Entries tagged with year in review

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The Rest of 2024 in Review

So! I started out 2024 by wrapping a year and a half of effort by me, 2 social workers and a paralegal to get Jana's care funded and Jana moved into a memory care facility in one of the burbs. By that point, she was frequently getting lost, was losing motor skills, had no interest in anything she'd always been interested and was, shall we say, not very in control of anything. 2023 was hideously stressful; I slept very poorly, had norovirus and other fun things. But I got Jana placed in January (HUGE thank you shoutout to everyone who helped me move her in), set up various backup systems and went off to be a Guest of Honor at Capricon 44 in early February. This was a fun trip to Chicago with friends, a lovely time at the con and a thoroughly good trip. So, of course, I contracted COVID on the way back for the first time (lockdown was pretty intense in our household so dodging contagion was made a bit easier).

Fortunately, I was able to get my mitts on some Paxlovid and it cleared up a few days. Only one of the friends I was traveling with caught it and he also had a mild case, so best possible outcomes. But I was down for a bit with the lurgy. It did clear up in time for me to go and cheer Michael Merriam on at his Guest of Honor stint at MarsCon in Minneapolis in early March, so that was fun. But all of it, added to illnesses and job changes impacting other people and my own job change at the end of March meant that we had delays on putting out the new edition of Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. And do you know what happens when you commit to releasing a 5 book series, that then becomes a 6 book series in a calendar year, and you have delays? You put out a book a month! Which was...a Lot.

I was still on call for Jana's stuff, not to mention checking on her regularly, working full time at stressful job and trying to manage life on my own for the first time in 28 years. Most of which went better than I feared, but I had to farm out the yardwork to Mother's Earth's Gardens and plunged headlong into Swedish Death Cleaning, the way of life. 5.5 sales later and I have dented the mess in Jana's former studio by a lot and other parts of the house by a noticeable amount. I bought myself a new bed with a state of the art mattress and a frame that raises and lowers to help with my growing back and hip issues. I replaced the dining room furniture with chairs that were'n't falling apart and a table that wasn't too big for the space. I gave a lot of stuff away and made a tiny bit of headway on organizing things.

I also decided that I was going to do one new thing a month and one thing I hadn't done since before lockdown. I finally got my roadtrip to Alma, Wisconsin for a great weekend with friends. I got to go to Iceland (a revisit) and Scotland for Glasgow World Con (first time in Scotland), which was generally a delight except for the part where I was sick for 2 weeks before I left and pretty exhausted for the first part of the trip. But got to meet lovely people, had a great time visiting the Highlands, had fun rooming with Heather and generally enjoyed myself.

Then came back to find that Jana, who had been going downhill fast, no longer recognized me or knew where she was. She had adapting reasonably well, but within a few weeks of my return, we were already talking about hospice. More wrangling ensued, but I was able to get her moved over in the same facility and same room. Then she plateaued for a bit. Now we are apparently in end game, where she's having a series of ministrokes. This, of course, is happening at the same time that my beloved boy kitty, Shu, is having health issues and the day job is on fire. Good times?

But, I have awesome friends and I put out those first 5 Astreiant novels and am working on publishing the brand new 6th one. I'm writing again and working on new projects and a novel. I've gotten to see a lot of things from theatre to places I hadn't been before or in a while. All things considered, it has had some real high points. Now we'll ride out the next wave and see what we can make of 2025, if anything. Many, many thanks for everyone who's helped me get through this.

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Year in Review, Part 2. Publishing!

See my last post for the writing/personal review. How is my 2023 best summed up? A few months back, I stopped to give some money to a homeless man (I keep small bills and/or bags with socks and necessary stuff in the car for this). We chatted for a moment and he introduced himself, then squinted at me from the passenger side window and said, "If you don't mind me saying so, Ma'am, you look pretty tired. Are you working too hard?" And there we have it. He was not wrong; I feel like I've aged a decade this last year. But anyway, onto other things!

The Queen of Swords Press year started rough. I published a book that my designated team and I had worked quite hard on, the author decided that things were not meeting their expectations and informed me they no longer wished to work with me (which doesn't leave one many options, as it's me or the cats) and I gave them a date in midFeb for rights reversions and reverted their books to them. This brought on, I dunno, a quest for vengeance? Buyer's remorse? At any rate, they reported this to SFWA Griefcom and, despite the situation not meeting the basic requirements outlined on Griefcom's website, a sympathetic ear was found. Cue about 6 weeks of emailing back and forth in which I was threatened, bullied and then finally toadied up to, with absolutely none of the results the volunteer seemed to think he should be getting (he is no longer on GC). Eventually someone more sensible took it over and tried a different tack, got the document they asked for and a very cranky response from me. Now I see that they have announced that they will abide by the original guidelines they set forth for which grievances they will take on. So much eyeroll.

