First and foremost, Happy New Year! May 2017 be kind to you.

Secondly, a quick summary of 2016 on the writing front. I wrote 97 new poems, revised many more, revised and re-revised The Sign of the Dragon, and wrote two short stories. I had 66 acceptances, 67 publications, 3 of my poems were nominated for the Rhysling Award, and I won the Elgin Awardfor Crowned 🙂 Balanced against this, I had a very large number of rejections (untallied, but probably about a thousand, since even when I have a poem accepted, the place accepting it usually rejects the other poems that I sent in that batch).

Thirdly, Crowned received two more Goodreads reviews in December: one by Jenny Blackford and one by John Reinhart 🙂

The official publication date isn’t until January, but I have received contributor copies of the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction containing my poem “Kingship” and I am happy 🙂

This is my first poem in F&SF, though I have had four short stories published there. It is (surprise, surprise) a poem about King Xau, and I am fond of it.

I have poems, all reprints, out in Issue 19 of The Were-Traveler 🙂

I have belatedly realized that my poem “Legacy” (accepted in June) has been published in After Happy Hour Review. “Legacy” is a short, mainstream poem. It used to be a long mainstream poem, but I pared it down….

My poem “Stay” has been accepted by Songs of Eretz Poetry Review. “Stay” tells a sad part of King Xau’s story.

Two pieces of good news…. My poem Judgment has appeared in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review. “Judgment” is a poem from near the end of King Xau’s story. And my poem “Moon Swan” has been accepted by Undead: A Poetry Anthology; “Moon Swan” first appeared in Star*Line.

Star*Line has accepted two more of my poems, “Magicians” and “Invitation.” They are both new poems (written in November). N.B. In case it’s not clear to anyone, I receive considerably more rejections than acceptances. In the past week, I’ve had rejections from Dreams & Nightmares, F&SF, Gettysburg Review, Interzone, Mithila Review, Polu Texni (two out of three poems rejected), and Star*Line (one out of three poems rejected). It’s been a busy week!

I am very happy to report that I had six poems accepted this afternoon! Polu Texni accepted my poem “Respect,” which is part of The Sign of the Dragon. It’s one of the bleaker poems in the epic, but I am fond of it. And The Were-Traveler accepted five poems, all reprints, from The Sign of the Dragon for their upcoming speculative poetry issue.

My King Xau poem Recruits is in the Winter 2016 issue of Mirror Dance. The poem takes place relatively late in the story, 14 years into King Xau’s reign.

N.B. I have completed the whole of “The Sign of the Dragon,” and been through 2 revision passes, and am trying to leave it alone for a bit. Which is hard. Last week I went back and added one short new poem into it (one of three cat poems in the sequence). In the meantime, I’ve written my first science fiction poems in a long time, plus some non-Xau fantasy poems, plus some mainstream poems, plus a couple of short-shorts.

My poem Princess Tea Party is online at Songs of Eretz Poetry Review. It’s a poem about taking Lucy to, yes, a princess tea party, back when she was four years old.