Writing: The One True Constant

Hey everyone! Mary here with what will be my second to last post, after more than eight years writing for this blog. Damn, that feels weird to say. Obama was president when I started contributing here in June 2015. Since then, I've changed jobs twice, I've moved, I've dropped and picked up various hobbies, I've made new friends and fallen out of touch with others. Suffice it to say, life can change a lot in eight years.

The one thing that's still going though? Writing. Somehow, that old habit is still following me around.

Not to say that it doesn't change and evolve with time. In 2015, I was primarily a novelist; I think I'd written one or two short stories ever. Also, my genre was general sci-fi. Now, I've written and published more short stories than I can remember (seriously, when I proofread some to reprint, I was like, "Wait what happens in this one again?"). And my genre is YA sci-fi/fantasy, with my best known book being a fantasy.

Still, even as the format and genres have shifted, writing has always been there. I've taken breaks, burned out and reignited, abandoned projects and picked them up again. Yet even when I would go months without writing anything new (heh, like this past summer), it was always lurking in my life, through author events I'd attend (this past Summer of No Writing was also the Summer of Four Conventions), manuscripts I was in the midst of editing or publishing, workshops I'd agreed to moderate, etc.

And I know that even if my life changes drastically — if my job changes, if I move, etc. — I'm certain that wherever I end up, whatever I end up doing, writing will be there. Oh, maybe I won't be producing new words... let us not get into how woefully behind I am on my current manuscripts... but I'm sure it'll be part of my life somehow, whether because I'm ushering an older project over the finish line, or am simply mulling over what I'll work on next.

After all, once you put a book out there, it's part of you forever.

Anyway, I'm of course sad that this is one of my last Across the Board posts, but as Chaucer said, all good things must come to an end. And eight years is a good run at anything... it's longer than any of my day jobs have lasted (hey, we live in a capitalist society where if the chow is better on the other ship, you jump ship).

Anyway, I'll be back in December with a farewell post. After that, you can find me writing on culture site The Workprint, mostly movie and TV reviews, or on the socials: Instagram, Facebook, and somehow still X (formerly Twitter), because old habits die hard.

As for what I'm up to writing-wise? Well, I'm currently putting together a circus-themed anthology, Magic Under the Big Top, for Snowy Wings Publishing, and taking submissions for our eighth (!!!) Brave New Girls anthology. I'm also working on the third and final Flynn Nightsider novel, Flynn Nightsider and the Ire of Inferno, and will be tackling the second Fated Stars book after that (let's not talk about how long ago those series starters came out...). And depending on how certain Kickstarters fare, I might have a few more short stories in the works soon.