Looking Back at 2018 and Forward to 2019

As usual I’m a little bit late in putting this together, but I always enjoy looking back at the year just gone and reflecting on how things have gone for Track of Words. 2018 was my fifth year of working on Track of Words and while I hadn’t planned to, I ended up really going for it. I published more reviews, interviews and blog posts than in any of the previous four years – including a non-stop run of at least one post a day for a whopping 153 days – and I hit some milestones that a few years ago would have looked almost impossible to achieve.

Along the way I had another fabulous year of reading and writing about great books, short stories and audio dramas, chatting to great people online and even meeting a load of lovely folks out and about at events. It’s been very much a year of digging deeper into Black Library stories, and Track of Words has developed yet further into an almost exclusively BL-related site, and that’s brought me a lot of entertainment along the way!

In this article I’ll take my usual look through some stats for the year, and pull out both some highlights in terms of achievements, and some of my favourite stories of the year. I also want to talk a little bit about the future of Track of Words, and what I’m hoping to do in 2019. If you’re not fussed about the 2018 recap, feel free to skip straight to the end for that bit! Without further ado, however, let’s jump straight in with a look back at last year.

2018 in numbers

I always enjoy looking back through the website stats, and reminding myself of what I spent the past year writing about. I seemed to spend most of 2018 feeling like I was incredibly busy, which is supported by this first statistic:

• Posts published: 348

No wonder I felt busy! Not only is that 48 more posts than 2017 – and damn close to one a day for the entire year – but it also took me comfortably past the 1000 post mark! I still can’t quite believe it…ONE THOUSAND POSTS! More on this later, though.

I’ll break that 348 down now into a few chunks. First of all, another figure that’s quite hard to properly grasp:

• Words written: 310,113

Over three hundred thousand words – I could have written several novels if I’d been writing fiction instead! Once again, no wonder I was so busy. Let’s have a look at how things break down by the different types of post now:

• 206 reviews, of which:
  • 109 short story reviews
  • 69 book reviews
  • 28 audio drama reviews
• 53 interviews, of which:
  • 49 Rapid Fire interviews
  • 4 longer interviews
• 52 Black Library Weekly posts
• 12 Monthly Highlights posts
• 25 assorted blog posts

Of those numbers I think I’m most pleased with the number of book reviews and the number of interviews. I’ve had loads of fun putting together all of those Rapid Fire interviews, which average nearly one a week for the whole year, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much!

I’m also very pleased to see that it’s not just my work rate that’s increased this year, but viewing figures too. 2017 saw a massive increase in people reading Track of Words over the previous years, and the numbers continued to rise in 2018:

• Visitors: increased by 63%
• Page views: increased by 72%
• Posts viewed: 1061 of 1088

I couldn’t be more pleased with those numbers, and they’re really down to you – I’m hugely grateful to everyone who’s visited in 2018. Thank you! It’s particularly pleasing to see that so many different posts were viewed at least once over the year; some of those are now almost five years old, but I hope they’re still interesting.

Top posts

I think that’ll do for 2018’s stats, so let’s move onto something a little different. I’ve picked out the three most popular posts under a few different headings – most of these were posted in 2018, but not all of them:

Book reviews:

• 1. Slaves to Darkness by John French
  2. Titandeath by Guy Haley
  3. Sons of the Emperor – Anthology

Quick reviews:

• 1. Shadow of the Past by Gav Thorpe
  2. The Abyssal Edge by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
  3. The Passing of Angels by John French

Audio drama reviews:

• 1. Titans’ Bane by Chris Dows
  2. Heirs of the Laughing God: A Deadly Wit by Gav Thorpe
  3. Corsair: The Face of the Void by James Swallow

Interviews

• 1. RAPID FIRE: Dan Abnett Talks The Magos
  2. RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks The Lords of Silence
  3. RAPID FIRE: Aaron Dembski-Bowden Talks Spear of the Emperor

Blog posts:

• 1. Write for Black Library – 2018 Open Submissions Window
  2. Upcoming Black Library Titles (as of November 2018)
  3. Getting Started with Black Library – Warhammer 40,000

So there we go, lots of stats and lists to kick things off. I’d love to know if there’s been a particular review, interview or blog post that you’ve enjoyed the most – drop me a line if there is!

Best bits of 2018 for Track of Words

Next up I want to pick out a few key achievements of 2018 – forgive me if this bit gets a little self indulgent!

