Not another end of year retrospective

I’m  required by section 12, article 14.9 of the International Mandate for Associated Bloggers: Orders, Requirements, and Edicts (I.M.A.B.O.R.E) to write an end of year retrospective, but it’s not going to happen.  This is a new KnippKnopp.  I’m a rebel, a malcontent, a safe boy no more.  So let them send their enforcers.  I’m not going to do it.

I mean it’s not even like I have much to retrospect, I only posted about one-third of the year in 2013.  I guess there was Jonathan Maberry’s Novel-in-Nine Workshop, which I joined in hopes it would get “Jonesing” out of the still waters.  While it didn’t (only because the workshop didn’t include Jonathan showing up at my house, dragging me to my desk, and threatening to jujitsu snap my neck unless I started writing), it did allow me meet (or re-meet) instructors Dennis Tafoya and Marie Lamba, not to mention fellow attendees Tom Joyce, Katie Kohler, and Brad Hecht, whose new novel Struggs is making waves over at Amazon.

There was also that Philadelphia Writers’ Conference thing, my first as a board member and registrar.  I got to meet authors Catherine Stine, Brian Francis, and Carla Spataro and the dynamic “SuzyQ” Kuhn, and hang with fellow board members, including newest author (and my personal PWC Siren) Kathryn Craft.  Preparing for the conference was an exhausting event that consumed pretty much every bit of non-Cabletown time, and I loved every minute of it.

I guess there was also those interviews.  At Jonathan’s suggestion, I began asking folks in the business about …well…the business, starting with Jonathan and including authors Marie Lamba, Kathryn Craft, Catherine Stine, Jon McGoran, Tom Joyce, and Gregory Frost.  Boardwalk Empire’s Plexus Publishing stopped by to chat, as did Kim Richards Gilchrist from Damnation Books, the aforementioned SuzyQ, and wordslinger Jenn Brozek.  Much more to come on that front as interviews from thriller writer DL Wilson and Shock Totem’s Ken Wood are queued up for January.

Oh, and Rosemont College and Philadelphia Stories, led by Carla Spataro and her partner-in-crime (and fellow board member Christine Weiser) became a much bigger part of my writing life.  The Push to Publish conference was extraordinary, featuring the ever entertaining and enlightening Michael Martone.  I didn’t necessarily push or publish anything while there, but did get some great feedback, including some always needed ego-boosting from “Write to Sell your Book” owner Diane O’Connell.  I also exposed the never-before released sequel to Les Miz, revealed my dealings with the canine forces of darkness, and wrote my first guest blog with my friends at Biff Bam Pop talking about my relatively new-found zombie apocalypse fixation.

Let’s see, and there was one other thing…..what was that again?

Oh yeah, a beautiful new tenant arrived in the KnippKnopp house, stole my heart (and my office), and finally kick-started me out of those creative doldrums I had been stuck in all year. Pretty much every bit of new writing in 2013 happened after her early arrival, so I guess this little ball of poop and giggles is now officially my muse.

So like I said, nothing much happened in 2013, so there’s just no way I’m writing a retrospective!