At any rate, in the meantime, I:

I submitted our books and got them accepted for distribution by Weightless Books
Did an author/publisher panel featuring J.M. Lee, Charles Payseur and Kat Weaver at the Eau Claire Library sponsored by the Chippewa Valley LGBT organization.
Saw this lovely post appear on Tor.com. Judith Tarr gave my werewolf series a magnificent shoutout, which sparked a run on the books And
Inspired Tantor Media to reach out to me for the audio rights. The audio books are out now for Silver Moon and Blood Moon. Blue Moon (Book 3) is in progress!
I subsequently got a creditable media rights inquiry about the books, but it was during the strike so nothing is likely to come of it. But very flattering regardless.
Heather Rose Jones's novella The Language of Roses, made the BSFA Longlist.
I was featured in this Publishers Weekly article about LGBTQ folks in publishing.
Did a metric crapton of cons, Prides, radio shows, Twitch channels and other events. Some favs: Rochester Pride, where we sold every book I brought; St. Cloud Pride, where we met interesting people and where a young person charged up to the table and wanted to know if I had written Silver Moon (a few times every year, someone tells me that it was their coming out novel and such was the case here), then they bought Blood Moon, got it signed and left happy; Raedial Reads Book Fair in St. Paul; and the Twin Cities Book Festival. I missed Columbia Heights Pride due to recovering from norovirus and the World Oddities Expo due to injury.
Signed contracts with Melissa Scott for new editions of her Astreiant Series (Point of Hopes, etc.) , plus a new novella in the series, all to be released in 2024 (squee!). Signed a contract with Michael Merriam for a new Weird West novella, due out in March to coincide with his 2024 Guest of Honor appearance at MarsCon Minneapolis.
Speaking of Guest of Honor appearances, I accepted a Guest of Honor invite at Capricon 44 in Chicago the first weekend in February and Melissa Scott will be a Guest of Honor at a still to be revealed Ohio con happening in March that has not announced guests yet.
We published 3 other books in 2023: Little Nothing by Dee Holloway (terrific sapphic novella about resistance and magic/award-eligible for everything with a novella category!), and Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold, an excellent gay gaslamp mystery duology. Matthew Bright of Inkspiral Design, Caitlin Cadieux and Terry Roy all did terrific work with covers and interior design.
Queen of Swords Press had its best sales year ever, clearing $14k for the first time. Our expenses also went up quite a bit, but we should be profitable this year. Some of the things were not repeatable, like my Tantor advances, But I am hoping that we are really growing our audience too. And 6 books by Melissa Scott on the docket for 2024 will definitely help!
Our authors did a ton of stuff not directly related to us! Jennie Goloboy had a great year as a literary agent, wrote a couple of award-winning screenplays and taught a bunch of high profile workshops. Michael Merriam also had great success with his screenplays, seeing several screenplay contest wins. Alex Acks released a tie-in book for World of Warcraft (building on the success of their 2022 book tie-in). Dee Holloway began writing for Ancillary Reviews as well as writing music reviews for a local site in New York. Heather Rose Jones added more stories and history to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project and appeared at several cons. A.J. Fitzwater was once again a featured author at the WORD Christchurch Festival. Melissa had two books out this year with Candlemark & Gleam, Master of Samar and Fallen, got featured in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and was a featured guest at several cons. Amy Griswold was also a featured guest at multiple cons. Heck of a year all around!
And last, but certainly not least, we wrapped the year getting collected by the University of Minnesota Libraries Upper Midwest Literary Archive! Look for more stuff about that soon.

HUGE thank you to everyone who bought our books, recommended out books, reviewed our books, hosted any/all of us or contributed to this success in any way! You are awesome and much appreciated! THANK YOU! Here's to 2024 being a better year all around for all of us!

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Year in Review, Part the 1st. Because it will take more than one.

I might as well start with the personal part, seeing as that's where most of my energy has gone. For those just tuning in, my wife, bookbinder and book conservator, Jana Pullman, has early onset Alzheimer's. And it moves fast. We started working on the same ridiculously complicated jigsaw puzzle around this time last year and back then, she could help with it. Now, a year later, she doesn't know what a jigsaw puzzle is. You get the idea. There's been been drama and her getting lost and PCAs coming in to take care of her and lots and lots of daily issues that have left me completely drained and exhausted.

And we're going to wrap the year with one more thing: I can no longer take care of her in a manner that ensures her relative health and safety and am experiencing health issues of my own, so between last week and this. I have done a gigantic amount of paperwork and turned it in to a memory care facility in the suburbs. I'm planning on moving her in the next couple of weeks once we track down one last round of medical records. I have to completely furnish her room too, so that will also be fun. Most things at home are either in use, too big or not a great option for other reasons, so online shopping with delivery will be one of this weekend's tasks. It's going to be wretched no matter how I do it and a big source of financial stress (I'm told the county funding process for her care will accelerate once she's moved, but it's dragged on so long, I had to file an extension on the application and we're running out of runway).

At any rate, needs must. And it has to be this month or I can’t go to Capricon 44, where I am a GoH this year and people are coming to see me. Dammit, I'm going to Capricon. So I will be making this happen because it has to very soon no matter what. Then I get to come back and figure out living on my own for a bit for the first time in decades (I might be getting a house mate, but that's still under discussion) while excavating our stuff. It's going to be...a lot.

What else is going on? Well, for most of this year, I've put about 60-70 hours a week between my day job (IT contracting), Queen of Swords Press, teaching, events and caregiving. Amazingly, I still have friends and something of a life and have gotten to do some cool things this year. They have not included much writing, however. I had one story published this year, "The Pirate in the Mirror," on Heather Rose Jones's LHMPodcast, I have written 7500 words of my next menopausal werewolf, Blue Moon, and I have written sundry things for my Patreon and Shepherd.com. Oh, and some work on a fantasy novel project that I've been poking at for a while and gradually reviving. I miss writing. We're going to fix that as soon as Jana is resettled. Next post, I'll tackle Queen of Swords press-related stuff; by and large, I had a fine year as a publisher so that'll be something to look forward to.

Also of note: replaced the water heater and the built-in microwave and the roof and gutter system, upgraded the ancient living room chair to a recliner and had the kitchen ceiling patched up and replastered.

