It’s incredible to think that 2018 is almost over. This year, completed quite a few projects and started many more. In case you’ve missed some of these announcements, this post is a handy recap of all the content that I released in 2018. So, without further ado, here’s the . . .

2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

Fourteener Father

While 2017 saw the re-release of my first three books in the form of the 2nd Editions of The Fluxion Trilogy, this year I released my fourth book, Fourteener Father: a memoir of life above 14,000 ft. Here’s an unboxing video for the paperback and hardcover versions:

This book was a labor of love and the first non-fiction book I’ve written. Over the last 20+ years, my father and I climbed all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains, and I wanted to share that experience and journey with everyone. I released this book on Father’s Day of this year and have been getting pretty good reviews on it on Amazon. It’s available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle eBook.

 

Last Shot Fired (Soul Photographer)

It took a bit of work, but my short story, Soul Photographer, is finally out now that the Midnight Writers‘ anthology Last Shot Fired is published. Released at the end of October, this book brings together 20 different short stories (including Soul Photographer) that ask the question, “What happens when there’s only one shot left?” If you’re interested in reading these stories, they’re available in paperback and Kindle eBook on Amazon.

The Slumberealm Gambit

For this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I started writing a new trilogy via The Slumberealm Gambit. I originally was going to write this about five years ago, but other ideas were stronger at the time. I managed to write the first 50,000 words of this book in 9 days and finished up the entire plot in 10. I’ll likely be publishing this book a few years from now, so make sure to sign up for my newsletter so you’ll know when it comes out.

Writer Rant

Season 2 of my vlog had way more episodes than Season 1, with a grand total of 44 episodes. This year, I covered topics as varied as Accountability to Prologues to Breaking the 4th Wall. If you’ve missed any episodes or want to watch the whole season, you can check out the playlist below:

Blog Posts

Much like my Writer Rants, I have written a number of blog posts on this website with the intention of helping any authors who might be starting out. Here’s a listing of this year’s topics:

• January: How to handle a bad review
  • I’ve given a few bad reviews over the years and received plenty of bad reviews on my books. How you handle criticism says a lot about your maturity as a writer.
• February: Expectations and a Reviewer’s Rubric
  • As someone who reviews media (like books and movies), I have realized that expectations are key to any review. It also helps to know what things I look for when I’m reviewing something.
• March: 3 Reasons why you shouldn’t pick sides
  • Politics are extremely polarizing. If your writing “picks sides,” especially if you portray the other side in an extremely negative fashion, you might be alienating half your audience.
• April: 4 types of edits, and why you need to do them all
  • How much editing is too much editing? While a writer’s work should always go through a few iterations, it’s important that they’re the right type of edits for the project.
• May: Why “spell check” is not enough
  • There are some pretty common homophone/homograph errors that plague writers. It’s these slightly less common ones that still make readers stop and go, “huh?”
• June: 3 unexpected programs to help you publish a book [PART 1/3]
  • You might not realize it, but the programs on your computer can help you publish a book. These tools are hiding in plain sight and are often underused when it comes to their usefulness.
• July: 3 unexpected programs to help you publish a book [PART 2/3]
  • The second part in this series shows how a common set of programs can be used in slightly-less orthodox ways to help you get a book published.
• August: 3 unexpected programs to help you publish a book [PART 3/3]
  • The final part in the 3-part series, this post highlights the simplicity in which some of these programs can be used to replace more expensive programs.
• September: The ABC+ of Beta Reading
  • While all writers should seek out beta reader feedback, sometimes it helps to give these beta readers something to focus on when they’re going over a writer’s manuscript.
• October: Why you should schedule your writing
  • Let’s face it, nobody has time for writing. If you want to be serious about it, you need to treat it differently and schedule it. Daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, a writing schedule is key.
• November: An Engineer’s Guide to NaNoWriMo (or how I grew from a newbie to a veteran)
  • In this post I wrote for NaNoWriMo, I explain how spreadsheets helped me compete against myself and grow as a writer.

Thanks to everyone who’s enjoyed my content this year. I promise next year will have quite a few interesting things planned, but the blog posts and Writer Rants might be a little more sparse as a result. Come back in January and I’ll explain the details of what’s to come!