I mentioned earlier that I published my 1,000th post this year; I knew that the landmark was approaching, and I asked on Twitter what people thought I should write about for that post. The overwhelming majority of people who responded wanted to know more about how I came to start writing Track of Words, and what my history was in terms of reading Black Library books, so I obliged! I won’t go into lots of detail here about what went into that post, but I will say that I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed thinking back to what got me started with reading in general, with reading Black Library books, and with writing Track of Words. There’s nothing like a trip down memory lane, eh?

Hopefully that post was at least reasonably interesting to read in the end. I suspect it will be a while before I have another milestone quite like that! I should also like to say a huge thanks once again to the exceptionally lovely Brad who made a point of finding me at the Weekender in November and handing me a HUGE cookie with the word ‘Congrats 1000 Posts’ emblazoned upon it, to help me celebrate the milestone! I’m still a bit gobsmacked…

I’m really proud – and still slightly amazed – that I’ve written so much for Track of Words. It’s gone from being something a little unusual to keep me occupied to an ongoing endeavour which has taken up a huge amount of my time and effort, and turned out to be incredibly rewarding. If anyone is thinking about setting up a blog, and especially writing book reviews, I really can’t recommend it enough. Find something that you’re interested in, if possible find an interesting little niche (i.e. military science fiction and fantasy book reviews), choose a tone of voice, and set yourself a challenge. I’m still loving doing all of this reading and writing, and I can testify to how satisfying it can be! Even if sometimes it ends up taking over a little too much!

I think the other thing I’m particularly proud of this year is how much work I’ve put into author interviews. I mentioned in last year’s recap that I was pleased to have started to do more interviews, and while I’ve actually ended up doing fewer of the long-form interviews I have – as I mentioned earlier – really ramped up the Rapid Fire interviews. Although there’s not as much depth to these interviews as some of the others that I’ve done in the past, I find it endlessly interesting and satisfying to read how each author answers essentially the same questions, and I think there have been some brilliant answers over the course of the year. I hope they’ve been interesting – do let me know if there are any questions you would particularly like asking, or if you generally have any thoughts or feedback on how these interviews work.

I know I said that I’ve done fewer long-form interviews, but one absolute highlight for 2018 on a personal level was my interview with Peter Fehervari. Yes, I know I said that it was part one of two, and yes I STILL promise that part two will happen. Patience is a virtue, and all that! Regarding this first part, however, I’m just so pleased to have been able to interview one of my absolute favourite Black Library authors, and to have had the chance to pose some deep and satisfying questions. If you’ve read the interview I’m sure you’ll agree that Peter’s answers are consistently fascinating – he just has such an unusual, exciting way of seeing 40k – while if you haven’t read it then I would absolutely urge you to remedy that! I’ve got high hopes for part two, as well, so watch this space.

Reading highlights

If you’ve read this far then I’m sure you’re at least a little bit like me – you love reading, you love Black Library stories, and you spent 2018 enjoying another year’s worth of great new books, short stories and audio dramas. For me there were way too many great stories to mention all of them here (although you could look back through my reviews if you really want to read more!) so instead I’ve picked out a few of my overall highlights, organised into loose headings.Catching up on AoS
Something I was really keen to do in 2018 was to finish off the Realmgate Wars series and finally catch up with some of the other new Age of Sigmar novels which I hadn’t yet got around to reading. I actually ended the year with three AoS novels still to read, but despite that I did manage to read nine novels and six novellas (counting City of Secrets as a novella) – plus a stack of short stories, not to mention a four hour audio drama – and really get a handle on the tone and feel of the Mortal Realms. I enjoyed every single one of those stories, although in terms of books I’d say my highlights were probably Nagash: The Undying King by Josh Reynolds, City of Secrets by Nick Horth and Realmslayer by David Guymer.

Novellas
At the Black Library Weekender in November I remember seeing a phrase in the programme for one of the seminars, which talked about “this new era of short fiction”. I thought that was an interesting phrase which bodes well (in my opinion) for what’s still to come, but is clearly in reference to the swathe of novellas which were released in 2018. I love a Black Library novella, as the best examples focus on a pacy and exciting plot first and foremost, and so this year it’s been great to see so many released. The six Start Here With Black Library novellas which were available in bookshops over the summer nicely whetted my appetite, especially as they gave me the opportunity to read Sin of Damnation and Assault on Black Reach for the first time, and I LOVE the £3 paperback format that they appeared in.

