According to the Intertubes, that is my creative output for the 2010s.
Seven novels, two Wild Cards novellas and one novelette, and three short stories. Their tally is missing one short story, “On the Use of Shape-Shifters in Warfare”, which was used for LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS this year. I’ve also written two more novels this year that won’t be out until 2020, so I’ve managed to write nine novels in the 2010s. And Jet City Comics did a four-issue Frontlines graphic novel called REQUIEM, which is also missing from the list.
That’s really not a bad record as far as productivity goes, and I especially like the regular numbers behind the novels, one per year since 2013. From 2020 on, the plan is to bring that number to two a year, so there should be three times as many entries on that page by the end of 2029….provided I don’t get hit by a bus or decide to hang up the keyboard and become a shepherd in New Zealand or something.
Overall, I really can’t complain about the 2010s, even if the second half of the decade has been a little strange and noisy. Since my career started taking off in 2013, I got to launch two SF series and sell over a million copies, see two of my short stories turned into Netflix material, and contribute a good number of words to the Wild Cards universe. I’ve also been able to travel a lot and make a bunch of new friends in my new professional field. If things keep going on this general trajectory, the 2020s should be a very good decade for me. We shall see.
I hope you all had a great holiday season, and I wish you a happy and prosperous 2020.
I’ll do my best to keep kicking for another decade so I can see if you hit your goals. (Pretty good genetics in my family, so chances are I’ll make it.) Mostly, I plan to stick around for the books. Keep up the good work.
You are a superb writer, an experienced soldier, and in your way, a social critic/questioner. I talked a book aficionado into taking a copy of Terms of Enlistment home this very afternoon. I have purchased no fewer than 3 sets of the frontline series, to give as gifts.
Having said that, I must say that to leave the series for a couple of years, was for me a disappointment. If your creativity effort is to be noted by your total output, then you have certainly shown your chops. I was an early follower of G.R.R. Martin for a few months, then I saw him abandon his major work for a few years: I have not picked him up since. (I know he is a fan of yours, as he ought to be.) No doubt most reading these remarks, will think I am unfair, or worse. You had your reasons for doing this. At this point, I have no interest in reading your new works, though I have every reason to believe they are Hugo winners, etc. I sincerely hope I have not offended you: like it or not, for the work you began with the frontline series, I “put more stock in you, and your work, and your possibilities, of creating a work of enduring value, of describing the relationship of soldiers, and society, warfare, and justice” than I have since some early works of Robert A. Heinlein. I have not given up that hope, nor belief in your abilities, dedication, sheer intelligence and realistic sense of fairness and endurance and sacrifice. I look forward to your next endeavor in this wonderful work.