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And the rest of the 2022 in Review

This was not what you would call a "fun" year for me personally. What follows is a serious downer in all sense of the term and contains more than you may want to read about dementia.( Read more... )We started the year with Jana going on an errand in St. Paul at the tale end of New Year's weekend, sundowning (the kind of general confusion that people with dementia have in the late afternoon and evening) and driving into the hinterlands. She drove through part of someone's corn field (more or less fortunately, it was wicked cold and frozen solid, so no damage done) and getting stuck in someone else's ditch. They called the local police and the one guy on duty in the nearest town showed up. He thought she had a head injury so he got her into his cruiser, seeing as it was well below zero, and got her to answer the phone and talk to me. I wrangled my friend in the more or less nearby town to drive out and sit with her while I got to play phone tag with various in town friends who might have been inclined to drive me out to the wilds of eastern MN on a rescue mission on a Sunday night in the freezing cold. I know a lot of people who spend their holidays in Iowa, just saying. 3rd time was the charm, and Gaea, who really doesn't know me well, leapt forward to help out. J was an hour's drive away, the zipper on my coat busted in the middle of getting into her car, G's headlight burnt out - it was all very exciting. But we eventually got there and the cop, who was as nice as it was possible to be under the circumstances, helped me get a tow truck to retrieve Jana's car. He did report it and her license was tagged, as was right and appropriate; she had been driving earlier in the day before then and did just fine in familiar territory, but apparently those days were done. At any rate, rescued the car and Jana and got them both home (and thanked awesome friends a lot).

Then we had about 2 months of wrangling over her not being able to drive, me hiding the car keys, her finding the car keys and taking the car anyway, etc. At any rate, got what had been her car checked out and tuned up, then worked with another friend to find a buyer for it. Sold it in April, which left her kind of heartbroken because she was aware enough to know that meant no more driving to teach workshops, etc.

There followed months of essentially living with the most obnoxious 8 year old on the planet, constantly bugging me to take her places while I juggled my full time work at home IT contracting gig, which was not a lot of fun, my insane event schedule (see last post), writing, editing, etc. She goes to bed super earlier and is not a lot of fun to have out and about since she no longer remembers most of what she used to like so it makes it hard to socializing (along with the Rona). She kept declining all summer while I got friends to take her out occasionally and a neighbor to come by and take a "class" with her.

Unrelated, but in July, a friend and I got carjacked at gunpoint on our street, which was a whole other piece of "fun." They took my friend's car and both of our phones. He got the car back but the loss of the cash and phones was a definite blow.

By August, it became apparent relying on friends to have enough free time to take Jana places going to work any more, at least not consistently...at which point, the company renting my services decided to cut me loose 2 months early, right before we were scheduled to go to Worldcon in Chicago by train. More assistance from friends and we made it and had a decent time (big shoutout to the folks who helped on that one!).

Wacky hijinx ensued on the way back, but we got rescued by yet another friend (are you starting to see a pattern here?). I scrambled and found another at home contracting IT job that started in October, found her a Personal Care Attendant (PCA) who does companion care (they hang out with your deteriorating loved one and give you a break, among other things), hired a local company to help me navigate the joys of the various systemic problems when your spouse develops something hideous and chronic and hired an eldercare attorney to help with matters financial. I had applied for regular Social Security rather then Disability because I knew she'd get turned down for the latter and I just don't have time to mess around. That started right around the point I got laid off. Which was nice, but doesn't amount to much since J was a self-employed artiste when she was working and is only 62.

So here we are. I would say she's closer to a 5 year old level now. I'm wrangling our finances toward getting ready for spend down - this is when you reduce someone's assets down to the point where they qualify for Medicaid, something we will need because if she has to go into memory care, it starts at around $8k a month if you're paying out of pocket and that's not including the other bills. Her health problems are beginning to get more pronounced and I'm having trouble herding her. I did manage to find a foot care nurse who does house calls, so that was a splendid win. And, as with the PCA, the lawyer, the company that helps me, our monthly house cleaner, all out of pocket. Her family is deeply religious and lives in another state, but they have been sending the occasional check, which is honestly more than I ever expected of them.

What's up for 2023? I'm trying to do the vast majority of the bread winning, the transportation, the cooking, coordinating everything, running the press, teaching and writing. It is, of course, not working and I am rapidly running out of Catherine, so I'm trying to figure out paths forward that don't involve me giving up things I love or things I fear (in which we go live in the car) and it's very grueling. I need to do the next level of planning for the inevitable, which is hard on many, many levels so some projects will have to go on hold or get canceled. I spent 8 years watching my mother decline so I won't say this was a surprise. Before it became obvious that the same thing was happening to Jana, I had seriously contemplated getting a divorce (which may now happen for financial reasons) but Mom kept having crises and that ate all the available emotional bandwidth so here we are. I am not suited to caregiving and I recognize it every single week and it sucks.

I will say that what you hear about finding out who your friends are when the chips are down is pretty damn accurate. Jana was never great about maintaining friendships and most of her colleagues and friends vanished early on. A few stuck around and my friends have been awesome. Some of them take her out on expeditions or come over for meals or help sell her work and the tools she can't use anymore or take me out for meals and let me freak out. Friends, acquaintances and even complete strangers have helped me keep the press afloat by buying books, recommending books, supporting the Patreon, buying Jana's work on Etsy, rescue missions and a whole bunch of other things and I appreciate it so much. My assistant, Alexa, and intern Annie (and her family) have helped out a huge amount with Queen of Swords Press projects and my authors have helped with events too. Jennie took on extra teaching planning and she, Heather and Michael have all worked tables either with me or with our books. I can say quite honestly that I would not have made it through this year without all this help.