When the Black Library Novella Series 1 arrived in November, at the same price point and featuring no fewer than TEN books in the series, I was over the moon. I just managed to finish reading the series by the end of 2018, and I don’t think I could really have been happier with the variety of settings, characters and stories across these ten books, or the overall standard of the series. I genuinely don’t think I could pick a favourite, as they’re all so different and so much fun. If you haven’t checked them out, I would really recommend it!

Short stories and the return of Inferno!
Speaking of short fiction, I can’t write a recap of 2018 without talking about the Open Submissions Window that Black Library ran earlier in the year and then the return of Inferno! as an ongoing series of short story anthologies. I’m a big fan of seeing new authors come through into the BL stable, and this year there have been plenty of those – with multiple stories from names like Danie Ware, Peter McLean, Evan Dicken – but I think the submissions window makes for an especially positive statement, especially when it results in great new stories being published. I don’t know the specifics of how many authors made the cut from the 3,500+ submissions, but I do know that both Thomas Parrott and Jamie Crisalli came through the submissions window and have stories in Inferno! Volume 2.

Speaking of Inferno!… I’ve talked lots before about how important the original magazines were to me back when they were first published, but I can’t say it often enough. I am SO GLAD that Black Library are committing to publishing regular anthologies of short stories in print, and I think it’s brilliant that they’re doing so under the Inferno! name. I’ve read the first two volumes and been very impressed, both with the standard of storytelling and the way in which BL are drawing inspiration from the first generation of Inferno! and making sure that the new anthologies offer great variety and opportunities for new authors. Long may it continue!

Nearing the end of the Heresy
I still can’t believe that there’s only one main-range Horus Heresy novel to go (February’s The Buried Dagger by James Swallow, in case you’ve been living under a rock) and then we’re at the Siege of Terra – and 2018 has, in my opinion, been a bumper year for the Heresy. Over the course of the year I read four Primarchs novels, a Primarchs short story anthology, two novellas and three full novels, plus goodness knows how many short stories and audio dramas; that’s an impressive collection of Heresy content.

I’ve been surprised when reading commentary online (I know, why was I surprised?) to learn that quite a lot of people have been critical of recent Heresy novels. I know I naturally lean towards the positive end of the spectrum, but I’ve got to say – hand on heart – that I absolutely loved Wolfsbane, Slaves to Darkness and Titandeath, and I think they’re some of the best instalments in the whole series. I can’t imagine how tricky it must have been for Guy and John to wrangle so many different story threads and still come up with satisfying, entertaining novels in their own right, so I have to take my hat off to them for all of those novels. Once again I don’t think I could pick a favourite, although I will say that reading Titandeath got me SUPER fired up for Adeptus Titanicus, and I’m absolutely itching to put together some Titans now!

Favourites

I find choosing favourites of any kind pretty tricky, and I’ve been deliberately vague so far in this article. Nevertheless, I’ve made an attempt to single out some of my absolute favourite stories that I read or listened to in 2018 – if I did it again in a week I suspect I’d end up with different choices, but I’ve done my best based on how I’m feeling right now! In no particular order, then…

Books

• Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds
• Anarch by Dan Abnett

Short stories

• Baphomet By Night by Peter McLean
• The Enemy of My Enemy by Nate Crowley
• Ghosts of Demesnus by Josh Reynolds

Audio dramas

• Titans’ Bane by Chris Dows
• Prophets of Waaagh! by Guy Haley
• Realmslayer by David Guymer

As with last year I’ve also picked out a few of my favourite non-Black Library titles from 2018. All three of these blew me away for very different reasons, but if you’re a fan of Black Library and sci-fi/fantasy in general then I think there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy these as well.

• Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
• Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell
• Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (I didn’t review this one, but it’s unusual, beautifully written and well worth checking out)

I’m not going to pick out any lowlights – to be honest I’ve hardly read anything that I didn’t enjoy, and as usual I’m keen to keep things positive as much as possible!

What happens next for Track of Words

I’ll be honest with you here. For a while, back in early to mid 2018, I was seriously considering stopping Track of Words at the end of the year. I was getting tired (it can be hard work doing all of this writing while holding down a full time job – I have NO IDEA how authors manage it), I was getting the itch to read a bit more widely but wasn’t in the mood for writing reviews of genres other than SF&F, and I quite liked the idea of calling it a day after five years’ worth of posts. It felt neat and tidy, and I fancied the idea of both getting some of my time back, and lifting some of the pressure that I’d put upon myself to be constantly reading and writing.

