2025 Year in Review

 

It has been a while since I wrote a blog post. I have actually been working on a rather long blog for some time, but it is getting so involved, I may try to publishing it elsewhere as a non-fiction piece. But I digress. It is a new year, and 2026 is upon us. Therefore, it is time for that annual post where I discuss my submission numbers and successes. This is mainly for inspirational purposes for other writers. I know we write and submit, write and submit, and often times receive too many rejections, but as I have mentioned earlier in this blog, we should not count the rejections, or even the acceptances for that matter, because those are things we cannot control. Rather, we should count the submissions. We can control those.

However, I did receive a few successes this year, one of which is pictured above. But first, let's take a look at the number of submissions I made in 2025. I broke a few records this year, so it was a good year for submissions. I currently have two novels shopping around, and I submitted them a total of 17 times this year. That is a new personal record, shattering my old record of 10 in 2018, and I am still waiting to hear back from a number of those submissions. Fingers are crossed.

I also broke my personal record for the most short story submissions with 37, which beats my old record of 32 made in 2019. Additionally, I made 14 poetry submissions, which tied my second most for that genre. I did not make any non-fiction story submissions this year. This adds up to a grand total of 68 total submissions for the year, which also breaks my previous record of 53 also made in 2018. My annual goal of 50 submissions per year was not only reached, it was handily surpassed.

So what did all these submissions get me? There is generally a direct correlation of the number of submissions to the number published works, and this year was no exception. Two works found homes, one short story, and one poem. My short story, "Rabbit Holes," found a home after just two submissions, which sets yet another record. It will be published in the anthology pictured above, Rebels by Inkd Publications. I am very excited about this one for obvious reasons. It may be my best short story yet, so if anyone is interested in picking up a copy, their website can be found here.

Additionally, one of my poems, "The Giant Fig Tree," recently found a home at Teach. Write., which is a publication that has published more of my works than any other. The editor, Katie Winkler, even sent me a very nice note encouraging me to keep sending her my work, which was much appreciated. The publication with a link to the current issue where the piece can be found, is here.

Two success may not seem like a lot, but they still mean something to me. It means my work is being discovered and distributed by at least a few publications. It is like the gambling addict, pulling that lever on the slot machine again and again after putting in nickel after nickel. To some it is a one-armed bandit, but when that machine finally pays off, there is much rejoicing. To compare it to my previous years' accountability posts, here are links to my post in 2022, and another one in 2023, and finally last's year's post from 2024.

As of this writing, I have already made a number of submissions, and one more work has found a new home in 2026. I will post about that in a future blog. Until then, let's all keep writing.

2024 Accountability Post

It's time for my annual accountability post where I discuss how many submissions vs. how many works I had published in the preceding year. I've been posting about my productivity of submissions since 2021 (and it can be read here), but really I have been keeping track of my submissions as far back as 1999. I started putting them into an Excel file since 2010, and I have been submitting larger numbers of works pretty consistently since 2017. You can see my 2022 accountability here, and my 2023 accountability here, if interested.

At some point, I realized that the publishing game is at least partially a numbers game. You have to make large numbers of submissions to see any positive results, unless you want to self-publish. And there is nothing wrong with self-publishing. As you will see later in this blog post, I actually self-published my first short story and poetry collection earlier this year and blogged about it last month. It started a few years ago when I read a blog from an author who said they try to reach 100 submissions per year. It inspired me to see how many submissions I could make each year. While I found I could not reach 100, I did find that 50 was an attainable number. Unfortunately, I no longer remember who wrote that original blog.

So this year, I did not quite make my 50 submissions goal. However, this was because I chose to work on longer works this year. I finally completed my second novel-length manuscript, Blood of the Werewolf, and began submitting it to agents. Additionally, I started working on my next novel, a mussy story titled Osiris. Because I spent a good portion of my writing year working on longer works instead of shorter works, I give myself a pass at not quite making the 50 submissions goal.

So, here are the numbers. I had a total of 41 submissions for publications, which is not too shy of my 50 submissions total. This includes seven book submissions to agents and small presses total, including my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, the aforementioned Blood of the Werewolf, and my first completed short story and poetry collection, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which I submitted to myself for self-publication. Yes, I am counting that one. This exercise is supposed to be motivational after all. It is available on Amazon here, in case anyone is interested.

