And so the decade ends in eight hours (well, for us on GMT, anyway) and we leave the naughties and enter the teens or something like that. I don't mind. Because 2010 already promises to be a fun and interesting year. I started 2009 with high hopes, and high results were what I received, in spades. It was the busiest and most financially beneficial year I've had to date, and I for one would like to see this trend continue. I started 2009 with deadlines, and I end them with them, which in a way is good. The circle turns.
When we started the year I was writing the scripts to Excalibur: The Legend Of King Arthur (the second in the 'Heroes and Heroines' series) and From The Pages Of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula': Harker, and a year later the latter is now out, and the former is half drawn and coming out in late 2010. I'd restarted Where Evils Dare with Stefano Martino - and in October that came second in the DC/Zudacomics competition. I was writing the episodes of Necrophim for 2000ad that came out last month. I had a couple of pitches in the pipeline.
And over the year, it increased. In January I got the nod to start the new Doctor Who ongoing series for IDW, something that I'm still doing. I also wrote a 22 page one shot that came out in May. I wrote a Lady Action special that came out a week ago. I was hired to adapt four Anthony Horowitz short stories with Dan Boultwood on art duties for Hachette Books, due out next August / September. I was hired to adapt Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which comes out from Del Rey in May. The DFC was cancelled, and I stopped writing the stories that I was wiritng for them. The Hope Falls trade came out to a small huzzah after Diamond cancelled the distribution, but Outlaw: The Legend Of Robin Hood came out to a large huzzah, both here and in the US. More importantly, I won awards for the latter including being picked as a Junior Library Guild Fall 2009 Selection. Radio 4 reviewed it, saying "It's a really contemporary retelling of the Robin Hood legend - and it works." I adapted another of GP Taylor's DoppleGanger series, and another of Anthony Horowitz's Ravens Gate series.
I went to my first ever Doctor Who convention as a guest, at the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles. I was able to have 'meetings' in the Universal studios backlot while I was there. I also managed to attend Doctor Who conventions in Birmingham, Orlando Florida and Chicago.
I went to New York for meetings twice in 2009, and I also went to US comic cons in New York and San Diego. I went to India for a week as an ambassador on behalf of the British Council. I went to UK cons and did book signings. I spoke at schools, at School Librarian conferences and as a guest of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Most importantly I moved in with my fiancée Tracy, and returned to London after ten years in Birmingham.
And I know I've still forgotten stuff that I did, people I met, places I went to, like the holidays I had in Switzerland, Wales and Egypt. But that's just to be expected now, isn't it.
So as you can see, 2010 has a high bar to get over as 2009 was bloody good to me. And already it's starting well. 2010 is the year of big things and changes in Doctor Who, and also in the IDW series as a new Doctor takes the centre stage. I'm writing my first co-written graphic novel with long term friend and archaeologist Stuart Eve; The Wall, based on 20 years on Hadrian's Wall. I'll finally finish Journal with Bevis Musson. I'm writing Dodge & Twist as a prose novel and with luck I'll have it finished by the end of January, and I'll be writing my first non-comic scripts in a long time this year. Already I'm attending two Doctor Who conventions in the States in 2010, and of course both San Diego and New York once more. I'll be writing more for 2000ad, I'll be finally starting Midnight Kiss II - and a couple of other things that I've been waiting to do. There are more adaptations being looked at. More Lady Action being written, and pitches going through the motions that fill me with hope and excitement.
Will 2010 end as well as 2009 has? I don't know. Many of these things might not pan out. But all I know is that 70% of the projects that I worked on and was paid for in 2009 weren't even on my radar at the start of the year - so with that in mind, 2010 could be incredible.
So go to your parties, pubs, nightclubs, sofas with a cuppa, whatever your plans are and chime in the New Year tonight with me, and let's all see what 2010 brings us, eh? Have a great last few hours and I'll see you all next year.