At any rate, more bulletins and updates as I have them and thanks for sticking with me/us.

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2021 - Writing and Publishing Year in Review

On the personal level (next post), 2021 was pretty traumatic, but on a small press level, it was stupendous. Post the first is here, post the second follows.

As a writer, I:

saw my novel, Blood Moon, out into the world. Moar menopausal werewolves, found family and other fun stuff! Reader response has been good so far and it gained an Honorable Mention at the Rainbow Awards.
I saw a new story in my ongoing serial about queer female pirates and spies in the 17th Century Caribbean up at Heather Rose Jone’s Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast! Check out "The Adventuress" here.
My story, “A Cry in the Night,” appeared in the latest World of Darkness game book, Ghost Hunters, marking my first in-game appearance.
I had articles at Library Journal and Dream Foundry as well as a short essay in Mark My Words: read the Submissions Guidelines and Other Self-Editing Tips edited by Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko Smith (produced for Stoker Con).
I got my first writing grant for a queer horror project from the Ladies of Horror Fiction.
I also saw 2 Emily L Byrne reprints appear on the Nobilis Erotica Podcast: "Heart's Thief" and "Diplomacy."
I also wrote 4 new chapters and a guide to my novel in progress, plus a couple of short stories and an essay for my Patreon, which supports Queen of Swords Press.
I taught 8 workshops at the Rambo Academy, Springboard for the Arts and the Novel in Progress Bookcamp, appeared on the WROTE Podcast, the Writers Drinking Coffee Podcast, multiple webcasts, 5 online conventions and a couple of online readings and FB groups. Also, my first two gaming conventions and an short clip for the Edelweiss Bookfest. And Skepticon, the Pride StoryBundle (co-curator), the Story Hour, FAE Productions, two book festivals and more! It was a lot.

Publishing Me:

Queen of Swords Press put out 3 books in 2021: Blood Moon, Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore and Obviously, Aliens by Jennie Goloboy
We have our own new chai tea blend from my fabulous local tea shop, Bingley's Teas.
Our 2020 title, The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater won a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection, was a Runner Up for Best LGBTQ Collection and for Best Lesbian Book at the Rainbow Awards and was a featured title at Edelweiss Bookfest.
Foxhunt earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly, was included as an essential work of solarpunk fiction in this Tor.com piece on "The Solarpunk Future," and was a Runner Up for Best Transgender Book and Best Transgender Science Fiction at the Rainbow Awards.
We all participated in a r/Fantasy Small Press AMA (first time!).
Between us, we did a whole bunch of literary festivals, online cons, online readings, panels and more.
Queen of Swords Press had our first university intern, the awesome Shannon, who helped Alexa and me get a ton of stuff done.
Laya Rose and Terry Roy created amazing covers and book design for us.
DragonByte/Andi C. Buchanan redesigned our website to make it scalable and added Square payments.
We doubled the size of our mailing list, added direct preorders and nearly doubled our sales from 2020.

I am so, so proud of all the work we've done and the books we've put out! I hope you'll give them and us a try as we enter our 6th year!

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2019 - The Year That Was

Since it's almost over, I'll go out on a limb and do my year end post. The decade one will be turning up in a day or two.
So the writing part first.

Catherine Lundoff - books and stories either published this year or accepted for next year:

Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic (Queen of Swords Press). Single author collection of my horror, dark fantasy and weird fiction.
“By Her Pen, She Conquers” - LHMP Podcast, Heather Rose Jones, editor/host. Historical setting - young female playwright in Regency England finds new opportunity and a love interest at Drury Lane Theater.
“Good for Your Career? Evaluating Events for Writers” - SFWA Blog
“Inheritance” - forthcoming, media tie-in story for Wraith: The Oblivion edited by Matt McElroy (Onyx Path Publishing). If you read my story "Incarnadine Seas" in The Cainite Conspiracies for Vampire the Masquerade, this is a sequel.
“Lost Girl” - Fireside Magazine October, 2019, edited by Julia Rios (Fireside Fiction). Lesbian ghost story.
“Hunger” - American Monsters Part Two edited by Margrét Helgadóttir (Fox Spirit Books). A story about Minnesota nice, Minnesota monsters, Minnesota winter and toxic masculinity.
“The Rani’s Dream” - forthcoming, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives edited by John Linwood Grant (Belanger Books). Mystery short story in which the acclaimed detective has to work with an Anglo-Indian agent who specializes in the occult to solve a jewel theft.

As Emily L. Byrne:

“Nights in Red Satin” - The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 Vol. 3 edited by Rose Caraway (Stupid Fish Productions). A middle-aged Latina tries to find her spark again.
“Arachne” - forthcoming, Nobilis Erotica Podcast, Nobilis Reed, editor/host. Reading of my Arachne and Athena story from Knife's Edge.

As publisher at Queen of Swords Press:

Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks. More Ramos, Simms and Deliah! If you liked Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures, this is the sequel (and if you haven't read either of them yet, you should check them out).

Selected events - MultiverseCon, Twin Cities Book Festival, Untitled Town Book and Author Festival, The Loft’s Wordplay, WisCon, St. Cloud Pride, 13 Gears, MCBA’s FallCon, the Minnesota Ampersand Club. Plus 3 classes taught at Cat Rambo's Rambo Academy and a whole bunch of readings, presentations, talks, book tables, etc.

