Saturday Summary, December 31, 2011

Welcome to a special Year End edition of the Saturday Summary.  This one ought to be a bit longer than most as I take stock of what this past year held for me, and look ahead to what I hope to accomplish in the future. 


Music -- I guess the first place to start is with my goal for the year, and how many pieces I had left to write to reach it:

• Handbell pieces -- 20 -2
• Piano pieces -- 20 9
• Choral pieces -10  9
• String pieces --  4  0
• Band pieces -- 2
• Other instrumental pieces -- 4
• GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 22

I wrote more handbell pieces than I had planned (which I'm actually just fine with), but not nearly enough of anything else.  The 38 pieces I wrote this year is the fewest I've written in the past few years.  I did have a couple of other "pieces" I did, mainly for our Christmas concert and Christmas Eve and Day, but since they're not the sort of thing I ever plan on trying to publish or have played outside of my church, I'm not including them in the numbers.

So where do I want to go from here?  Thirty-eight is a respectable number, but I'd like to write more next year, at least 40.  I might have to temper that number a bit since my life will undergo several very drastic changes in the coming twelve months.  For now, we'll say the goal is 40, and go from there.

I also really want to get more heavily into string orchestra and piano music, and really want to try to break into band music.  As much as it pains me, I may put choral on hold for now and focus my energies on instrumental.  As always, though, I'll pretty much follow where my creative desires call me.

Writing -- This was the year that saw me finally self-publish The Coming of the Heroes, the first book in my Sadonian Chronicles.  (For any of you looking for an after-Christmas gift for you or someone you love, the print version is now just $9.99, and the Kindle and electronic versions are only $.99!)  I also spent a fair deal of time editing and trying to get the second book ready, though a December release deadline just got totally away from me. 

Where do I go from here?  Well, I'd like to have Fealty and Fire available for purchase by mid-March, but again, we'll have to see how things go.  Also, after the receipt of a Kindle Fire for Christmas and exploring the Kindle store extensively, I'm also toying around with the idea of trying to write some shorter, non-serial things, mainly for the fun of it (I suppose if I had to name a hobby, writing would be it), but also to explore the world of e-books and see just how viable they are as a creative medium.  Beyond those goals, we'll see where life takes me.

Publishing -- It was a really good year for me in the Publishing department.  Not only did I have close to twenty pieces released this year, but I also had accepted 26 handbell pieces, 10 piano pieces, one string orchestra piece, and some violin solos.  I added on three new publishers of my music -- GIA Music, From the Top, and Grand Mesa Music -- and have had my music played by more school groups, churches, and community groups than I can count.  To any of you who did program and play my music, just let me say that I'm honored you would choose one of my pieces to play, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

So, where do I want to go from here?  Well, the sad thing of music publishing is that there's a very definite progression: write music, get accepted, get published.  One of my fears for 2012 is that my smaller number of new pieces written this year will cause me problems on the acceptance and publishing fronts next year.  I have enough publishers that work on shorter deadlines than I'm hopeful I can still keep a goodly number of pieces coming out in the next year or two, but I already worry there are one or two publishers who may go a year or more without one of my pieces in their catalog.  I know that's not the end of the world, but at least on a sort of personal-private-goal level, I had hoped that wouldn't be the case for quite some time.  I already know, however, that I've got at least a bit of "job security" as I have a couple of pieces I've promised editors, as well as a commission or two looming, so I don't think my composing career is in jeopardy just yet, thankfully.


From a professional standpoint, 2011 was a very good year.  Tomorrow is the day I start trying to make 2012 an even better year.  I already know it's going to be a year of big changes (with our son due to arrive in late March) and big challenges (my first time leading handbell festivals).  Tomorrow is also the day I start putting the wrong date on legal documents for about four weeks, but that's a different matter altogether.  I know there will be many unknowns and many surprises in store, and I am eager to see what they will be.

To all of you, thank you for another year of being creative and sharing in this whole creative journey.  I wish you a blessed and creative 2012.