A Year in the Life

2012: A Review

I find it extremely useful to look back at the year that has just passed as a way to move forward in setting goals for the upcoming year.

I've written these year-in-review posts for as long as I've been blogging and I find a curious thing: while I almost never actually meet my yearly goals, I accomplish an enormous number of things. They're just not necessarily the items I had anticipated.

Perhaps this is not quite the problem or failure it might seem to be. Life throws curve balls. If there's one thing I have learned in the past several years, it's to be flexible in the face of the unexpected. (Now, stop laughing, I didn't say I enjoyed it, or even did it gracefully. . . )

So in that spirit, I offer this restatement of the goals I set this year for 2012:

In 2012, I intended to:  

1. Shepherd THE BETWEEN to its ideal readers

My first major goal for 2012 was to get THE BETWEEN in the hands of its readers. I spent a lot of time in the beginning months of 2012 working on obtaining reviews, doing guest blog posts and giveaways, and crafting a marketing plan that felt authentic and not sleazy. I think I accomplished that and made authentic connections with readers and potential readers.

2. Generate enough support and interest to write and release its sequel.

In terms of working on the sequel, I have a bare bones structure for when I return to that world. But I realized that raising awareness for one novel while trying to kickstart another was a way to burn out.

3. Finish the first draft of the "YAGSIP"

Goal number 3? I was all over that. I *owned* that goal. It was an excellent writing year, actually. Now if only I could find a name for the %$#!! novel.

4. Return to my poetry roots

Poetry. I filled several small notebooks with lines, stanzas, and drafts of poems. I also participated in the annual August Poetry Postcard fest, where I wrote 31 original postcard poems and sent them all over the world to 31 different poets.I also got to attend the 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival, which always fires up my soul with the sheer beauty of language.

5. Focus on my physical wellness

Well being? Well, that was a major fail. I know this has been on my list of goals for several years now and I need to do something about it. I'm healthy, but in poor physical shape. I could berate myself for laziness, but it's also that I've had to cope with some significant personal and family stressors in the past year, including the death of my mother and my father's multiple hospitalizations. 

So, what DID I accomplish in 2012?

• In addition to completing the first draft of the Ghost Story, I also started and am set to finish a Science Fiction novel (DERELICT) that I project to come in at 100,000 words. (As of last night, it's at 92K) That represents 1 1/2 novels written in 2012. 
• I revised FUTURE TENSE with feedback from both my agent and some wonderful beta readers (shout out to the lovely gals of the #SWFG and Rebecca Blain from G+)
• Approximately 100 new blogposts, the majority of them here at the Once in a Blue Muse Blog, but also as part of several blog tours, including the Merry-Go-Round Blog tour and the Black Ink White Paper group blog.
• Speaking of DERELICT, I decided to do something different with my work and serialize it as a novel in progress. I've been slowly garnering a wonderful community of interested readers and have really enjoyed the process of being accountable to them during the process.
• At Readercon last July, I had dinner with my fellow graduates of Jeffrey A. Carver's and Craig Shaw Gardner's Ultimate SF&F Workshop. Sitting around the table, it struck me that I was in company with an enormously talented pool of writers and suggested we put together an anthology. I'm thrilled to say that this project is moving forward and my co-editor and I will be meeting to review our submissions over the next few weeks with a plan to have the anthology ready in time for 2013 Readercon.
• I released a slew of new short stories to subscribers of BlueMusings, my newsletter.
• I got to meet my agent, the lovely Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency, for the first time during a recent trip to L.A. We are working towards the same goals and in the same direction, weathering the vagaries of the publishing industry.
• I applied for, and was invited to run a panel with the estimable Tamora Pierce at 2012 ConBust, a small SF&F con run at Smith College in Northampton, MA. It was a wonderful experience, one I will treasure (especially since I got to meet and stay with the utterly wonderful Jane Yolen!!)

In 2013, I Intend to Accomplish:

• Revise/edit the ghost story (which really, really needs a title) and DERELICT
• Brainstorm with Nephele regarding what to write next/continue to align goals with the aim of publication
• Complete and publish the Ultimate SF&F Workshop Anthology
• Write 4-6 new short stories

To my reader and writer friends: May the New Year bring you joy and peace.

Conbust Roundup

Me and my son with Tamora Pierce at Conbust, 2012

Last night I returned home from attending Conbust at Smith College in Northampton, MA.  It was a remarkable weekend for many reasons.  First, because it is the first con I've attended as a panelist, second because I got to hang out with Jane Yolen and Tamora Pierce--two writers who I respect greatly and whose work I admire, and third because of the tone and tenor of the con. 

I'm going to talk about this in reverse order, because I'm sometime perverse that way.  :)

I've been to a few cons--mainly the ones held nearby, Boskone and Readercon, but also Capclave in DC.  These are all larger cons and range in topic across the spectrum of the SF&F world.  You might find panels on the writing craft, the writing business, talks on content related to SF&F (space travel, computer cryptography, folk tale history), or on SF&F media.  What was different about Conbust is all about the philosophy of Smith College.  The Conbust panels revolved around issues of gender, identity, and representation as it pertained to the SF&F world.

The audience was articulate and engaged.  The con is small and therefore encourages conversation and mingling, all with a heaping dose of fun with many attendees cosplaying.

Did I mention mingling? Being able to interact with other speakers and with attendees may have been the highlight of the con for me.  While the interplay of discussions in the panels was interesting and lively, the conversations that happened outside the formal presentations were rich and wide ranging.  Those conversations made me analyze my own writing in a different light.  While I work hard to create strong characters, regardless of gender, who have internal loci of control and agency, I'm not sure I've done enough to look at diversity issues in terms of race, sexual orientation, and disability.  The world I live in is a diverse one.  I need to consider that diversity in the worlds I write.

The big 'names' of the con, Jane Yolen and Tamora Pierce, could not have been any more gracious to me, a newbie to both cons and publishing. I never felt as if I was some interloper or wannabe.  I was welcomed into their world as colleague and for that I am grateful.

Thank you, also, to the Conbust committee who responded so positively to my panel idea and let me play in the sandbox with writers whose work I so admire.