2012: A Writing Retrospective

Every new year I make a collected inventory of the old.  And as far as writing is concerned, I enjoy looking back to see what a difference a year makes and how much can be accomplished in a dozen months. 

2012 began (January) with the publication of He Said, She Said: Biblical Stories from a Male and Female Perspective (written with Michelle). And, although the book has sold as slow as molasses in Siberia, and was the only book I had published in the year past, it is, nevertheless, a highlight.

During the remaining eleven months, however, I did manage to sell a great deal of material to various publications, and also placed a higher-than-usual volume in a plethora of magazines and journals.  I have probably forgotten a few pieces that were published, and probably penned upwards of two million words during the past year--all writing considered (including sermons, letters, blogs, etc).  But here is the published tally for 2012:

Poems:             12
Essays:             6
Articles:            3
Book Reviews:  14
Columns:          21
Devotions:        12
Literary Story:   1
Science Fiction:  1
Mystery Story:   1
Book Proposals:  6
Humor:              3
Blog Posts:        350+

I see from my tally sheet that I had over 70 different pieces published in magazines as varied as Outdoors Midwest, Preaching, YouthWorker, The Newer York, Rattle, Red Wheelbarrow, Morpheus Tales, Together, and Barefoot Review.

As always, I expect the new year to be better than the last, and I am, indeed, grateful to all of the editors, publishers and agents who accepted my work, or otherwise appreciated what I was trying to accomplish through words. I am grateful to those who still like to read . . . and those who wanted to read, for whatever reasons, my writing. 

2012 . . . it was a pretty good year.  And now that the Mayan calendar is starting again, I guess I can start over, too.  Two million words in 2012. I already know I'm going to be working hard to surpass that in 2013.  And I shall . . . God willing.