Tag Archives: The Seastead Chronicles

Writing Performance Review for 2024

My boss chews me out this time every year. He’s ornery, demanding, harsh, and knows me too well. He’s me.

The Scorecard

Time to assess my writing for 2024. As in past years, I’m using The Writer’s Performance Review scorecard by book coach, Jennie Nash.

To use this scorecard, you rank each attribute from one to five. One = below expectations. Two = partially meets expectations. Three = meets expectations. Four = exceeds expectations. Five = far exceeds expectations.

You’re comparing actual performance during the year to expected performance. If you performed as expected, you’d give yourself a three. If you scored three in all twenty attributes, you’d get 60.

My 2024 Performance and 2025 Plan for Improvement

As my assessment turned out, I got a 62. Mostly 3s, but also one 5, six 4s, four 2s, and one 1.

That 1 rating applies to “goal orientation” and I’ll do more in 2025 to set and meet numeric goals, though I’m mindful of the dangers of becoming too data-driven.

I’ve also committed to some corrective actions in the areas rated as 2:
•   Organization and Planning – I’ll use the Pomodoro method with more consistency to manage my time.
•   Genre Knowledge – I’ll read more books in my genre, study the common attributes of those books, and learn about the most popular authors.
•  Target Audience Knowledge – I’ll write a blogpost about who I think my ideal readers are and how that knowledge could improve my writing, then implement what I’ve learned.
•  Strategic Thinking – I’ll seek influencers, if any, of my target audience, and find ways to connect with that audience.

Writing Accomplishments in 2024

As for writing accomplishments this year, I:
•   made good progress on the third draft of novel number one;
•  finished the first draft of novel number two;
•  finished co-editing a critique group anthology, Ain’t Our First Rodeo, (with three of my stories) and got it published;
•  completed two rounds of edits on my upcoming short story collection, The Seastead Chronicles, and am hoping for its publication early in 2025;
•  wrote and published 48 blogposts (so far);
•  got a short story accepted for another anthology to be published in 2025;
•  wrote an article for a club magazine;
•  made good progress on the first draft of a mostly factual travel book;
•  finished compiling my late father’s collection of over 900 vignettes and got them printed in two volumes for private distribution; and
•   wrote nine poems for personal enjoyment.

Most employers and employees keep annual performance assessments private. I display mine to the world as a service to other writers. May all of us who scribble words have a successful 2025. That’s the New Year’s wish of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 15, 2024Permalink 2 Comments

Writing Performance Review for 2023

Few people look forward to performance reviews, and I’m not one of them. As an upside, I’m my own boss. Downside—I’m my own harshest critic.

Time to assess my writing for 2023. As in past years, I’m using The Writer’s Performance Review scorecard by book coach, Jennie Nash.

This year, I examined the rating descriptions in greater detail and it resulted in a lower score than in previous years. For each attribute, you rank from one to five. One = below expectations. Two = partially meets expectations. Three = meets expectations. Four = exceeds expectations. Five = far exceeds expectations.

It’s a comparison of actual performance during the year to expected performance. Based on that, a score of three isn’t bad. It means you’re doing what you expected to do. If you scored three in all twenty attributes, you’d get 60.

As my assessment turned out, I did get a 60. Mostly 3s, but also one 5, four 4s, four 2s, and one 1.

That 1 rating applies to “strategic thinking,” and I’ll do more in 2024 to discover the influencers of my genre by checking out podcasts and Youtube videos by reviewers and authors.

I’ve also committed to some corrective actions in the areas rated as 2:

  • Organization and Planning – I’ll use the Pomodoro method to manage my time.
  • Goal Orientation – I’ll follow the Stephen Covey method of setting large goals, then breaking them down into smaller goals, and weekly tasks.
  • Genre Knowledge – I’ll read more books in my genre.
  • Target Audience Knowledge – I’ll spend some time listing characteristics of my ‘ideal reader.’ That’s how I get to know my fictional characters better, so it might work for readers.

As for writing accomplishments this year:

  • My story “Turned Off” got published in The Science Fiction Tarot. 
  • I finished the second draft of one novel, and
  • I made good progress on the first draft of another novel
  • I completed another round of edits on my upcoming short story collection, The Seastead Chronicles, and am hoping for its publication in 2024.

