2012 in the Review Mirror
Oddly, it’s not closer than it appears. Look, there it goes, fading into the distance.
At first, I wasn’t going to do one of these silly year-in-review blog posts, but then, I realized, this has been a pretty big year for me with lots of ups and downs, milestones achieved, and really been all around awesome. I’ve also decided that I’m going to get a little more personal in this post than I normally do. I try to keep my personal life outside of my professional life, especially online, because let’s face it…Once you post something online, it stays online. But hey, once in a while it’s good to open the doors and pull back the curtains so people can glimpse a little of me just being me.
I guess I’ll just talk about all of my various interests. I’m sure there will be some cross over.
AIRSOFT
This is first on the list, because this is what I spent the day doing. I got my feet wet in airsoft toward the end of 2011, but this has been the year I completely dove in. For those who are unfamiliar with airsoft, it’s like paintball, but it uses little plastic BBs, and the weapons look and feel more like real weapons. I LOVE this sport. My preferred weapon right now is a KWA M4, I’ve got a sweet little tactical vest, sling, and even tricked it out with a red-dot scope (though I’m eyeing a really awesome fiber optic scope.) I play mostly at Vacaville Airsoft. It is by far my favorite field. Occasionally, I’ll drop into one of the Sac Airsoft games. I played twice at a place called Airsoft Battlegrounds in Rocklin, CA, but my son and I (along with most of our friends) prefer not to give them our money any longer.
I started the year very out of shape. That actually changed pretty quickly. The Vacaville field has two hills: One is a grassy hill with intermittent trees; the other is a wooded hill. At the beginning of the year, for the first few months I went out, I decided to go up one hill or the other at least once in any game. Not once a day. Once a game. Now these hills are pretty steep, especially parts of the grass hill. At first it kicked my but, but after a while, I got to be pretty quick getting up them. Toward the end of the year, I was leaving my fifteen year old son behind as I rushed to the top of the grass hill to flank the enemy.
I love the Vacaville field because of the staff and other players. They’re all great people. Hoover and Joe run as classy a place as one can have while still trying to shoot each other with little plastic BBs. The regular players are great sportsmen and great fun to hang out with and shoot on the weekends. I’ve developed a lot of really good friendships there. The thing that I treasure most about the sport is that it’s brought my teenage son and I closer together. We talk tactics and strategies. We enjoy playing on the same team, covering each other and working together. We’re also good being on opposite teams, because nothing bonds a father and his teenage son like being able to brag about who got who more on any particular game day.
Me doing my best to emulate being a badass.
The funniest thing about me and playing out at Vacaville is that I seem to have this reputation for being one of the better players. The younger kids talk about wanting to be on my team all the time. I keep trying to tell them, I’m not really any better or worse than anyone else. I just tell them I’m crazier, and sometimes, my crazy plays off. Most of the time, when I pull one of my stunts, I’m thinking to myself, “I wonder if I can pull this off.” A lot of times I do, because wither no one believes that anyone would do some of the things I do (like actually sneaking down the creak of nearly freezing cold water like I did today which allowed me to get behind the enemy and take out their snipers), or they stop and stare in disbelief long enough for me to shoot them.
Currently, my gun is not working, but I’m hoping to remedy that soon. I can’t wait to see what adventures 2o13 brings.
TOUGH MUDDER
11 miles. 25 obstacles designed by British Special Forces. I did this. I have the T shirt and the headband. Sept 29TH I did this with two of my friends. I had a bunch of friends and other folks say they were going to do it, but in the end, my pals, Nick and Katia, were the ones that ponied up and ran the bloody thing with me. Crossing the finish line mad me feel like a god among men. I’m doing it twice in 2013. The first run is July 13th in Lake Tahoe. I’ll post when I register. Let me know if you’re interested in joining me. I’ll let you know what the team name and password is.
Renaissance Faire
So, the storytelling show continues to grow and grow with each passing year. I suppose I’m doing something right, because people keep coming back to see me perform. This year had some ups and downs depending on the event, but it wasn’t nearly the roller coaster that I had in 2011 when a couple of faire promoters either tried to underpay me, or gave me the crappiest schedule possible even after I cut them a deal. Oh, the glamour of a ren faire stage performer. I think part of what gave me a better years is that I have become a little pickier about who I work with now. My success as a bestselling author has also helped me be able to be a bit more choosy about what faires I do. This is not me being full of myself, it’s just nice that when a faire approaches me to perform at their event, and I sense some red flags going up, I can politely decline rather than bit my nails and hope that I get paid at the end. At this time, every promoter I work with is a joy, and I’m grateful to them all for allowing me the privilege of performing at their events.