Other things that happened this year:

I worked 60-70 hours a week all year, between my day job, writing and publishing-related stuff. This was on top of doing the same thing last year and the year before.
It was, in short, unsustainable madness. I got laid off at the end of October and have spent the last 2 months recovering.
I lost my dear friend Beth to ALS earlier this year and several other friends to other unpleasant things. I miss them all.
There are ongoing family health issues that I won't go into.
I am actually reasonably healthy at the moment, knock wood.
Reconnected with some friends I haven't seen for a while.
Finally got the furnace replaced and put in central air.
I've done a whole bunch of writing on a couple of novels in progress, revived my Patreon and did a bunch of things to get Queen of Swords Press to the point where it is mostly paying for itself. The next steps are covering all its costs and paying me.
Travel this year has been mostly regional, with the exception of a trip to D.C. for Outwrite. Other places visited for events: Madison, Green Bay, St. Cloud.
The endless political and environmental trashfire has definitely taken a toll on me and everyone I know.

So there it is, my 2019. Better than a lot of people's, worse than a few. Here's hoping 2020 is a better year all around for all the best reasons. Let's make things better, people!

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Presenting My 2018 Year in Review post!

Well, 2018 was a year...and so very much of one. It's difficult to disconnect my personal life from the national and global trainwreck, but I'll do my best. It was still a hard year: bad health news for close friends, bad financial and other news for others, the unexpected ending of a long-term friendship, my mother's increasing dementia, the sudden and abrupt news that I wasn't going to be laid off after all (bear in mind that I had three years to plan and prep for a nice break and down time, which I'm not getting), other sundry things. On the other hand, there was a lot of good stuff, too. Queen of Swords Press grew, I went to a lot of great events and met nice people, I'm ending the year with almost all the same people in my life that I hoped would still be there, I had some interesting new experiences and have been learning a lot, I don't have to go job hunting at the moment and I'm a lot healthier than I was this time last year (Norovirus recovery takes longer than you would think).

Starting with the events and experiences part of things, I was interviewed on North Manchester FM's radio show "Hannah's BookShelf" by the amazing Hannah Kate herself, then appeared a few weeks later on the Cocktail Hour Podcast. I did a reading at the University of Minnesota's Tretter Collection in March for the annual Quatrefoil Library's Women's Reading, went to ClexaCon in Las Vegas as a vendor with my pals from Blind Eye Books and hosted a Queen of Swords Press party at WisCon. I got interviewed at Shelfies by Bill Kieffer, got interviewed with author Rachel Gold in the St. Cloud Times (best headline ever!), interviewed by Paul Weimer at the Skiffy and Fanty Blog and answered 5 Questions for author Loren Rhodes. As Emily L. Byrne, I did the WLW Blog Hop, and had guest posts up at I Heart Lesfic, Women & Words and on Sacchi Green's blog, Reaching Out. In addition to ClexaCon and WisCon, I did readings and panels at Outwrite in Washington, D.C., DreamHaven Books and Eat My Words Books and WordBrew 6 in Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press had tables at St. Cloud Pride, the Twin Cities Book Festival, the Minnesota Women's Art Festival, 2 instances of the Books and Beer Pop-up Store, the Queer Author Holiday Fair and probably something I'm forgetting.

Writing and editing. Queen of Swords Press/me and company put out three books this year:

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks (Steampunk/weird West)
Medusa's Touch by Emily L. Byrne (Lesbian SF Romance)
Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) edited by Catherine Lundoff (Mixed genre pirate anthology)

Catherine had 6 stories published this year:

“A Winter’s Tale” in A Few More Winter Tales edited by Matthew Bright. December, 2018 (Fantasy).
“A Cry in the Night,” forthcoming TBD. World of Darkness: Ghosthunters (final title TBD).
“The Letter of Marque” reprinted on Curious Fictions. August, 2018. (Historical)
“Faceless” and “Firebird” reprinted in the OutWrite 2018 Journal, Issue 1. August, 2018 (Fantasy).
“The Mask and the Amontillado,” Tales of the Unanticipated #32, edited by Eric Heideman, July, 2018. (Horror)
“One Night in Saint Martin,” March, 2018. Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast, edited by Heather Rose Jones. (Historical)
And had an excerpt from Silver Moon in D.C.'s Metro Weekly

Emily (Other Me) had 4 stories published this year -

"Rainbow's End," an homage to hot women, queer bookstores and queer poetry in Year's Best Best Lesbian Erotica Vol. 3, edited by Sacchi Green (Cleis Press, December, 2018).
"Phone, Sex, Chocolate" in Candy Lovers: Sugar Erotica edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, RKB Enterprises
"Permanent Position" in Blood in the Rain 4: 18 Stories of Vampire Erotica edited by Cecilia Duvalle and Mary Trepanier, Cwtch Press
"An Incident in Whitechapel" was recorded for the Nobilis Erotica Podcast in December

I also helped raise money for Rainbow Railroad, The Aliveness Project and SAGE: Advocating for LGBT Seniors, donated book packages to Con or Bust and Sirens, and volunteered for my second year in a row as a member of the Community Review Board at PFund Foundation. Wow! I did more than I thought I had! Plus more fun stuff in progress, of course. Big shoutout to all the venues that hosted me, the Press and colleagues, all the other writers who tabled with or did appearances with me, to my wife Jana for helping out and splitting a table at the MN Women's Festival, to my authors, cover artists, copy editor, book designer, videographer and web guru (not all the same person!), to the folks who interviewed me, bought books, reviewed my work, the folks who boosted the signal and recommended books to others, folks who helped with marketing and to my friends who were there for me this year - thank you all very much!