    Most employers and employees keep annual performance assessments private. As both employer and employee, I display mine to the world as a service to other writers.

    May all of us who scribble words have a successful 2024. That’s the New Year’s wish of—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 17, 2023Permalink

    8 (+2) Science Fiction Predictions for 2022

    Yes, it’s true, not all of my previous year’s predictions have proven accurate. But some have. Rest assured, though. I’ve abandoned the flawed methods I used back then. Those crystal balls, tea leaves and tarot cards are for amateurs.

    I spent all of 2021 working on a special astrological chart for science fiction literature. After all, it’s only natural to turn to the stars for scifi trends, right? Here are my predictions for 2022:

    • Games and Virtual Reality. This recent trend will continue in 2022 as authors explore the landscape of these settings. Moreover, readers will enjoy the escapism aspect of these stories.
    • UFOs/UAPs. As the government promises to release data on UFOs or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, scifi authors will capitalize on the public’s interest in these sightings.
    • Pandemic. After predicting this last year, I realize I was a year ahead of myself (it happens, in this prognostication biz). 2022 will be the year for pandemic scifi. Expect bizarre diseases with weird symptoms.
    • Post-pandemic. As we emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic, scifi writers will give us tales of humanity returning to normal after devastating pandemic diseases.
    • Private space exploration and tourism. Another example of me misreading the tarot cards. It wasn’t 2021, but will be 2022 when we read scifi novels featuring billionaire-funded space travel, both for tourism and exploration.
    • Humor. We’ll see a welcome surge in funny scifi, just in time to meet the public’s need for a lighter mood.
    • CliFi.  Many readers and scifi writers share concerns about climate change, which will inspire new novels about how humanity copes.
    • AI. Artificial Intelligence will continue to prompt the scifi of 2022 as it has for years now. I predict stories involving the whole spectrum of AI, from specialized AI capable of one type of task, to general AI similar to human intelligence, all the way to superintelligence.

    Personal Predictions

    As a bonus, here are two prophesies involving me:

    • The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, titled Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. I’m on the editorial team.
    • My collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, titled The Seastead Chronicles, will be published in 2022.

    A year from now, you’ll be amazed at how such accurate predictions were even possible. You’ll be begging for a copy of my secret scifi astrology chart and the instructions for using it. You’ll be kicking yourself for having ever doubted—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 26, 2021Permalink

    Looking Back, My 2021 Predictions Assessed

    Another year, another set of (mostly) failed predictions. You’d think I’d give this up! At the end of 2020, I used special tarot cards to make predictions about science fiction books to appear in 2021. Let’s see how those prophecies panned out.

    • Prediction: Disease stories. Inspired by the COVID-19 virus, there will be stories of even deadlier diseases, perhaps intelligent diseases. I see stories of pandemics, extreme isolation, and how characters deal with mass death.
      • Assessment: I didn’t see a lot of such books, but The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird is about a virus that kills only men.
    • Prediction: Rebirth. I foresee stories of characters getting back to normal after pandemics, stories about the rebirth of society.
      • Assessment: Perhaps my prediction for this was a year early. The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente is about rebirth of civilization after climate change and pollution, not disease.
    • Prediction: Private Space Exploration. Inspired by Space-X, stories of space travel will involve companies, not governments.
      • Assessment: I saw no real evidence of this.
    • Prediction: Humor. There will be a surge in funny scifi, mainly because we can all use it right now.
      • Assessment: I saw no real evidence of this.
    • Prediction: Artificial Intelligence. Writers in 2021 will continue to explore this topic as they have for decades, but with greater urgency as computer scientists get closer and closer to developing Artificial General Intelligence, and perhaps Artificial Super Intelligence.
      • Assessment: Got this one right! Check out A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, and Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells.
    • Prediction: Anti-Capitalism. I predict there will be stories pointing out, in fictional form, the deficiencies of capitalism. Anti-capitalist themes may only form the backdrop of the story, but they will be there.
      • Assessment: I give myself partial credit here. The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente concerns the aftermath of a polluted, flooded future Earth after capitalism has run amok.
    • Prediction: China. In 2021, I see an uptick in scifi books involving China in some way. Some will be written by Chinese authors, and some stories will be set in China.
      • Assessment: Again, I think I earned partial credit. Sinopticon, edited by Xueting Christine Ni was an anthology of Chinese scifi short stories. The anthology was published in 2021 and contained stories dating from 1993-2021.
    • Prediction: Fewer Aliens. Alien tales are out in 2021. Of the few that will be published, they will involve communication only, not visitations, let alone abductions or invasions.
      • Assessment: Sheesh. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, scifi was awash with aliens in 2021. All these novels contained them: Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes, The Saints of Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini, A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, and Jack Four by Neal Asher.
    • Prediction: Urban Scifi. Paralleling the urban fantasy subgenre, we’ll see a lot of scifi books in 2021 that start out in a modern-day city setting, and go from there.
      • Assessment: For the most part, I got this wrong. Most scifi in 2021 was set in the future. One exception was The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi which begins in modern-day New York City.