So, let’s go through this year’s events in order the best I can remember:
Lompoc: I love this fair. I’ve performed at it three times. Each time has been awesome. Great people to work for. Great crowds to preform for. Unfortunately, it looks like this one isn’t going to happen in 2013, due to investors backing out. This last year, it dumped rain on us in the middle of Sunday. Right as I was starting my second show. Scrambled to get my books undercover. None got destroyed. Three people stayed to see the whole show, so I sucked it up and performed in the rain. They each got a book afterward, which I signed under a nearby pavilion. Good times. Again, sad that it might not happen this year.
San Jose Fantasy Festival: First year for this event, and they are working hard on making the second year even better. The promoters asked me to see if any of my fellow writers wanted to attend. I asked around, and oddly, some did. Most notably, Christopher Kellen and A.E.Marling. This can be said the weekend that the Genre Underground was born… but more on that later. This event is in the same place as the San Jose Renaissance Faire, right next to the HP Pavilion and not too far away from the San Jose International Airport. So…yeah…performing as airplanes are flying over…so..much…fun…NO REALLY. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, and I got to hang out with some of my writer pals. This was the first event I had copies of Once We Were Like Wolves and my short story collection Other Worlds.
Tulare County Renaissance Festival: This is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s about 45 minutes south of Fresno, and I have a HUGE following in the Fresno area. Go fig. I also love the Fresno area faires because I get to hang out with the Fresno Irish guild. I love those people something fierce. The crowds at Tulare are generous with hat, and this year they also bought a bunch of books, which I love. It’s also one of the few faires I can also hang out with the folks at Santa Maria in a relaxed setting, because they’re usually helping run most of the other faires I perform at. This year I shared a stage with a pair of juggling acts, who all complimented my storytelling, telling me that I was really good at it and should keep up the good work. One of them even bought some of my books.
The Fresno Pirate Festival: I hadn’t expected to do this event. I was called in as a last-minute replacement for an act that couldn’t be there. So, I put a pirate twist on my show, had the wife whip up a new outfit, and off I went. Good show. Had fun. The best part was learning to play “Zoo” with Dusty from Out of Kontrol. It’s not a drinking game, and it would take too long to explain. But it is pure awesome and hours of silly entertainment.
Valhalla Renaissance Fair: This two-weekend faire is usually one of my better events of the year. This year, due to several factors, the first weekend was pretty bad. A lot of this had to do with my own unprofessional behavior. Yeah, I’ll own up to being a primadonna drama queen. I step in it big. Luckily, the people I offended were more gracious than I might have deserved and allowed me to step back out of it once I apologized and promised to not behave in such a manner again. We all have our moments, and this was definitely a hard learning experience for me. On the flip side, I had one of my best shows of the year second weekend. My last show on Saturday afternoon 2nd weekend, I re-proposed to my wife. It took some doing and some creative logistics to make happen, but it came off well. When I demanded her presence at the show, she made me promise not to drag her on stage and embarrass her. So I didn’t. I went out into the audience by jumping over several rows of chairs to embarrass her. Cause I’m all clever like that. She was a good sport and admitted that she should have worded her requirement a little more carefully.
Shaverwood Faire: This is a tiny little faire in the hills above the Fresno area. I did this one as a favor for a friend. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had. One, the Fresno Irish were there, which was a great surprise. Two, while the crowds were small, they were appreciative, and I sold a few books. The really cool part was having a cabin all to myself that was a short drive from the faire site. I was pleased that this weekend. Even though I don’t make as much as I do with some of my other events, I’ll probably do this one again if it doesn’t conflict with anything else.
Central Coast Renaissance Faire:
Alyxx (cover artist), me, Katie (assistant), Ed (cover artist)
AKA SLO Faire, because it’s in San Luis Obispo. I love this faire. It’s a nice site, the stage I’m on is positioned well, the people are great every year, and I make a lot of money here. This is the first year I had books at this event, and it went over great. One of the highlight moments was the very first show Saturday morning having both my cover artists show up. That was pretty darn awesome. The shows both day were fantastic. I got to see some of my friends from Southern California that I don’t normally get to hang out with. As always, a great faire, but nothing else that jumped out.
