This is a professional blog post.

Today is March 3rd. Exactly one year since I learned that Solaris was putting itself up for sale.

This is probably the last time I'll talk about this, because it's history and not something I want to dwell on. But it had a significant impact on my life and my career, and not all of it has been bad. I wanted to mark these things one last time, put them in the dirt, and then move on.

The bad things that happened mostly revolved around Heart of Veridon. Because of the legal complexities involved with the sale, no review copies of the book went out. Uncertainty on whether the house would sell led to poor pickup at the bookseller level. So Heart of Veridon foundered and eventually sank. This is life.

On the good side, related to HoV, the new Solaris has gotten those review copies out, and some slight buzz is being generated. Maybe that translates into future sales, or better initial sales on the second book, or whatever. It's a positive development.

The best thing that came of this whole process is that I sold The Horns of Ruin to Lou Anders and Pyr. It's a world I've been kicking around in my head for a long time, and I'm really happy with the final product. Well. Not final yet. I'm doing revisions right now, but the process has been pleasing unto me.

So, a lot has changed in a year. I expected to be grinding out Veridon sequels for a while, and instead I've established a second world while maintaining (after a slight delay) the Veridon series. I've changed jobs. I'm building a house. I'm back in church and really very happy with that, too. None of these things I could have predicted a year ago.

Life goes on.