Well...there are still no hoverboards. I've been holding my breath since I was 8-years-old and watched Marty McFly skip across water on a neon-pink floating skateboard. If I can get my grandkids one for Christmas in thirty-years, I'll call it even.
I'm very excited for the year ahead. If I keep the pace and writing schedule I'm on now, I should have The Falling Stars, Book 3 of Stars of the New Gods, finished and ready for publication early-to-mid-summer. I also started working on a novella I would like to publish in tandem with the book. It's solely a story about Marshal Noel, taking place between book two and book three. It's kind of inconsequential to either book in the series, but it's a good yarn I started spinning one day when I hit a creative wall on The Falling Stars. I really hope it works out that I can release them both at once, but if I had to guess, the novella will come after the novel. Book Three is taking first place in my scraps of time to write.
2015 is an exciting year for science-fiction fans. I would be lying if I said I was not counting down the days until the new Star Wars film premieres. Until that day, I will be gobbling up any of the new content Lucasfilm and Disney throw our way. If you haven't been paying attention, the Star Wars universe is launching two new comic book series through Marvel, four new novels through Del Rey, and the new animated series Rebels is doing a great job in the television department. As a new Marvel fan, I'm also excited for Ant-Man and the second Avengers film.
Part of me is awaiting for the announcement of George R.R. Martin's sixth A Song of Fire and Ice, or Game of Thrones. I hope we at least get an announcement and a publication date. Many people have been down on the man about how long he takes to write novels in his series. These are not just novels. There are incredibly complex, detailed, and rich accounts of the stories and characters in his head. They should not be rushed and we will all be rewarded when we sit down and open the first page of The Winds of Winter.
We are also experiencing somewhat of a cultural renaissance in good television. The division seems absolutely cut-and-dry right now between absolute garbage and quality storytelling. A new season of True Detective, quite possibly one of the most intriguing dramas of all time, awaits us with a new tale. The Americans, my favorite show of 2014, starts it's third season after an earthquake of a second season finale, making the characters question everything they know. Mad Men ends it's frustratingly extended finale, which I will still watch despite how pissed I am AMC is milking it by extending it a year longer than they should.
John Scalzi will be debuting the television adaptation of his series, Red Shirts, this year. Scalzi is the Stephen King/John Grisham/JK Rowling of science-fiction right now. Whenever he or Brandon Sanderson publish a novel, it reminds you how astonishing the gifts of good writers are.
It is also rumored that posthumous publications from J.D. Salinger are to be expected in 2015. I am both thrilled and nervous about the publications Mr. Salinger spent the better part of his life working on in the quiet, New Hampshire forests. Nervous because, well, if you have read his last published work, Hapworrth 16 1924, it suggests that the author has become so engrossed in the process of fleshing out his own characters that it became borderline delusional. Whatever my hesitation is, I will read, and I'm sure enjoy whatever Salinger has deemed fit to publish from his vault of manuscripts.
It seems dumb to voice excitement for the new year, because in two months the daily problems of life will whisk away the excitement. We always dress-up our best selves for the end or the beginning of each year. Why is it that somewhere in the middle the threads start to run and the polish on our shoes starts to fade? Why can't everyday be the year we bring out our best, our optimism, and the lists we should be checking off and not making.
Happy 2015, belated! We're not there yet, but we'll get there soon.