Now for a brief respite, then on to 2019!

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2017 Year in Review Post

To which my first thought is, "No, no, no. Let's not relive it." But there were high points and good things and I always do a year in review post, so here we are.

Let's start with the good stuff, shall we?

So I decided it was now or never and I started my own small publishing company, a dream I've been noodling on for a couple of years now. Queen of Swords Press has a monthly newsletter (sign up at the website), a functioning website and four titles available on all major ebook platforms and in print. The new edition of my novel Silver Moon did well at the Rainbow Awards, Out of This World is up for a Lambda Award and both Knife's Edge and Desire are up for Goldie Awards. There have been some nice reviews too! Plans for 2018 books are somewhat in flux right now, but definitely include Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Tales by Alex Acks.
I went to my second international con and got to visit Reykjavik, Helsinki and Stockholm, do fun panels at Worldcon 75, meet lovely people and have a generally interesting time. I also went to WisCon, Sirens and Diversicon, to round out my conventions for the year.
Other events that I participated in included: an episode of the Skiffy and Fanty Podcast; two readings at the Quatrefoil Library; a ghost stories reading at Bingley's Teas; a Books and Beer Popup Store at a local brewery; possibly the last Queer Voices Reading at the Central Library?; two episodes of the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast; a reading with Rachel Gold at Boneshaker Books; WomenVenture's Women Mean Business Fair and Luncheon; the Twin Cities Book Festival; Lounge Books Virtual Horror Festival; and a talk at DreamHaven Books about starting a small press.
I helped raise $1100 in donations for Rainbow Railroad through a StoryBundle I participated in, as well as raising nearly $300 through my Patreon for groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP and Ultraviolet.
I wrote a second gaming tie-in story for a World of Darkness game (release date is TBD) and had a travel essay accepted for a women and travel anthology (2018 release). Emily L. Byrne had a good year too, with stories appearing in Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms and Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Vol. 2. I got "unstuck" on Blood Moon, the sequel to Silver Moon and wrote several new stories or fragments of stories that I hope to get polished up and out soon.
I went to a lot of good theater, a couple of good benefits and a lot of interesting events. I also met a bunch of cool people.

And then the nonpolitical portions of the shitshow year:

Had several friends and acquaintances die on me. I miss them and my pseudo aunt, who died at the end of last year, an enormous amount.
Financial problems of the irritating, but not dire, variety.
I had annoying health problems, culminating with a painful torn shoulder tendon followed by contracting norovirus. 2017 has been all about the pain, on multiple levels. Sleeping, also not so great.
My mother went into memory care on Friday of Christmas weekend because, hey, why not? 2017 must suck as much as possible. It's a rule. :-(
Day job slowly collapsing in stressful ways.

So yeah, definitely a mixed bag. But here's hoping for better things in 2018, especially for those who have been hit hardest under the current regime. Make good art when you can and keep resisting!

Crossposts: http://catherineldf.livejournal.com/387868.html

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Year in review - Writing and related

Oh man, 2015. So many ups and downs and sideways things to this year. I wish it was ending on a more positive note overall, but I suppose that would be too much to ask, and thus we arrive at mixed bag as a summation for how this year went. This will be the writing post, life post to follow. So I set out to do some rebuilding and get some work published, which I think went reasonably well.

Writing

Published this year (as me):
"A Scandalous Calculation" in The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty
"Bluebeard's Wife" in The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories
"Creatures of the Night: A Short History of Queer Horror" in Queers Destroy Horror (special issue of Nightmare Magazine) (nonfiction).
"Aging in IT" in Model View Culture (nonfiction)

Published this year as Emily L. Byrne:
"Repossession" in First: Sensual Stories of New Beginnings, edited by Cheyenne Blue
"Summer Stock" in Summer Love, edited by Harper Bliss and Caroline Manchoulas
"The Old Spies Club" in Spy Games, edited by Jillian Boyd
"Wage Slave" in Bossier: More Productive Tales of Lesbian Lust, Ladylit Publishing
"Lovely Rita, Meter Maid" in The Mammoth Book of Uniform Erotica, edited by Barbara Cardy

Forthcoming next year (so far):
"The Cask and the Amontillado" in Tales of the Unanticipated, Vol. 31
"The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet" in Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year 20th Anniversary Edition, edited by Sacchi Green
"Toads, Diamonds and the Occasional Pearl" in The Princess's Bride, edited by Sacchi Green

Cons and related events in 2015:
Had my first GOH appearance as Editor Guest of Honor at Arcana 45.
Did panels and readings at Marscon, AWP, the Nebula Awards Weekend, CONvergence, Diversicon and Sirens.
Did an author Koffee Klatch and the MinnSpec Local Author Showcase, both with the fine folks at the Minnspec Meetup

Miscellaneaous:

Served as a writing award judge
Added to and reformatted my Old(er) Women in SF/F Bibliography –

Part 1 and Part 2

My thoughts on “Tragic Queer Narratives,” “An Appreciation of Suzette Haden Elgin” and “Tanith Lee: Where to Start Reading” got some attention.

Queen of Swords Press:
Things learned this year: everything takes more time than I hope/think it will, including this post.

I have an LLC and a spiffy logo so things are becoming official. Trademark app for the name is signed, contracts are getting drafted. Domain is purchased, website is planned, several projects are underway or under consideration and I’m interviewing a new business accountant today. All things which I thought would be done back in September/October. But, hey progress.

