Priorities, priorities...

I'm back after a loooong break!

Things change, and I tend to just go with the flow. Seven months ago, in January, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do and accomplish in 2017. Well, that plan has already undergone 180-degree changes twice. 

2017 is being a very exciting year. I've been shortlisted for the Janusz A. Zajdel Award (for a novellette) and for the Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award (for The Thistle Queen). I've been to the London Book Fair in March and to the Warsaw Book Fair in May. I got invited as a guest to a lovely convention in Wrocław in July (where I had the chance to talk to Angus Watson and Brian McClellan). I plan to attend three more conventions in Poland (one in Toruń and two in my hometown) before winter comes. 

I'm also busy translating. A LOT. On the other hand, my writing is lagging badly. In January, I planned to take an extended break from translations, perhaps even until the end of 2017, and WRITE (I magically become a productive writer when I slash other commitments that involve deadlines). And write I did... except that February and March were spent maniacally translating stuff into English (samples of my own writing and that of other authors) and proofreading samples prepared by other translators. Lots of pure, 100-percent effort (unpaid, non-profit, kinda crazy) put into an initiative that might bear fruit or not. For now, I've set that particular flowerpot aside, and if something grows there, I'll be jubilant. If not... oh well, I've handled bigger disappointments.

In June, I changed my mind about focusing on writing, accepted some translation and editing jobs that came my way, and decided to temporarily shelve yet another partly written novel that wasn't meeting my internal quality control standards. I'll come back to it someday. After meeting one deadline after another in June and July (everything somehow got finished on time, and I can proudly add T. Coraghessan Boyle's "The Relive Box" and Carrie Vaughn's "Game of Chance", two brilliant short stories, to the list of texts I've translated into Polish; Boyle's story has just recently appeared in the magazine pictured at right), I'm more than halfway through the last translation project, a YA fantasy novel, and have decided to at least update my blogs. I have a number of writing projects, four short ones and one long to be exact, outlined and waiting to be written... and a sensible schedule needs to get worked out before I can seriously tackle them. 

(And life is happening in parallel, in the form of a newly purchased apartment at the shell and core stage that needs to be fitted out and furnished. A huge distraction! Hence the extended pauses in blogging. I've already learned more about different types of floors and doors and tiles and kitchen furniture than I ever wanted to know...)

Meanwhile, the first volume of my Darkgleam series, Dwie karty [Two cards], first released in 2011, will soon be reprinted by the large Polish publishing house Rebis. The planned release date is September 2017. I had my doubts about the new cover, but the longer I look at it, the better I like it!