    Personal Predictions

    I also included a set of prophesies about my own writing and editing. I managed to get them all wrong.

    • Prediction: The Seastead Chronicles, my collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, will be published in 2021.
      • Assessment: Not 2021, but next year, I hope.
    • Prediction: The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, (working title: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne) all inspired by Jules Verne, in 2021, and I’ll be on the editorial team.
      • Assessment: Not 2021, but 2022 for sure.
    • Prediction: Pole to Pole Publishing will put out an anthology of reprinted military science fiction short stories in 2021, titled Re-Enlist. I’ll serve as co-editor of this one.
      • Assessment: Regrettably, Pole to Pole Publishing had to abandon this one. Won’t be happening.

    Though I’ve failed to make accurate predictions using tarot cards, tea leaves, and a crystal ball in the past three years, don’t think I’m giving up. I’ve been working all year to perfect astrological prediction techniques. Watch this space for next week’s blog, where I reveal the truth about scifi literature in 2022.

    Let’s just forget about my past failures, shall we? Starting now, you can believe all future predictions made by—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 19, 2021Permalink

    9 SciFi Predictions for 2021

    I know, I know, when I used a crystal ball two years ago, my predictions didn’t pan out. Then when I read tea leaves last year, my prognostications were in error. But you can believe me this year. I’m using SciFi tarot cards to predict what will happen in 2021.

    The cards can’t possibly be wrong. Here are my predictions for science fiction books in the year 2021:

    • Disease Stories. Inspired by the COVID-19 virus, there will be stories of even deadlier diseases, perhaps intelligent diseases. I see stories of pandemics, extreme isolation, and how characters deal with mass death.
    • Rebirth. I foresee stories of characters getting back to normal after pandemics, stories about the rebirth of society.
    • Private Space Exploration. Inspired by Space-X, stories of space travel will involve companies, not governments.
    • Humor. There will be a surge in funny scifi, mainly because we can all use it right now.
    • Artificial Intelligence. Writers in 2021 will continue to explore this topic as they have for decades, but with greater urgency as computer scientists get closer and closer to developing Artificial General Intelligence, and perhaps Artificial Super Intelligence.
    • Anti-Capitalism. I predict there will be stories pointing out, in fictional form, the deficiencies of capitalism. Anti-capitalist themes may only form the backdrop of the story, but they will be there.
    • China. In 2021, I see an uptick in scifi books involving China in some way. Some will be written by Chinese authors, and some stories will be set in China.
    • Fewer Aliens. Alien tales are out in 2021. Of the few that will be published, they will involve communication only, not visitations, let alone abductions or invasions.
    • Urban Scifi. Paralleling the urban fantasy subgenre, we’ll see a lot of scifi books in 2021 that start out in a modern-day city setting, and go from there.

    Personal Predictions

    Here are three other prophesies for 2021, but these involve me in some way:

    • The Seastead Chronicles, my collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, will be published in 2021.
    • The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, (working title: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne) all inspired by Jules Verne, in 2021, and I’ll be on the editorial team. You can write a story for it. Click here for details.
    • Pole to Pole Publishing will put out an anthology of reprinted military science fiction short stories in 2021, titled Re-Enlist. I’ll serve as co-editor of this one. Stay tuned to this blog for more details.

    In late December of 2021, I’ll post my assessment of the above predictions, and you’ll see there’s no better reader of tarot cards than—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 27, 2020Permalink