This was a pretty intense year. A few weeks ago I sat down and made a list of what I accomplished (I was feeling down and as if I hadn’t gotten anything done at all, and then nothing helps that like a list). Here’s what it looked like:
- I read slush, proofread, and formatted the March 2011 – December 2012 issues of Fantasy Magazine. I also helped with the January and February 2012 issues of Lightspeed. I feel like I learned a very great deal reading all those submissions and reams of older anthologies and magazines. Getting to talk shop with John Joseph Adams every single day taught me loads about stories and the publishing business. I will never forget this year.
- I wrote and sold my first paid nonfiction pieces, which appeared in Lightspeed, Fantasy, and The Broadsheet.
- I interviewed some truly amazing authors that I would otherwise never have gotten to talk to.
- I met all of the Inkpunks and made dozens of new writing friends during my travels to the Rainforest Writers Retreat, Renovation, World Fantasy, and Orycon. I can’t believe how wonderful it is to spend time with kindred spirits!
- I had my first reading at Powell’s.
- I sat on my first panels at conventions, and ground my teeth through my first time as a moderator.
- I sold my first book to Dagan Books.
- “The Secret of Calling Rabbits” was an honorable mention in Year’s Best SF.
- I saw my stories published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bewere the Night 2, Innsmouth Magazine, Scape, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, and Subversion. I also sold a story to John Joseph Adams’ forthcoming Armored anthology, Ideomancer and another market.
- I was just invited to join a super-secret project that I am incredibly excited about.
I am disappointed that I did not finish any novels or revise any novels, but hopefully next year will be a better year for the long form. I am blaming any and all failures on that front to the four months I spent being distracted by wedding planning–after all, I’m pretty sure that getting married was probably the absolute highlight of the year.
I hope that all of you are as excited about 2012 as I am!