Writing Year in Review - 2011

[catherineldf]

My 2011 year in writing was...pretty full. And pretty much all good, which is kind of awesome. :-)
The rest of the year had its issues, but on the whole, I think I've been pretty fortunate. Huge thank you to my publishers, editors, collaborators. reviewers, folks who hosted podcasts, readings or cons that I appeared at, and of course, my wonderful readers for making it a good year.

• I had two books out this year. The first was a collaborative project, the anthology Hellebore and Rue:Tales of Queer Women and Magic, co-edited with JoSelle Vanderhooft. Hellebore was originally published as an ebook by Drollerie Press, which sadly had to to close its doors in 2011. Lethe Press picked up the print rights and will hopefully do an ebook release in the nearish future. H&R has gotten some great reviews, including this one in Lambda Literary and this one by Cynthia Ward at Black Gate.
• The second book was a collection of my previously uncollected or new fantasy and historical short fiction with lesbian protagonists - A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2011). I did readings from several of the stories on a couple of podcasts, including The Cocktail Hour and the Outer Alliance podcast and was fortunate to get some glowing reviews such as this one by Kate Genet at Kissed by Venus.
  
• Hellebore and Rue was a winner for Best Lesbian Sci-Fi/Fantasy in the Rainbow Awards and got an honorable mention for best cover.
• My other anthology, Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) won a Best Other Work at the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards. "City of the Dead" by Kaite Walsh, "One Horse Town" by Melissa Scott and "Waiting Tables and Time" by Lyn McConchie were all short fiction finalists.
• Had the following stories accepted: "At the Roots of the World Tree" for Sky-Tinted Waters, edited by Michael Merriam (Sam's Dot, forthcoming); "Ladies Who Lunch" for one of Constable and Robinson's lesbian ebook anthologies edited by Barbara Cardy; "On the Spanish Main" for M. Christian's Pirate Booty pirate erotica anthology (Renaissance); "The Egyptian Cat" for Heiresses of Russ 2011: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft and Steve Berman (Lethe Press); and "The Snake Woman's Lover" for Obsession, edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books, forthcoming).
  
• Participated in the following: Marscon (panels and a reading); the Speculations Reading Series at DreamHaven; the Outer Alliance Podcast (reading); Gaylaxicon in Atlanta (reading and panel); WisCon in Madison (panels); Capital City Pride in Des Moines, Iowa (table with Rainbow Romance authors); the first Northern Sparks Festival (did a 4AM reading at the Walker Art Center with Rain Taxi Review of Books); CONvergence in Minneapolis; readings at True Colors Bookstore with C.M. Harris and Michael Merriam; participated in the first ever Erotic Author Association Conference in Las Vegas; was a participating author in the First Book LCSC Book Auction; Diversion and Arcana (panels); Author table at the Twin Cities Book Festival; several podcasts with Broad Universe and the Cocktail Hour, plus a couple of blog interviews.
• On the down side, my first novel was rejected by a couple of agents (but found a home!) and two of my favorite local bookstores (DreamHaven and True Colors) are closing, which breaks my heart. I'm so grateful to both stores for the opportunity to do readings and for all their work selling my books over the years. It will not be the same without them.

On tap for 2012, it looks like my first novel, Silver Moon, will be out from Lethe Press in time for WisCon 2012. I'm also working on another couple of projects so we'll see how that goes. All in all, a full 2011 and what looks to be a full 2012 ahead.
Here's wishing all of us a wonderful 2012, filled with joy and success and all good things!