The rest of the list includes 22 short story submissions, which was the largest number as usual. I had 11 poetry submissions, and one essay or non-fiction submissions. I had only two successes, and it was a tough year for me for fiction and poetry, especially considering one of the successes was my self-published collection. My other success this year was my article on Fay Wray, which was published at Ravenous Monster.

There you have it. Fee free to see how you measure up. I have a relatively low bar this year for anyone to compare, but that is what I have been up to. I am still out there writing and submitting, but like last year, so far I am concentrating most of my time and energy on longer works. Hopefully, it starts bear fruit soon.

How Long Have I been Editing My Current Novel? (It's Complicated)

 

Not long ago, I was in a monthly meeting with the HWA - Virginia Chapter when I was asked how long I had been editing my current work in progress (WIP), and I was not ready with an answer. I am sure whatever I said sounded evasive, but honestly, I had to think about that question for a while, and was not quite sure what the answer was. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it may make for an interesting blog post about my process and since this is apparently going to be my second completed manuscript ready for submission to agents and / or publishers very soon, it may also make for great promotion for this labor of love.

The current project is titled Blood of the Werewolf, and as the title suggests, it is a werewolf tale. The setting is the early 1800s Great Britain (with a few key scenes in Tibet), which places it in the same universe as my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, which is still under consideration at a small press publisher at the time of this writing. I will one day blog about why I have chosen that location and timeframe, but the short version of that answer is, it is the era of literature I studied in college.

Anyway, I began my college career in the mid-1990s and it was around this same timeframe that I started thinking about becoming a author. It turns out to be a very long, hard, and slow process. One thing I did for fun and practice was to write novelizations of some of my favorite horror movies, such as those from Universal Studios. I had no intention of getting these published, but it was a way to try my chops at writing something of some length.

It made me start to think about writing my own stories about vampires, werewolves, and mummies, so I started writing a few longer pieces, more so for my own amusement once again than with any intension of trying to get it published. Once I had a few of these under my belt, I started thinking more seriously about writing a full length novel and hopefully one day getting it published. I decided that with some major revisions, these projects could be made into full length novels.

Those who say writing for yourself is very different from writing for publication are certainly correct. These stories needed a lot of work. In their original form they were only the length of novellas and novelettes as they ranged from 12,000 to 17,00 words. Most publishers like novels to be around 80,000 words. They needed extra scenes, backstories, more thoughts and emotions from characters and other elements to flush them out into full-length novels and make them much better stories in the process. At their heart, they were already novels, really, they just needed to be flushed out to reach their true potential. The first of these stories I did this with was what is now titled The Sorcerer, and in its final form it reached the industry standard for a finished novel at 80,000 words. The second is the one I am working on now, Blood of the Werewolf.

So to finally return to the question above (You do remember the question above, don't you, "How long have I been editing my current novel?") The original 17,000 word version was completed sometime in the late 1990s. Then it was placed in a drawer for a very looooong time. I completed The Sorcerer, and edited it I don't even know how many times, until I decided I could no longer edit it. I finally put what at the time were the finishing touches on The Sorcerer around 2017. And I finally started a major revision of Blood of the Werewolf. But the question now is, does revision count as editing? I would say that since this revision was so massive, it is probably does not count as true editing. It became practically a new story.

But then in 2019 I received a mentorship from Tim Waggoner through the Horror Writers Association. He gave me some good feedback on that novel and insight as to why it was not attracting agents or publishers yet. In order to make Blood of the Werewolf come out right, I had to put it down once again and edit The Sorcerer one last time. This took about another year, which brings us to 2020, the year of Covid. I did work on it some during the pandemic, but like many other authors and publishers, no one was as productive as we wanted to be during those odd two years.

The editing process for Blood of the Werewolf I believe started around 2020 or 2021 (not counting the major revision years). I am now very close to getting this one finished and should have it done very soon. I'm editing page 306 out of 363 and it now totals almost 79,000 words. I will make sure it reaches at least 80,000 words by the time I am finished. It may need one more pass through before I am comfortable sending it out to publishers and agents, but that should only be a light edit to clean up a few things and ensure continuity throughout the novel.