San Jose Renaissance Faire: Previously, the title of “The Show From Hell” goes to my last show Sunday of Folsom Faire 2010. This is when I had kids with rocks chasing my son Mathew across the stage, a parade go through, rain, and some girl with food poisoning puking her guts out in the back row. She claimed “food poisoning.” I’m skeptical considering how much I saw her drinking the night before. Anyway…show from hell. The one example of how bad a show can get that makes me feel better about all the bumps and glitches other shows have. And then came the first show Sunday morning of the San Jose Fantasy Festival. See that picture. That is from the new reigning champion of “The Show From Hell.” The site is the same place as the San Jose Fantasy Festival, so we have planes going overhead during the show, but early Sunday morning, the truck to clean the port-a-potty was late. Oh…hey…LOOK! There it is…just in time for my show. Oh, and it’s sprinkling. In the Middle of August! Did I mention that the cloud cover burned off right after my show, taking the sprinkling with it. Did I mention the port-a-potty cleaning truck? Those things are pretty noisy when sucking up port-a-potty goo not even fifty feet from the stage. Yeah, it stayed there through most of my show. Oh, yeah, and I had more planes fly overhead than any other show that weekend. On the upside, I rocked it. Because the show must go on.
Other than that, I debuted the print version of Arms of the Storm at this event and had a grand time all around.
Folsom Renaissance Faire: I went into Folsom Faire dreading one of my shows to try and beat out San Jose. The weekend actually turned out grand. Great shows. Had some of my regular fans show up, and I hope made some new ones. Most of my free time this particular weekend was taken up with showing off pictures of my brand new baby girl, Megan Elizabeth Gallowglas, who had been born three days before the event. So, I was back and forth between the hospital and the faire. Most of it is a blur, but the one thing I took from this is that having a table where I can sit and talk to people about my books is really going to help me find new readers. My pals Bill and Debbie at Flying Skwirl for allowing me to take up a corner of their booth. Being able to sit and talk to people was a huge help in telling them about my free kindle books and talk to them about my books in general. For the first time, I sold out of everything I brought to a faire for the first time ever, and a lot of that has to do with having that table. The other thing I added to my shtick is I started doing spontaneous stories. For $5, people can give me a topic, theme, or idea, and I whip up a story for them right on the spot. The picture to the side is my very first spontaneous story.
Kearny Park Renaissance Faire: The last faire of the season takes me back down to Fresno. It’s relaxed, the Fresno Irish are there, my pals from Out of Kontrol are there, my buddies Steve and Snipe from Myth and Magic are there, and all my Fresno area fans are there. The promoters kindle gave me a spot to set up my table, and I talked to a a bunch of people about writing, books, and storytelling. I did a few spontaneous stories. SHowed off pictures of Megan. Great shows all around. The two most memorable moments were my last show on Sunday, which started with a woman’s phone going off, just as I was getting ready to start the show. She let me answer it. The weirdness started there and spiraled away from anything resembling what I normally do. You really had to be there. The other great moment was hanging out with the Fresno Irish Saturday evening. One of them wrote me a song, and the whole group sang it for me. It was very touching, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve felt so honored. This was a perfect way to end the year.
All in all, it was a great year for my storytelling show. I’m really looking forward to my 2013 season.
Writing
This year was a mix of success for me writing wise. On one hand, I hit several Amazon best-seller lists throughout the year with multiple books. I got some great exposure at various Science Fiction conventions throughout the year! And a lot of people got books from me at all of the above Renaissance Faires! Yay me! One the downside, I didn’t really get all that much new fiction out. I had Other Worlds, which was only available at my Renaissance Faire shows and readings I did at Science Fiction conventions, and I managed to get out Arms of the Storm, book three in Tears of Rage. I had meant to get out more, including Halloween Jack and the Curse of Frost and Spellpunk. In the beginning part of the year, I had to put some stuff on the back burner do to “day job” requirements, that led to me getting a place on the social media team for Reading Rainbow. YAY ME! (You can read my weekly blog for them as I talk about their Spotlight books under the byline: Michael G.) As I was finalizing work on the next Halloween Jack book, we had a baby. Funny how that took a bunch of my focus away from writing. Well, I’m back on track now, and while I’m not in as great a place as I was when I started the year, nor was the Christmas season nearly as good as I expected/hoped for, putting things in perspective, I’m still doing MUCH better than many self-published/indie writers do. Heck, at some times, I’ve been doing a lot better than some of the the traditionally published writers that I know.
