The Writing Year in Review Post - 2009

[catherineldf]

I did this for 2008 so it only seems right to continue it as an annual tradition. The review includes all of my appearance, readings and other publicity-related miscellany from the year, plus editorial comments and my thoughts about how the big writing adventure went for this round. I'll do a post after this that will cover what's upcoming for next year, goals and so forth. The first of the editorial comments. Wow, I did a lot of stuff this year, seeing as how all this got done around the day job(s), getting married and occasionally even writing.
January - My collection Night's Kiss: Lesbian Erotica, was released from Lethe Press. Blog talk interview about lesbian ghost stories on League of Amazing Paranormal Women show.
February - Valentine's Day reading at True Colors Bookstore in Minneapolis with romance and erotica writer Nell Stark, who drove in from exotic Madison for the occasion. Podcast interview by Morven Westfield on her terrific podcast (Hi Morven!) Vampires, Witches and Geeks. She also had me do a reading.
March - Publication reading at The Smitten Kitten, the Twin Cities' feminist sex toy and erotica emporium (link not worksafe). Marscon, where I did the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading and several panels.
April - I was interviewed by author Donna George Storey on her blog, see "Interview with a Virtuosa" which is totally, totally not worksafe. May - WisCon, where I participated in a group reading and did a couple of panels.
June - I did a Pride Festival book signing at the True Colors Bookstore booth. Well, okay, I signed a book and some store stock. And I was author and editor Lisabet Sarai's blog guest out on "Oh, Get a Grip!" where I blathered on for a bit about setting erotic scenes. Do I need to point out that this isn't worksafe either?
July - Oh, what a month! CONvergence - did the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading and several panels. Taught the first incarnation of my workshop, "Inflagranti Delicto: Writing Good Scenes" at The Loft Literary Center here in Minneapolis. Attended the Golden Crown Literary Society Conference in Orlando where I taught an erotic romance/erotica writing workshop, did a book signing and was an award presenter. I was also an award finalist (for Haunted Hearths).
August - Reading at The Loft Summer Local Motion series.
September - I got married, which we managed to make not about writing, somehow.
October - Gaylaxicon, here in Minneapolis, where I did several panels and a Broad Universe Rapidfire reading. Arcana: A Conference of the Dark Fantastic, also here in St. Paul, where I was on several panels. DreamHaven Books, Comics and Art, also in Minneapolis, where I did a reading as part of the speculative fiction reading series.
November - My big Atlanta month. Atlanta Queer Literary Fest - reading. Book signing at Charis Books and More as part of their 35th anniversary celebration.
December - amazingly enough, nothing. Except for prepping for 2010 stuff.
Best single sales event for 2009: Golden Crown (6 books sold), with The Smitten Kitten reading as runner-up (4 books sold). This is somewhat misleading since several of the bookstores also bought multiple copies of all of my books for the signings and readings. "Best" in this context means on the spot, "autograph this now," type of sales. Also known as Egoboo.
Best networking and writing business event for 2009 - Gaylaxicon , which resulted in several new projects now in the works and a guest iinvite to A-Kon 2010 in lovely Dallas.
Awards, etc.: Haunted Hearths - finaled for the Goldies in the Spec Fic category; Lynne Jamneck and Lyn McConchie's stories from HH also finaled for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards, which are the spec fic awards for New Zealand authors (this was the first time LGBT stories made the finals, incidentally, which is pretty damn cool); HH is also a Gaylactic Spectrum Awards nominee in the short fiction category (awards not announced at time of posting) and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
Sales for the year: Stories to the following anthologies Like a God's Kiss, Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 9, The Mammoth Book of Threesomes and Moresomes, Lesbian Lust. Edited to add: Women in Uniform, which I just had something accepted for.
Stories that came out this year: "Arachne" in Like a God's Kiss (fantasy erotica - Circlet Press); "Wine-Dark Kisses" in Girl Crazy (erotica - Cleis Press); "Great Reckonings, Little Rooms" in Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative History (alternate history - Lethe Press). The forthcoming issue of Tales of the Unanticipated which includes my fantasy novelette, "The Egyptian Cat" is postponed until February, 2010. The forthcoming anthology, Once Bitten, which includes my lesbian werewolf novella "Silver Moon" has been scheduled for release in late 2010. A

All of the other noted acceptances are due out in 2010. Estimated word count - somewhere around 90,000 or so between the novel in prog, the couple of new stories and the work on misc. projects. It was a pretty dismal year from a productivity standpoint, to be honest. The several new stories that I wrote didn't sell. Only one of the new stories that I wrote this year got accepted, which is a slow year for me. But then, I haven't been writing that much short fiction either. The novel's still not done, something I was really hoping to wrap my brain around for this year. I've been feeling unfocused and worn down most of the time (and I realize that compared to a lot of people, my 2009 was fantastic). I'm hoping 2010 is a more productive year. I will say that I'll be announcing a very cool new project soon and I'm in the process of doing several author profiley sorts of things due to release in January. And The Loft has me scheduled to teach 2 classes next year. So I can't say that 2009 won't bear some writing fruit, since it obviously has. I also got to meet some amazing people so I feel very privileged in that respect. On the whole, good experiences. Now I just need to get back to more of that writing thing I hear so much about.

Comments

[thaedeus.livejournal.com]

That's a lotta progress from my POV. :D
Nicely done!

I am picking up speed on the novel... possibly.
I will post a link the the updated map.

Z

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Always seems like it should be more. :-( But thanks!