2022 has been a challenging year on the writing front. My production was less than I wanted due to a number of things. A demanding day job and scheduling conflicts top the list along with the seemingly endless list of things that a writer needs to do – that isn’t writing. A good deal of what was published in 2022 was written in 2021, and the single release short stories were all part of anthologies where the rights reverted.
When I started writing in 2020, I had a narrow concept of what a writer did – specifically, write stories, but the reality is that every writer who intends to make a living outside of the traditional publishing path has a lot to do, and a lot to learn, because unless you are blessed with an independent income – you are going to be doing it yourself. In addition to outlines and story structure, plots and sub-plots, genre pacing, there are the demands that every small business faces. Tools and software, advertising images and copy, artwork and book covers, networking, marketing, social media and the time management that keeps all of those things from overshadowing the first, if not the only goal.
Telling a good story.
A good portion of the end of my year has been focused on setting up these necessary business tasks in a way that makes them sustainable – I’ll come back to this later.
2022
Novels
The Executioners – with Jason Cordova, published April 26. This project started as a concept of Jason’s that I was invited to work on and It’s one of my favorite projects to date. Depending on schedules there’s definitely more for the future!
Anthologies
You Pay: We Slay – January 25. Among the Embers, April 12. WE DARE – Wanted, Dead or Alive – May 3. The Valkyries Initiative – September 13.
All of these universes were fantastic opportunities that I’m hoping to do more in – Notably Hit World / Valkyries already has a novel in development for 2023.
Short Stories
GUMBO, February 4. Hollow Threats, October 21. Whatever Happened to Charlie Biggs, November 23.
2023 – On Deck
On the writing board:
Edits, rewrites and revisions for SOUL MATE – A novel in the Hit World/Valkyries universe.
Short stories in the 4HU, the second Irving Tolliver case file, and a Horror anthology submission. There’s also a novella planned as an expansion of some previous work that will be announced in the down the road.
The main work of 2023 will be a return to the Benthi Federation for books 2 and 3 in the Salvage Title universe that started with A Nest of Stars.
The working titles are WARBIRDS and BIRDS of a FEATHER.
Lastly – I may have a release for Ravenswept Chronicles, but I’m still undecided on what form that might take. I recently expanded one of the initial stories and will be looking at how those changes work downstream.
Around all that I’m developing my own Military Sci-Fi universe concept – I’m still in the very early stages of planning – more information to be announced later. If all goes well this will probably have a release date in 2024.
The Business Side
Back to all those bits and pieces I’m trying to learn how to juggle. The first is that I now have an official website – mattnovotny.net – which of course, you know, since you are already here. I will be transitioning the point-of-origin for my blog from Goodreads to my website. I do plan on streaming to my Goodreads Author blog. I was going to stream to Amazon as well, but Amazon has changed its author pages in the U.S. and blog posts are no longer available there. This post will be the first test – stay tuned, shenanigans may ensue.
I ALSO have an updates and Blog sign-up on the main page. In the future I plan on adding exclusive content and giveaways that will only be available here.
I’d like to invite you to do some exploring on my website. In addition to slinging books I have links to a bunch of the Filk I’ve written, a link to the Hope Station T-Shirt shop for Executioners and Prodigal Son swag, and have plans for a gallery to showcase some of the settings and characters.- Find it all, along with pithy commentary here:
Social media
There are a few other places social media wise where you can find me. I’m also working to make sure they are all available through the website:
Facebook: facebook.com/MattNovotnyWrites
BookBub: bookbub.com/authors/matt-novotny
Amazon: amazon.com/stores/Matt-Novotny/author/B089DR63XC
That’s all for now. Thanks to everyone for being a part of my Author journey!
As always, Keep Reading!
Matt