Progress Report: 2022 End-Of-The-Year Summing Up
by Jeff Baker
It’s been a while since I posted one of these progress reports; my non-writing life has been busy this year. For those readers who don’t know my Mom, Barbara Baker, died on December 10th of this year after spending most of the year in hospice care. I went over almost every day to be with her at her retirement home where they took very good care of her. I consider it very fortunate that she was largely not in any pain or very much discomfort and was able to play bingo with friends or watch TV and snooze (while I sat and wrote!)
But it did take up some extra time and I did slack off on writing any new full-length stories this year. The bulk of my 2022 production has been flash fiction. Doing that, and the love of my husband Darryl, really kept me going and the amazing thing is this year somehow did not feel as awful as it probably should have. But my Mom kept her faculties and she and my late Dad were both proud of my being a published writer, one of the reasons I’m grateful for my persistence.
The big writing news was the opening of “RoM/Mantic Reads,” a M/M romance e-zine started by Fiona Glass. Fiona liked my weekly flash fiction stories and invited me to be a regular contributor, so I happily joined in. I’m in good company with writers like Kaje Harper, Jay Mountney and Fiona (among others.)
I’ll brag on all of us buy posting a link here! https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/
So here’s my truncated writing legacy for 2022…
I published three stories in RoM/Mantic Reads.
I published three non-fiction articles in RoM/Mantic Reads.
I published one poem in RoM/Mantic Reads.
I have one story in submission to RMM that is part of a serial I’m writing (the first part was posted on the site earlier.) I also have several stories in progress or finished ready to send off to RMM.
Besides the RoM/Mantic Reads work:
I posted 12 monthly columns for Queer Sci Fi.
One story. “Nereus,” was posted on the new “Orion’s Beau Quarterly” early in 2022.
I wrote at least 64 flash fiction stories, mostly posted for the weekly Friday Flash Fics and the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, both of which I moderate. (I gotta be out of my mind moderating two fiction sites! But it’s fun and rewarding!)
Under the name “Mike Mayak,” I submitted four stories, got three rejected with one still out there.
As “Jeff Baker,” I submitted 11 stories and received 10 rejections. Not all of these were the same stories, some were for stories I submitted in 2021 (or earlier!)
I have several stories out there in slushpiles; the editors acknowledged their turnaround time would take a while, so I may still be waiting next December for the results.
Most of my writing in 2022 was in the flash fiction form as I did not really make time to write something longer, partly due to looking in on my Mom. But I have still kept up to my personal dictum of always having something out in submission and I have several stories out in the ether (not counting stuff I haven’t ever heard back on for almost a decade!) including at least two more stories for “RoM/Mantic Reads.”
I have a full-length mystery a friend of mine beta read for me early in the year that I need to revise. I’m also working on a flash fiction sci-fi story that’s due early in January. (Really early in January; I have to work on it tonight!)
I don’t intend to quit doing this anytime soon.
All the best to the writers and readers out there for the New Year!
That’s about it for now!
—-jeff baker, December 29, 2022.
