Body of Work
August 25, 2010
I think most writers--myself most definitely included--get tangled up in the commercial aspects of whatever project we're working on. God knows it's what most closely resembles writer's block for me.
Sometimes, though, I gain perspective. I realize that I have a body of work. Here are my published or soon-to-be published books.
The Valley of Shadows (Hardcover, June 2011)
31-1/2 Essentials For Running Your Medical Practice (Trade paperback, October 2010)
by John Guiliana, DPM and Hal Ornstein, DPM, with Mark Terry
The Battle For Atlantis (E-Book, June 2010)
Monster Seeker (E-Book, June 2010)
The Fallen (Hardcover and e-book, April 2010)
Edge (formerly Dancing In The Dark), (E-Book, June 2009)
The Serpent's Kiss (Trade paperback and e-book, July 2007)
[also published in French, German, and Slovak. Slovak are in hardcover]
The Devil's Pitchfork (Trade paperback and e-book, October 2006)
[also published in French, German, and Slovak. Slovak are in hardcover]
Dirty Deeds (trade paperback, May 2004)
Catfish Guru (trade paperback, March 2002)
I've also had a short story published in an anthology (hardcover and mass market paperback), a short story published in an online publication, and an essay that appears in a collection of essays (hardcover).
I've also published well over 600 magazine articles, book reviews, journal articles, columns, market research reports, white papers and other miscellaneous things.
It sure does accumulate.
I would also point out that ultimately, my body of work includes a few million words of unpublished novels, scripts, short stories, essays, blog posts, and other things. Just because they're not necessarily published does not mean they don't count as part of my body of work. Perhaps someday there will be some graduate student in contemporary literature or popular culture or something who spends a couple years sifting through the detritus of my writing, talking about themes and the development of style, etc. Or maybe not. Maybe my books will exist on a couple library shelves, in some computer memory bank somewhere, and handed down or lost by my children or readers to show up in antique shops, used bookstores, and somebody's basement, attic, or dug up by some archaeologist in a landfill.
In many ways it doesn't matter. I have a body of work and that's what matters to me. That and my ability to make money that allows me to live the lifestyle I currently live. Sometimes it matters a lot to look at all I've had published and all I've written, especially when I'm getting bogged down in the abattoir of modern publishing.
How about you? Do you have a body of work?
posted by Mark Terry at 6:05 AM
9 Comments:
My body of work:
6 sold short stories
5 on the open market
QUENCHER January '10
QUENCHED November '10
SENTINEL -unpub
TAMING THE TIGER -unpub
THE TRUE TERNION -unpub
THE SILVER BLADES -unpub and unfinished
EXILE (out to an agent, about to go out to smaller pubs)
And 5 years worth of blog posts.
Millions of words. And I don't resent even one of them.
As frustrating as those million or so unpublished words were, I realize they led to where I am today, and hopefully I'll be able to look at today's words, published and unpublished, as having led me to where I'll be in the future. Maybe we all build our writing careers on a huge pile of words.
It does accumulate. I lost count. I need to count again. I had a sheet of paper with a list somewhere. I know I brought it with me. I think I've got somewhere in the mid-twenties of novels or novellas and over fifty short stories. Two creative non-fiction essays. *thinks* That's it. Wish "real name" would be a little more prolific.
Impressive.
My own body of professional fiction amounts to...uh...well...nothing. As co-writers, however, Mary and I have 17 short stories and 8 novels published. Mary had 4 short stories published on her own. We have a list on our website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~maywrite/fiction.htm
I do have, professionally, dozens of non-fiction magazine articles and newspaper columns and articles to my credit.
Oh and endless articles and pieces of articles for legal encyclopedias which I wouldn't call writing. I wrote an entire volume on Michigan Taxation.
But most of my body of work consists of dozens of fanzines and mini-comics published for fun and hundreds of articles for fanzines. If that amounts to a body of work.
One great thing about Poisoned Pen Press is they sell a disproportionate number of books to libraries but that gets us more readers and gives us a chance to be on the shelves and still read many years from now.
Eric,
It frankly caught me off guard a bit to look at them and think, "Well, crap, by this time next year I will have published at least 10 books. How'd that happen?" (And what do I have to show for it?)
But, there they are. Some in paper, some in that nebulous world known as "digital media."
A couple of short stories and a piece of a novel published in college lit magazines many years ago (okay, many decades ago), some unfinished novels that probably no longer exist except for an abandoned NANOWRIMO attempt, some pieces of an attempt at a novel co-authored with my wife, some pieces of a co-author attempt with my daughter -- plus a huge stack of technical writing (books for use in corporate high end computer software courses) -- and an online journal/blog that will mark its 14th anniversary in September.
Blogging for 14 years, Jim? That must be close to some sort of record.
Um . . .
25 novels under 4 pen names, from middle grade, to YA, to adult.
Not sure how many ghostwritten books. At least five.
Probably a million words blogging. Maybe more.
Probably 2 million words of novels in various stages of being unsold, or proposal or abandoned. Or in progress.
I don't know. You have me thinking. I might have to quantify. LOL!
I'm still at the unpublished words phase, but I try my best to see them as part of my path. They've taught me a lot!
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