I feel as though I am getting faster and better at this, and I've never missed a deadline when I've been given one. I am also getting excited to write more follow-ups to these stories, as I have one more, Osiris, that is in a very rough draft at about 13,000 words, and I have notes on numerous others in the series. The fact that I have been able to publish more short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in recent years also shows I am improving. And keep in mind that I also wrote many of those short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in between revising and editing these novels. Wish me luck with these and other projects in the future, so that I can post this self-made meme once again:

2023 Recap

 It's time for another annual recap of my writing successes. I did a little a better this year over previous years, which I am very proud of, and would like to share here, not necessarily to brag, but to show where my work can be found and to maintain some sort of accountability. This is my third year running doing a blog of this sort at the beginning of a new year (the previous ones can be found here and here, so here goes.

Looking at the numbers, I made slightly fewer submissions this year, but had more successes. I submitted a total of 42 items this year compared with 48 the previous year. I usually shoot for 50, but will settle for as few as 35, so I was well over my minimum. Of those 42 submissions, 1 was a novel (a submission in answer to a request for a full manuscript in 2022, so I am counting it here). The largest bulk of those submission were, as usual, short stories, 24 of them in 2023. That is slightly lower than 2022 when I had 29 submissions. I also submitted 10 poems, down one from the previous year.

One area that helped grow my numbers and acceptances this year was a return to non-fiction submissions. I had 7 of them this year. I had zero  the previous two years. 

Now onto the successes, where I broke a new record this year with six total items being published in one way or another, seven if you count my self-published short story, which I still need to blog about. My previous highest number of published works was in 2018 when I had five works published, so that new record is something. Two of those published works from this year were those non-fiction articles. I also did very well with poetry this year with three poems getting published in two different publications this year. Of those short stories, only one was published, but it was at higher rate than many of my previously published short stories, at a semi-pro rate.

Speaking of money, while it may seem shameful to discuss how much money I made at writing, this is also a sign of prestige. More money means more success or more prestigious publications, so I will bring up the subject without giving away exact numbers. Let's just say I made more money with my writing this year than other previous years (excluding full time jobs I've had in the past and regular correspondence work I've done with major newspapers). For the first time, the majority of this money was made selling copies of anthologies at cons, although it was only a slight majority.

Now for the disclaimers. Some of the publications I made this year were not exactly very competitive. But there's a conundrum there. There are a few publications that love when I submit to them, and I enjoy doing it, but they don't pay, so they often do go to the backburner. I write to them when I am inspired by something that could lead to an article that fits that publication. I see no reason to snub them, especially when I consider the people running them my friends. While I grow as a writer, I will continue to strive toward publishing in larger and more prestigious publications, but I do want to remember everyone who helped me get there.

A Little More About the Origins of Classic Camp

 I've blogged on several occasions about this alternate ego of mine, Classic Camp, including discussing the name's origin, and more recently about one of my favorite movies that I feel epitomizes the name. The name Classic Camp represents my favorite topics, Classic film (especially Classic horror films, but not limited to those), Classic rock music, Classic literature, and sometimes I am embarrassed to say, but it's true, Classic pro wrestling, which I am not getting into here today, but perhaps one day I will.

So I thought some people may be wondering where I acquired my interest in all things Classic. The short answer is, I really don't know. It's just kind of always been there, somewhere in my DNA.

I saw a friend on Facebook recently criticizing the latest Stephen King novel, Fairy Tale, because it included a kid of 17 who was familiar with actor Jimmy Stewart and several of his works in the novel (I have not read that Stephen King novel, by the way). He said no teenager would know old classic black & white films like that. Well, I am here to say, I was that kid. Yes, even at 17. Let me put it this way, I listen to more 80s music today than I did in the 1980s. My friends and family will verify this.

I remember in the days before I got cable TV, so I must have been 8 or 9, watching a show on PBS called Matinee at the Bijou. It was just like being back at an old-time theater. It would start with a few trailers for movies from the 1930s to the 1950s. Then it would show a few cartoons, newsreels, a short subject, and finally a chapter out of serial, like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. Each week they would show the next chapter of the serial. They even followed that up with a B-movie movie, like one from the Bowery Boys series, but it was usually edited for time.

