2014 - the science fictional year

2014 was the year when I finally came home.  After dabbling with the idea of being a crime writer for a year, I finally realised that I could be nothing other than an SF writer.

January found me doing a lot of soul-searching about this issue.  I couldn't deny my true calling any longer.  Despite the best efforts of my crime writer friends to get me to join them, I just didn't feel like I belonged in crime.  Yes. There is often a crime at the heart of my stories, but my heart sings when I'm exploring something in an SF setting.  So armed with my new resolve i bought a membership to the World Science Fiction Convention Loncon 3.

Next I completed the manuscript of my second indie-pubbed book Panthera : Death Song.  The books went live on the Amazon site the week before Loncon 3.  Then I left for Loncon 3, five days of brilliance in London in August.  I attended an SF writers' workshop, heard some of the major editors in the genre speak, and spoke on a panel myself. There was also the satisfaction of sitting in the Hugo awards ceremony and seeing Best Novel go to a woman, Anne Leckie.  And Aidan Moher, one of the bloggers I appeared on my panel with, also won a Hugo.

I went home and wrote two 20,000 word novellas in two months, a phenomenal output of words.  Then I decided to re-write Jade, my 15 year old novel about the discovery of a sentient planet.  Half way through that re-write the Conville and Walsh Word of  Mouth Prize was announced, and I found myself scrambling to do the edit of the first 30,000 words to submit to the competition.

As the year closes I've finished the final edit of Jade, and have just completed reading the book aloud. I've moved on to the final edit of Panthera : Death Plain, which will be my third indie-pubbed book, which I want out before Easter.

Looking back on this year, I see how hard I have worked, and how hard I played at Loncon 3.  I have a sense of having come home, and have recovered my passion for writing in the genre.  But writing is only the first step in the journey.  My goal for this year is to be able to come back at the end of next year having persuaded somebody to pay for my writing.

Wendy Metcalfe is the author of science fiction Eco-crime novels Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Song,