The Year in Review – 2015

The first thing I need to do is this: THANK YOU READERS!!!

via GIPHY

I really can’t say enough how amazing this year was for me and it’s all because of you.  It’s really strange to sit in a room for hours and days at a time, pounding away at a keyboard, wondering if anyone will care.  To have that many people not only purchase my books, but to review them, share them, and generally be a cheerleader for them, I’m really blessed.

I’m a fan of lists, so I’m going to hit you with a few lists of my favorite things of the year, mostly in order though I didn’t think to hard about it (and I realize that some are not from 2015, but it was the year I finally got to them).

Movies

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1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Martian
3. Ex Machina
4. Pitch Perfect 2
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
6. Avengers

Music

1. Steven Wilson – Hand Cannot Erase
2. Puscifer – Money Shot
3. Silversun Pickups – Better Nature
4. Robert DeLong – In the Cards
5. War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream

Books / Novellas

1. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
2. The Martian – Andy Weir
3. Sorcerer of the Wildeeps – Kai Ashante Wilson
4. The Grace of Kings – Ken Liu
5. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi (yeah, I’m a little late on this one)

TV Shows

1. Jessica Jones
2. Sense8
3. Orphan Black
4. Vikings
5. Game of Thrones

So that was some of the entertainment I enjoyed this year.   Highlights from my own career and a few personal items are as follows (in no particular order):

1. My story “The Trouble with Virgins” came out in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
2. Hit #3 overall on the free downloads for Fires of Alexandria in July (over 70k+ total)
3. Published six books in the Dashkova Memoirs
4. Sold over 10,000 books
5. Met and hung out with tons of writers and fans at Worldcon in Spokane in August
6. Joined Codex
7. Joined SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America)
8. Spent an amazing week in Paris with my wife and kids
9. Released the Women of the Apocalypse Bundle with a bunch of wonderful authors
10. Ran my first half-marathon with my wife

Again, thank you for making it such a wonderful year.  I hope yours was as good as mine and here’s hoping that 2016 is even better!