End Of Year Report 2022

I’ve got fuzzy feelings.

It might be because we’ve finished another year… and now we get to wrap up and dream about what comes next, or it might have something to do with the bottle of red wine I guzzled last night, or perhaps the herculean hours of God of War Ragnarök I played, or maybe the COVID-19.

It could well be the COVID-19…

Still, it’s the 27th of December and I just got back from a walk with my dog and now I’m warming with coffee and reading through all my previous year's reviews. There’s almost a decade’s worth now. If you’d like to read them, they now live HERE.

For me, reading through them is like visiting some shady AA meeting in which all the attendees are me from previous years. I read through and the yester-me’s voice their ambitions and concerns and I already know where they will win and where they will fail. I know the joy and pain waiting for each of them. And I can see the throughlines… the passions and hungers that connect them, even if they themselves can’t.

2014 was so young. 2018 so tired. 2020 so fired up. And now that each of them has spoken, it’s my turn.

So I’m going to finish my coffee…

And spill my beans.

So…

2022…

THE TO-DONE LIST

• I wrote 207,476 new words and edited 136,372 words. This includes:
  • Half of a brand-new novel
  • 5 short stories
  • 6-episode audio drama
  • 100-page comic book script
  • Lots of story outlines, series pitches, newsletters, non-fiction audio scripts
  • Polishing up a 90k-word novel and a…
  • 40k-word novella
• I finally finished a big novel I’d been working on for five years and pitched the book to Meg David at Ki Agency. Happy to say that I now have an amazing literary agent!
• I ran a Kickstarter for my book, My Dog Shits Cash. It funded in 90 minutes. I designed the hardcover and paperback, including the interior illustrations. I narrated and edited the audiobook, including an original music score with sound effects and ambience. Happy to say I’ve now 100% fulfilled the campaign
• At the Hawk & Cleaver studio, we:
  • Hit 10-million downloads
  • Ran three short story writing workshops
  • Produced and published a Halloween audio drama called The Toy Factory
  • Published 71 episodes of The Other Stories
  • Put out a 12-episode series of short Christmas episodes
• I read 61 books (a mix of novels, non-fiction, audio drama, and comic book collections).