Upcoming for 2016, so far:

Joint presentation on “Aging and Accessibility in IT” at the GoogleDev Conference

Two workshops at The Loft Literary Center (if they carry)

A presentation at the U. of MN on older women in science fiction and fantasy (barring unforeseen class cancellations)

Cons: Arisia in Boston, Au Contraire in New Zealand (! NZ is a go, waiting to hear from the con), CONvergence (Mpls), Diversicon (Mpls), Midamerica Con II (Worldcon in Kansas City), Gaylaxicon (Mpls), Arcana (St. Paul) and TeslaCon (Middleton, WI).

Writing year in review overall: not too shabby. It has ended with a slew of rejections and getting very recently jerked around by a convention committee on a guest appearance, though, so that makes it feel more sour than it actually was. Oh well. Onward and upward and all that. Here’s hoping that 2016 is a terrific writing and editing and related year for us all!

Crossposts: http://catherineldf.livejournal.com/363803.html

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year in review

2014 in Review, Writing and Other Stuff

Time for the usual post, with additions. First the writing part.

I wrote a lot of essays, posts and articles this year. These included:
"Amazons and Warrior Women In Fact and Fiction" for the 2014 Lesfic Appreciation Event
"LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 1970s" on SF Signal
"LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 1980s" on SF Signal
"LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 1990s" on SF Signal
"LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy 2000-2010 PART 1" on SF Signal
"LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy 2000-2010 PART 2" on SF Signal
"Mind Meld: Best Book Openings" on SF Signal
"Mind Meld: Our Favorite Convention Panels" on SF Signal

I also will have a story ("Arachne") in the very soon to be released Best Lesbian Erotica 2015, edited by Laura Antoniou.

Writing as Other Me, Emily L. Byrne, I saw "The Adventures of Miss Scarlet" in Forbidden Fruit: Tales of Unwise Lesbian Desire, edited by Cheyenne Blue. Emily also had stories accepted for several forthcoming anthologies: an as yet untitled Alison Tyler anthology, The Princess's Bride: Lesbian Fairytale Erotica edited by Sacchi Green, The Mammoth Book of Uniform Erotica edited by Barbara Cardy and Bossy 2: Productive Tales of Lesbian Desire, also from Ladylit.

Other writing-related accomplishments: I finished 2 drafts of an erotic science fiction novel and embarked on a third, I wrote several new short stories, I got a bit of traction on Blood Moon and I just finished an essay on Irene Adler in films and TV since 2000, which will go out tomorrow. Plus, a lot of work in progress. I've also gotten some traction on indie publishing some of my own books, plus possibly starting up my own press. And I found out that an essay I wrote is required reading for an NYU class, which is building a series of Pinterest boards around it. <g>
So not anywhere near what I planned or hoped for at the beginning of the year, but not nothing, either.

Other stuff. Man, not the best year ever. We've been dealing with my mother's mental and physical deterioration all year and it's been draining and ghastly and unpleasant and stressful, with very rare intervals of calm. I've been sick a lot. Day job completely reorganized and it looked like my job was going to be outsourced, and it may well yet, but probably not for awhile longer. A chunk of my original support network evaporated earlier this year, in part because of people peace outing on me when things got really bad and I became burdensome? unpleasant? inconvenient? and in part due to WisCon fallout, what between the lying, the victim blaming, the gaslighting and related. And then there was the news, oh so very much news and so much of it horrible.

But on the plus side, I have a wonderful wife and cats, the friends who stuck by me are great people and I've met some new folks and/or just gotten to know some other folks better. I dug us out of a substantial amount of debt and got our finances more stable. I'm working on a business plan. I've done a lot of interesting reading, learned some new software and embarked on several major projects to fix up our house. We went to Boston for Arisia and Wisconsin for TeslaCon, both of which were a blast. We got to visit the International Wolf Center and North American Bear Center, both in Ely, MN. I spent a nice weekend writing and reading in Reed's Landing, MN. Some friends from Iowa are finally going to get move up here, so we'll see them more. So, overall, 2014 - the proverbial mixed bag.

Here's hoping 2015 is a better year all around, particularly for those folks who had the worst of it this year. As for my readers, fans and colleagues, thanks for sticking with me and I wish you all joy, love and success in the coming year!

Crossposts: http://catherineldf.livejournal.com/336608.html

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year in review

My 2013 Year in Review Post

In which I will mostly focus on the writing and related, but will note that we also made an epic trip to NYC and back to move my mother into assisted living, which impacted pretty much everything for the second half of the year.

My 2013:
Conventions: Marscon, WisCon, 4th Street Fantasy (in the sense of being there for one panel and the beginning of the Storm of Doom and accompanying power outage), CONvergence. And then I was one of the Guests of Honor at Diversicon 21. <g>

Related writing events – I was on a panel called "OUTspoken and OUTfront: LGBTQ Writers Moving Beyond Binaries" at the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books in Waukesha, WI.

