My Decade in Review 2010-2019

[catherineldf]

Or “Really, What Didn’t Happen?”

 

I started the decade legally married to my wife Jana, and with two recently adopted two rescue Egyptian Mau kitties from MN Feline Rescue. I was being traditionally published, my mother was still living on her own in NYC and things looked like they were their way up. Then…stuff happened. So here we are: still married, still with the same two cats, Mom is in a nearby nursing home and multiple moves and I’m running my own small press. How did we get here? Cue David Byrne singing, “Letting the days go by…”

 

So the last 10 years have included:

·      Broke up with my previous publisher for a variety of reasons and narrowly dodged signing a 3 book deal contract with Ellora’s Cave, right before everything blew sky high.

·      Which led directly to starting my own press. Queen of Swords Press, which now has 9 titles out and one more on the way. QoSP turns 3 in January. I went from publishing my own books to publishing a mix of titles by myself and other people. And after 3 years, the press is almost covering its costs through book sales.

·      Completed two novels, Silver Moon and Medusa’s Touch, and saw both published.

·      Co-edited Hellebore and Rue with JoSelle Vanderhooft and edited Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space).

·      Won a couple of writing awards and finaled for several more.

·      Published Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks (a 2019 Colorado Book Award Finalist) and Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures, also by Alex.

·      Saw a LOT of my fiction published, including “Incarnadine Seas” in The Cainite Conspiracies: A Vampire the Masquerade V20 Anthology, “Lost Girl” in Fireside Magazine, “Hunger” in American Monsters Part Two, “One Night in Saint Martin” and “By Her Pen, She Conquers” at the LHMP Podcast. I also had an excerpt from Silver Moon appear in D.C.’s Metro Weekly and I wrote articles and essays for SF Signal, the SFWA Blog, Nightmare Magazine and My Wandering Uterus: Tales of Traveling While Female, amongst others. I also wrote as Emily L. Byrne and had stories in 3 volumes of Best Lesbian Erotica, the anthology Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms and the Nobilis Erotica Podcast.

·      I was a program participant at 2 different international sf conventions: Au Contraire in New Zealand in 2016 and Helsinki Worldcon in 2017.

·      I as a Special Guest at Diversicon in 2013 and Editor Guest of Honor at Arcana in 2014.

·      I also did readings, panels and presentations at events and conventions in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, St. Cloud, Kansas City, Dallas, Colorado (Sirens Con, different locations), Las Vegas, Orlando, St. Paul and Minneapolis.

·      I taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center and at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.

·      Appeared on a lot of podcasts and radio shows, including Heather Rose Jones’s LHMP Podcast, Queer Words, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, WBAI’s Hour of the Wolf, KFAI’s Write on Radio and Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM (U.K.).

·      Did my first technical event presentation at a Google Dev conference and my second at Alterconf.

 

On the personal front:

·      Had breast reduction surgery in 2016 and my back is much happier

·      Got to go to the Edward Gorey Museum and the Whydah Pirate Museum on Cape Code in 2018 and Hobbiton and the Weta Workshop in 2016. Other travels: Reykjavik, Helsinki, Stockholm, Auckland, Wellington and Rotorua.

·      Lost a number of friends to the WisCon debacle, the stress from dealing with my mother’s deteriorating physical and mental condition (we had to move her once a year for several years in a row), starting my own business stress and other fun.

·      Lost several good friends to horrible illnesses including Beth Shaw (2019), John Calvin Rezmerski (2016) and Patricia Myers (2016), plus a number of other folks who I saw less frequently but still feel the loss of.

·      On the plus side, made new friends, rekindled friendships and/or got to know some cool people a lot better. And this is a good thing.

·      Learned a crap ton about publishing books, which is not to suggest that I don’t need to learn more. Looking forward to it!

·      Got injured, got sick, got laid off after years of stressful job. Survived, got better. Hope to have new gig soon.

·      Here is what I said in 2016 after the elections. Still true. The results of said election which are pretty much guaranteed to destroy a lot of life as we know it, many of our cultural institutions and the existing, already porous, social safety net, not to mention the environmental damage and so forth. Sorry, but there it is. Want to stop any or all of that? That requires fighting back, on any level you’ve got. Do what you can, support other folk’s efforts, focus on making the world better in big and small ways. Hang in there.

·      Did some cool volunteer and fundraising projects and plan to do more.

 

 

So there it is. Some great, some good, some terrible, but still here, still kicking, still working on stuff. Huge shout out to all the supportive people in my life, Jana, my friends, the people who’ve supported Queen of Swords Press and helped us grow, the authors who’ve trusted me with their work, my cover artists and editors and marketing support folks and my publishing assistant, Alexa Gerber – you all rock! Here’s hoping 2020 is a great year!

Comments

[sartorias]

Cheering you on!

[catherineldf]

Thank you! Much appreciated and likewise! Happy New Year!