I started this year off as a member of the Indie Book Collective, and I learned a lot from that crew. As time went on, the months flew by, and I realized I wasn’t really going to be a good fit for the IBC. They were too spread out across the genres, and as the year went on, it seemed that they were only interested in promoting one type of event, which was great, but it wasn’t my cup of tea any more. I did realize, that for lesser-known writers without huge publishing deals, it’s a good idea to adopt a “safety in numbers” mentality.
I mentioned up in the Ren Faire portion a bit about this group called the Genre Underground. Well, I talked to several other very talented writers, and we form it with the mission statement: “Fitting the right book with the right reader. Finding the very best in independent and small-press Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror that you want to read.” I’ve taken a look at the big “co-op” groups of “indie” writers, and I’ve observed that the price tag for participating has grown considerably in last year to year and a half. In some cases it’s increased by a factor of ten or more. Also, they seem to take in anyone and everyone, no matter their writing skill or genre, so that they come off like a mishmash of writers all saying, “Buy my book! No, buy my book.” Since I didn’t like either of these trends, I decided to form my own group of like-minded genre writers so we could focus on one group of readers, with the intention of making our focus about finding quality works for those readers rather than just be shouting out with everyone else “buy my book!” We’ve done a few promotions. Been to a few conventions. Like any beginning organizations, we’ve had some bumps along the road. I’ve learned a lot. I’m looking forward to what 2013 will bring for the Genre Underground.
In other writing related stuff… I went to quite a few conventions this year: up to Seattle for Westercon, down to San Diego for Conjecture, the SF Bay Area had Baycon and Convolution (which kicked ass for a first year event), and over to Chicago for Chicon, the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention. I love Cons. I’m hoping to get to even more this next year. I love rubbing elbows with fellow pros, meeting new readers, and getting surprised when people recognize me as M Todd Gallowglas from my official author’s photo. I even got recognized once as the Genre Underground guy at WorldCon. Talk about awesome. Highlights of this year’s convention tour: Robin Hobb pimping my books at two panels we were on together, David Brin telling me he was proud of my success, having lunch with Brandon Sanderson, getting to know Howard Taylor a bit and having him do a custom portrait for my buddy Ash’s birthday present, Jim Minz’s WorldCon party, and developing friendships with Kat Richardson, Chris Garcia, Jennifer Brozek, Partick Tomlinson, Frances Pauli, Jim Doty, and Remez “Mez” Naam. I’m sure I’m spacing on some other writers that I hit it off with and have corresponded with, and for that, I apologize.
I can’t wait to see what 2013 will bring for me, the Genre Underground, and the publication industry in general.
Top Books of 2012
Didn’t get as much reading done in 2012 as I normally do, but thankfully, most of it was excellent. Picking my top five books is a rough call. To help make my job easier, I’m only going to include books that were published in 2012, as opposed to the books I read in 2012, which includes several books published previously.
1) FORGE OF DARKNESS by: Steven Erikson – This is the first book in the much-anticipated Anomander Rake trilogy. It takes place thousands upon thousands of years before the events of Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. I’m biased every time I pick up anything by Steven, because he is one of my heroes. However, he earns his place as a hero every time I read something new of his.
2) LEGACY by Christopher Kellen – This is the second volume in the Arbiter Codex and it picks up just about where book one left off. I can’t go into details about this book without spoiling events in book one, Elegy. I enjoyed the hell out of Elegy and Legacy blows it out of the water. Kellen is much more comfortable in his voice and the tone for this story. The descriptions of the horrible creatures the heroes face are creepy and chilling. The action scenes are spectacular. The twists develope organically from the events rather than being dropped in just to be surprising.
3) THE HERO GETS THE GIRL by Robert Eaton – Book 2 in The Hero series. If you want to know why this is in my top 5, you should get the book and read the introduction by on M Todd Gallowglas. That says it all.
4) COLD DAYS by Jim Butcher – Harry Dresdon. That is all. I’m still on the fence about where Butcher seems to be taking this series, but even with that, he does some brilliant work.