My mother would often tell me about going to the movies during that era, how she had a crush on Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys. Both of my parents were older than most of my friends parents. They weren't even Baby Boomers, although I am a member of Generation X. Perhaps their advanced age contributed to this interest. I also grew up close to my grand parents who lived through the 1930s, so they probably had some influence as well.

Even after we got cable, some of my favorite shows were those from early television, such as The Jack Benny Program, Burns & Allen, and You Bet Your Life, as well as some of the early horror related shows such as The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I also started watching Night Flight on USA Network because their final feature was often an old, poverty row horror film from studios like Monogram or PRC. (I was a latchkey kid from the age of 11, so I watched a lot of television growing up).

When I became a teenager and my interests shifted from film to music, I started listening to the legends of rock, like Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Doors, more often than listing to more contemporary bands of the time.

I have gathered a bit of a following online for these interests. For instance, I run a Facebook group, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which has amassed over 1000 members. I assume many of the members follow the group simply for the nostalgia, and I'm fine with that, but to me it is more than just nostalgia. Old film, literature, and music are time capsules to how people lived and their attitudes during those eras. It's understanding where we came from as a society and understanding where we are going now. Perhaps that sounds a little corny, but my true feelings about it are in there somewhere.

I also try to over-glorify the past. I understand many terrible things happened in our history. Things like segregation, internment camps, antisemitism were rampant then, and unfortunately still exit today. And none of those things deserve to be glorified in any way. But I enjoy gaining a better understanding of what those attitudes were then, and I feel it does help me understand the world today a little better. Perhaps it even helps me understand how to better counter those negative attitudes today.

I do still follow some modern franchises though. I don't want to be that old man yelling at the cloud, or saying "Get off my lawn!" to the younger generation. In fact, I think some of the exclusive shows on modern day apps are some of the work on television and movies in decades. But I lay just a little extra attention if they simply provide a wink and a nod to any of the old Classics, even if it's just an Easter egg-style reference.

Anyway, that's what I have today. Please enjoy the short video below of the intro to an episode of Matinee at the Bijou, one of my favorite shows when I was just 9 years old.

Shameless Self-Promotion

 

I was sending out my old manuscript for The Sorcerer to another small press recently, and their submission guidelines said their authors should be prepared to promote their work nearly every day. Most small presses, and even many large presses, want their authors to do quite a bit of their own promotion. Perhaps it has always been this way, but I think most people in the writing and publishing industry would say authors are expected to do more of their own promotion that at any time in the past. And most of that promotion at this stage should be about my current projects.

Then just today, I was in my Horror Writers Association-Virginia chapter meeting when we got to the end of the meeting, the point where we all discuss our current projects, and I spouted off a few items I have out for consideration. When they moved on to another member, it occurred to me that I had an intriguing story about my current manuscript project, Blood of the Werewolf but forgot to mention it.

With that in mind, here is that (hopefully) intriguing story:

I am currently in the editing process of Blood of the Werewolf, when I reached a scene that needed a total revision. Why? Because one of the characters was supposed to leave town by train, but the story takes place in 1815 England. When I researched the history of train travel, I discovered this was about 15 years too early for regular train travel. While many of my horror writing cohorts are researching far more interesting things like types of poisons and how much bloodloss a human can endure, I spent my writing session researching the history of train travel and the history of slippers. Anyway, it is a pivotal scene that cannot be totally deleted, so I must revise it in a way that the character uses a different mode of transportation. The most obvious mode of transportation would be ship.

This opened up an interesting possibility for the story. I want both The Sorcerer and Blood of the Werewolf to take place within the same universe, and it would be even better if they had another direct connection. But up until now they did not have any connections other than parts of both stories take place in England in the 1810s. The Sorcerer actually concerns a man who owns a shipping company. So this character in Blood of the Werewolf will now travel via the Nichols Shipping Company because it is the name of the shipping company the character in The Sorcerer owns, giving the two novels the type of direct connection I was hoping to create for them.

Oh yes, the photo above is me promoting a public presentation at Monster Fest.