Adventures of a Bookonaut: The year in review 2012

Dec 31, 2012

The year in review 2012

So, 2012 hey.

Well I supposed that we part on pretty good terms, there’s a bit of work I have done this year that I am proud of.

I continued submitting interviews for Galactic Chat which has become one of the most enjoyable aspects of being involved with the speculative fiction community.

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat–18 Nina D'Aleo

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat meets Joe Abercrombie

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat 16 Rowena Cory Daniells

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat 15: Tor Roxburgh

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat 14–Trudi Canavan

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat 13 – Deborah Kalin

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat interviews Kate Forsyth

Adventures of a Bookonaut: Galactic Chat 11: Helen Lowe

I launched my own more general genre podcast, imaginatively titled: Adventures of a Bookonaut: Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast Ep 1. This was to enable me to stretch my interviewing outside the purview of Galactic Chat, to pay some attention to areas I don’t see being covered in the community.

I published somewhere in the vicinity of 465 posts, 64 of which were reviews. Which hopefully means I provided you, dear readers, with some quality, up to the minute, news and views.

I attended my first ever national convention, Melbourne’s Continuum 8 where I met tons of fantastic writers, fans and readers and realised that I am perhaps getting too old to stay in a backpackers.

I was nominated for two Ditmar awards, one individual, one joint with the Galactic Chat crew.

Continuum 8–There and back again (Part 1)

Continuum 8 There and Back Again (Parte the Seconde)

Continuum 8 There and Back Again (Troisième partie)

Continuum 8 There and Back Again (partie 4)

I attended a workshop with the wonderful Lisa L Hannett which resulted in me writing, completing and submitting my first serious speculative fiction work since 1990. It also resulted in my joining a group of talented writers (many of whose skills astound me) and making new writing friends in my home state.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Australian Women Writers challenge which, although I officially completed the 10 books and reviews for the Franklin Tastic level sometime before mid year,I kept going ending up with 32 read and 31 reviewed.

So all said, I can’t really have expected more out of this year. 2012 was pretty good.

Thanks to all readers commenters and friends its been wonderful.

Note: Bonus points if you can identify the skull pictured above.

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Comments (10)

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annabelsmith 31p · 636 weeks ago

Congratulations Sean; it sounds like a positive year in many respects, especially beginning to write your own work. 465 posts is not to be sniffed at either!

9 replies · active 636 weeks ago

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

I am happy with it. And the blog stats have grow too, so I am reaching more people (hopefully)

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annabelsmith 31p · 636 weeks ago

That's good. I'd definitely like to grow my blog audience. Patience...

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

Audience and comments, the later being like soul food :)

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annabelsmith 31p · 636 weeks ago

Absolutely. So many of my blog posts appear to languish unread. But I know it takes time to build a relationship with readers.

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

Be aware to that social media has impacted on blogging too, in that it has stolen some of the more immediate conversation

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annabelsmith 31p · 636 weeks ago

Yes that's true. People are more likely to 'like' something on FB or perhaps comment there than they are on the article or post itself

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

There are a few factors in play - the degree to which your audience thinks they can contribute to the discussion. I have had some people say to me that they thought my post hit the topic spot on and there was no need to add anything further :) .

The other thing is time. A like button is easy.

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annabelsmith 31p · 636 weeks ago

Yes I can see what you're saying. I read a tip that said, don't think your posts through too much - leave them a little incomplete so there is space for others to contribute. Which makes sense on one level. But feels sort of wrong. A bit sloppy i guess. And you're very right about time. I struggle to keep up with reading all the posts on blogs I subscribe to, and commenting adds a few minutes - although I always find the conversations that ensue make it worthwhile - like this one!

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

I think that's good advice for blog posts, where your aim is to get a discussion moving. The feeling of "wrongness" probably stems from academic training, which produces lengthy, well constructed and complete works.

I am also a fan of paragraphs, even where paragraphs wouldn't technically be correct . I find it incredibly difficult reading even the best written posts when they present as large blocks of text - something to do with reading on a screen.

I think it's referred to as chunking- splitting your post up into easily scan-able blocks.

When it comes to reading blogs, aside from those of what I might consider my inner circle of associates/friends I am afraid I often go on titles. I have somewhere between 400-500 blog feeds that I monitor so often I just scan titles and only if they catch my attention do I read on.

I'm enjoying the conversation too :D
My recent post Adventures of a Bookonaut in Epub or Mobi

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