Press in Brazil. The book features sixty cities narrating their own tales and it's one of my most Calvinoesque works. I also wrote a fantasy novel set entirely in Wales called My Beastly Uncle. I am very pleased with this novel.

I also worked on my Green Flash High sequence of stories, writing four this year. There will be eight in total (six have already been written) and then the sequence will be released as a book.

In the summer I began writing a short novel called Trumpet Face. I started writing it without any planning, it was a spontaneous act, and the words just seemed to flow. I had a feeling that I had tapped into something genuinely peculiar: the book felt right. So great was the momentum I picked up from working on this book that almost immediately I began writing a companion novel, The Unfair Dinkum, and when that was finished I began another, Oddity O'Clock.

I realised that I had written a trilogy that can be read in any order. The three books together comprise the 'Knick Knack Trilogy'. All three were accepted for publication. Michael Moorcock wrote the Introduction for the first one, Brian Evenson for the second, and Paul Di Filippo for the third. I am indebted to all three authors.

As if that wasn't enough, I wrote a sequel to a novella I finished last year. 'The Garden Path' was one of my favourites among all my works, but when I submitted it last year some publishers suggested it was too short. Then I knew that it was actually only the first part of a novel. I wrote the second part in September, 'The Front Door'. Together they form a novel, The Inside Out Story. 

I also put together a short story collection that consisted of flash fictions grouped in sets, the individual pieces often linked by theme or mood, the sets similarly linked. Imaginary Hotheads is the best of my flash fiction collections, in my opinion.

I had planned to resume several partly completed projects next, but for some reason I began writing yet another novel, finishing it just a few days ago. The Biscuit Thief is a speculative farce and a multi-genre novel, beginning as an office comedy, then moving through the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, westerns, and crime fiction, with lots of injokes and popular culture allusions. I have already signed the contract for the publication of this book.

I wrote my first full-length play, 'The Oldest Profession', a caveman comedy.

I wrote poems but my output has dropped sharply. As for non-fiction, I didn't write any this year.

It wasn't such a great reading year for me, unfortunately. Certainly not a patch on the previous year. I read some good books, but only a few outstanding books. Good just isn't good enough, really. The two best books that came my way were both by Samuel Beckett, Molloy and Malone Dies, extraordinary works in every way, not exactly easy to read, not especially easy to understand, but compelling, bizarre, fascinating and full of some of the most authentically 'weird' situations and imagery I have encountered in fiction.

Despite all this, the highlight of my literary year was the production by Volcano Theatre, Swansea, of two of my plays, the first plays I have ever had performed. 'As a Man Grows Colder' and 'The Modesty Men' came alive on the stage. It was a revelation to me to see how my words were given life by the talented actors and how these absurdist comedies were turned into boldly physical entertainments. This was one of the summits of my writing life, a thrill comparable only to holding my first book in my hands (way back in 1995). I have written 35 plays, only two have been performed, but it's a start and I have hopes of seeing more of my work on the stage before too long.

That's it. Happy New Year to you!

Like many writers, I love writing but I don't much care for promoting my works once they have been published. For a start, I'm not very good at promotion. I have no marketing skills, no commercial urges, and it's not only a bothersome effort trying to be efficient in the act of advertising my books but it also seems to have a depressing effort on my mood. It feels cynical, almost undignified.

Be that as it may, I accept that promotion is necessary. But I have long wondered how well my books would do if I did no promotion for them at all. I mean, absolutely no promo. No mentions of them on my blog or on social media, no talking about them to anyone. Just publish and be damned.

To answer this question, which isn't much of a question, I arranged for some of my stories to be issued as chapbooks by Trojan Donkey Chapbooks.

Let's be clear: this is my own imprint, set up specifically for this experiment. I published 25 chapbooks in total and they are limited editions, by which I mean that the moment a title has sold 60 copies it will be removed from sale. I wanted to see if any of them would sell without promo, and if so, how many, and how quickly or slowly.

Most of the chapbooks contain stories that have already been published but are generally out of print. Some of the chapbooks contain work that has never been published before. To be more precise, five of them contain previously unpublished work.

The first chapbook was published last February, and then they were published periodically until June, when the final one was issued.

I was pleased when they began to sell, not rapidly, admittedly, not even steadily. I was intrigued to find that they sold very unevenly. None have yet reached the sixty copies limit but a few are close. Others are nowhere near that limit, and two of the chapbooks have yet to sell a single copy.

Have I learned anything from this so-called experiment? Not really. I have learned that promo is a good idea, but I knew that already. I have learned that chapbooks with fairly straightforward titles sell better than those with more elaborate titles, which I think is a shame.

The picture above shows a sample of eight of the chapbook covers. I chose them at random. A grid showing all 25 would be rather too unwieldy.

Nexy year, or the year after, I suspect I will create an omnibus of the best of the chapbooks and issue it not only as a paperback but also as an ebook. The chapbooks as they currently stand don't exist as ebooks. I guess my hope is that they will now become collectors' items. That can happen.