5) WOOL Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey- I’m not a huge fan of dystopian science fiction, but WOOL is a step above 99% of every other dystopian story out there. I came upon this one as it was building steam right before WOrldCon. Someone had referenced it in a review of one of my books, and a friend told me that it was pretty good. I emailed Mr. Howey, who was also attending WorldCon, and asked if he would do an interview. I figured I should read his book if I was going to interview him about it. I didn’t get the interview, but I did manage to get hooked on WOOL. Get the omnibus. Read it. The story is awesome. The world-building impeccable and woven seamlessly into the story so you get everything at just the right pace.
I think it’s awesome that 3 of my top 5 are indie/self published books. There are a couple of books that I didn’t get to, and I think if I had, they might have edged out Cold Days, but who knows. I’m noticing that as the indie/self-publishing revolution continues to gain momentum, more and more cool and really innovative books are popping up by really talented writers. These books are pushing the boundaries of what’s being done in science fiction and fantasy, and not giving us the same formulaic stuff that New York pushes out because it knows it will sell. I’m going to go out on a limb and make a prediction that at some point, the stigma of traditional publication and self-publication will flip flop.
World of Warcraft
I’m an avid, well, semi-avid, World of Warcraft gamer. I am the guild master of guild Karma on Feathermoon. At the beginning of the year, we were at the tail end of the last expansion and so things slowed down. We lost a lot of people to Star Wars: The Old Republic, so I decided to let things go for the first part of the year. Mists of Panderia came out, and I’d hoped to rebuild, as I have in every expansion. Unfortunately, the tactics I’d used in previous expansions were no longer viable due to changes in the game. So… I’m doing what I can to put some semblance of a guild back together so I can get a raid team going, but I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.
Kids
The newest edition to the Gallowglas household arrived October 17th. Megan Elizabeth Gallowglas is as perfect a daughter as I could have asked for. She is currently laying next to me, playing with her baby gym, and cooing away. She’s gotten to the point where she actively smiles at people. Her smile lights up her entire face. She is quite the little character, and pretty bossy. She has a special sound that’s partway between a cry and a grunt that she reserves for when I’m holding her and she wants to nurse. I’m doomed. I know it. I’ll payer her back in spades when she starts dating…when she’s 25. That’s when she’ll be allowed to leave the house unsupervised. (Shut up! I’m a fantasy writer. Don’t rain on my happy cloud.)
My middle child, Mathew, who is also the inspiration to the posts I make to Twitter with the hashtag #ElevenYearOldWisdom has been following in his Father’s footsteps. The image here is of him at the San Diego Zoo. While I was at WesterCon, the rest of the family went to San Diego. Any time he had a break, he pulled out his note book and was working on the book he was writing at the moment. He loves reading and writing. It was a near thing, because until he found his 4th grade teacher, Ms. Stone, reading and writing were a challenge for him. She and his new school really stepped up and brought him up to speed. A few weeks ago, he randomly looked up at me while we were out shopping and said, “Dad, did you know you’re my writing mentor?” Yeah. That was awesome.
And then we come to my sixteen-year-old son, Robert. I mentioned him above in the airsoft section. As with all teenagers, he’s aggravating infuriating, and frustrating all rolled up into one package of limit testing. Still, he hasn’t gotten in any trouble with the law, doesn’t indulge in any controlled substances, and doesn’t use any language stonger than God dammit where I can heat him. He plays on his XBox, gets passible grades, helps around the house, and adores his little sister. Some times his mother and I cringe when he starts giving Megan her parkour lessons in the living room. He continues to grow into a young man I’m very proud of. Airsoft has been very good for him. I’ve seen him go from a timid awkward boy who did his best to avoid any point of engagement to a capable, patient, strategically thinking young man who steps into leadership roles with his peer.
If you can’t tell, I’m love my kids, I love being a dad, and I’m proud of them.
I don’t get to talk about the wife. It’s against the rules. I think that rule has more to do with my storytelling show than my online stuff, but rules is rules. But, I’m not one for rules, so I’m going to say, I’m grateful that Robin is supportive of me exploring this writing thing and really pushing me to make it successful. She keeps my feet on the ground when my ego starts to get out of control, and she lifts me up when I get all angsty when things aren’t going so well. There’s a fine line between supporting a writing spouse and nagging them to get their next project finished. Robin knows exactly where that line is and treads right up too it to keep me focused and on track.
Well, that’s more about 2012 than I had planned on writing. There’s more, but I can’t write about some of it, due to NDAs, and the rest, well…2012 is almost over. It’s time to start looking ahead. I’m excited about 2013. Next post will be in the next couple of days…probably with my New Year’s Resolutions.
Until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