That was earlier in 2018. As the year wore on, for various reasons which I won’t go into here (if you’re really interested, come find me at an event and ask me) I started feeling like maybe I wasn’t quite ready to let go of Track of Words just yet. I do get an awful lot out of doing this, and I increasingly came to realise that I would miss it. That being said, there was no question about it – Track of Words was taking up A LOT of my time, and I knew I couldn’t do it forever. And so, because I’m a bit of a masochist sometime, I decided that I was going to go big for the rest of 2018, and then see what happened. Hence posting every day for 153 days in a row!

And now we’re in 2019. Don’t worry, I’m not calling it quits just yet. I do, however, need to slow down a little and find a bit of a better balance. I need to let go, to be honest – to accept that it isn’t healthy to spend ALL of my time reading and writing, or at least reading and writing about the same sort of thing all the time, and that it’s ok to leave Track of Words alone for a few days each week. That way I can make sure that when I’m reading or listening to a story with a view to reviewing it, I’m fully engaged and always enjoying myself, and equally make sure that I can spend a healthy amount of time reading books that I can just enjoy for the sake of reading them.

And so, the question remains – what’s the plan for 2019? Honestly…I’m not sure. I’d hoped to be able to spend the end of 2018 figuring out exactly what I wanted to do in 2019 and be ready to crack on with a clear plan, but as usual things didn’t work out quite like that. I’ve got at least some of the way towards a plan, and although it’s still a bit vague and fuzzy around the edges, I thought I’d share it with you here nonetheless.

Regularity
This week I’m deliberately giving myself a rest, so this article is probably the only thing I’ll post, but after that I’m hoping to be back on track and publishing 3 or 4 posts per week. That’s only a rough guide, as I’m sure there will be times (short story weeks, or if I’m particularly fired up about something) when I end up posting more frequently, and probably other weeks when life gets in the way and I hardly post at all. I just need to make sure I have time to breathe, and I’m not working myself into the ground?

Reviews
By all means get in touch and tell me if you disagree, but I think that one of my strengths as a reviewer is covering new Black Library titles reasonably quickly after they’ve been released. I want to concentrate where possible on doing that, and keeping up with a reasonable number of the big titles. That should be doable as long as I keep my focus on new(ish) releases, which means I’ll need to write fewer back catalogue reviews as a result. I’m planning on finishing my reviews of the Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin stories, but otherwise I’m going to slow down on writing reviews of older stories. I might do a few here and there, but fewer in general.

I’ve a feeling that what I’ll end up posting is maybe one short story review (either the Digital Monday story or something older if there isn’t one/I’ve already covered it) and one novel/novella review per week, plus occasional audio drama reviews.

Black Library Weekly
I’ve written 123 instalments of my Black Library Weekly articles, and I’m often surprised at how popular they are – after all, I’m not providing any information which isn’t already available elsewhere. The problem is, they tend to take AGES to put together, and if I’m honest they’re not the most exciting things to write, so at times it has been a bit of a chore to work on them. That’s especially true if I’ve had a busy week and/or weekend, like when I’m on holiday or away at an event. As such, I’m going to stop writing these posts.

I’m thinking about maybe replacing them with monthly roundups of news and releases, so I’d be very interested to know if anyone has any thoughts on whether articles like that would be useful/helpful/interesting. Please do let me know!

Interviews
I’m keen to do plenty more Rapid Fire interviews – I really enjoy these, and they’re not too time consuming. As I said earlier, I hope they’re interesting as well! I’m also hoping that by giving myself a bit more breathing room I’m going to have more time (and headspace) to plan and deliver a greater number of longer interviews as well. I’ve got loads of ideas for these, I just haven’t had time to sit down and organise them, so my hope is that the trade off for scrapping Black Library Weekly and cutting down on reviews is that I’ll be able to dedicate more time to interviews. That’s the hope, anyway!

***

So that’s the plan, such as it is. What do you think? If I’m honest, some parts are non-negotiable – I simply have to slow down a bit, and I’m pretty much set on stopping the weekly roundups. I could potentially be persuaded to go one way or another if anyone’s got any great ideas or if there’s a particular interest in something, so please (genuinely) do get in touch and let me know if you’ve got any thoughts or suggestions. Everything is welcome!

On that note, I’m going to sign off for the time being. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who visited Track of Words in 2018, to everyone who left comments, got in touch on Facebook or Twitter, sent me an email, said hello at an event, or interacted in any way. Knowing that people are interested in these posts is a huge motivating factor for me, and I massively appreciate everyone who comes over here and pays a visit. Here’s hoping 2019 is going to be another great year for all of us fans of reading, listening, and all things Black Library!