Author readings: SubText: A Bookstore, Quatrefoil Library Women Author’s Reading, DreamHaven Books and the 2013 MNSpec Writer’s Showcase (now on YouTube)

Radio/Podcasts : WBAI Hour of the Wolf Radio Show, Howl Out Podcast

Book club appearances: Portland Lesbian Book Salon, North Country Gaylaxians Book Club, Minneapolis Lesfic Book Club

Guest blogs:
Lesbian Fiction Appreciation Event 2013 on getting writing inspiration from history
SF Signal blog posts on “LGBT SFF Before 1970” and “Monstrous Females and Female Monsters" and "LBGT Themes in Fantasy and SF"
5 questions on author Warren Rochelle’s blog
5 questions on author Joel Arnold’s blog
“An In-Person Appearances Primer for Writers” on author Cathy Pegau’s blog

Writers hosted on my blog in 2013: Laura Lam,Jacqueline Koyanagi, Susan Jane Bigelow, Warren Rochelle, Joyce Chng/J. Damask, Jill Braden, Rachael Acks,Sunny Moraine

Short fiction finished and status thereof: 2 new stories published – “The Light Fantastic” in Luna Station Quarterly and “Medium Mechanique” in Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam. 1 reprint in Best Lesbian Erotica 2014. And I also wrote 2 other new stories in need of homes and have 3 other stories underway and in various stages of progress.

Novel length fiction work and related: I completed 3 book proposals and had all three accepted. I have 85% of one novel draft completed and progress made on the Silver Moon sequel Blood Moon. Notice I’m not tossing out a timeline for the next book(s); this is because of reasons and I’ll do an update as soon as I can.

Awards: none won, alas, but Silver Moon was a finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards in the SF/F Category and for the Goldie Awards in the Speculative Fiction Category

Books Out of Print: Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing. One of my two award-winning lesbian erotica collections.
Things learned:
·        How to write a book synopsis/outline
·        How to write a book proposal
·        How to outline stories that don’t exist yet
·        Have I mentioned outlining? It’s a new thing and it seems to be working for me. I’ve been a pantser since I started writing and this is a big transition for me. Next up, we see if we like the final results lots and lots.
·        How to be a guest at a con. Okay, I pretty much knew that before, but it was my first time headlining and Jack McDevitt and Roy Booth were great and very helpful, as was the Diversicon 21 con com.

All in all, it's been one hell of a year. Lots of big highs and big lows. Many, many thanks to everyone who hosted me, bought my books, came to my readings and panels, bought stories from me and listened to me kvetch. You are all awesome! Here's wishing a wonderful 2014 for us all!

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year in review

Writing Year in Review 2012

It's been a very, very full year. :-)
As part of or related to the launch of my first novel, Silver Moon, I did the following:

I did readings and panels at 7 science fiction conventions - Marscon, WisCon, 4th Street Fantasy, CONvergence, Diversicon, Worldcon and Gaylaxicon.
I moderated and participated a panel on lesbian shapeshifters at the Golden Crown Literary Convention.
I did 5 bookstore/event readings - DreamHaven Books, Comics and Art; Quatrefoil Library; Women and Children First Bookstore; Outwords Books and Cafe; Magers & Quinn Booksellers
I was a featured author at the Raintaxi Twin Cities Book Festival.
I was a writer guest on KFAI's Write on! Radio show.
I wrote the following guest blogs:

"Do's and Don'ts of Author Self-Promotion" - on Morgen Bailey's writing blog.
Lesbian Fiction Appreciation Event I did a guest post on host author K.T. Grant's blog on lesbian protagonists in science fiction and fantasy.
Whatever: The Big Idea: Silver Moon
"Writing Silver Moon and Menopausal Werewolves" at the Skiffy and Fanty Show Blog
Good Lesbian Books - post on my favorite "starter" books with lesbian protagonists/themes.
"Adventures in Marketing: Promoting My First Novel" on author and editor Deborah J. Ross' blog.
"The Highs and Lows of Promoting Lesbian Fiction" on The Scarlet Letter ezine.
"Genre and Border Crossings" at Lisabet Sarai's Beyond Romance
SF Signal Mind Meld - "Directions that SF Hasn't Taken" (with Kelly McCullough, David J. Schwartz, Michael D. Thomas/Damien Taylor and Ayleen the Peacemaker)
"Depictions of Aging in SF/F" - Clarion Foundation's Writer's Craft blog

I did the following interviews

Menopause and The Single Werewolf: Ten Questions with Catherine Lundoff, author of Silver Moon on author Tracy S. Morris' blog.
Author Gavin Atlas interviewed me at Out in Print on my recent work.
Werewolf blogger extraordinaire David Jon Fuller interviewed me about Silver Moon at his blog, As You Were: Metal, Monsters, Mayhem.
Author Roxanne Bland interviewed me at Of Werewolves and Other Strangers
Tom Muzyka interviewed me for Outlook Columbus

I was a guest on the following podcasts:

Skiffy and Fanty Show - "Influences on Modern Fantasy"
Reading from Silver Moon, Broad Universe Broadpod Podcast for Pride Month.
Alternate History - Broad Universe Broadpod Podcast, includes a reading from my collection A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories.
Readings Goes to the Wolves - multi-author interview and reading on lesbian werewolves, includes a short reading from Silver Moon
"Exploring Beyond the Borders: Breaking the Conventions of Genre in SF/F/H." Broadly Speaking Podcast with Larissa Niec, Julia Rios and Kris McDermott.
Episode 49 of the Cocktail Hour - "Catherine Lundoff and Silver Moon"

Some of the reviews: She-Wolf blog, Rainbow Reader, Out in Print, Lambda Literary
An excerpt from Silver Moon ran on SheWired, The Advocate's feed

Not surprisingly, I wrote very little new short fiction (3 new stories). I saw reprints of my stories "Diplomacy" (in a new edition of Periphery: Erotic Lesbian SF from Untreed Reads) and "At the Roots of the World Tree" (in Sky-Tinted Waters: A Minnspec Anthology from Sam's Dot Press). Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic was a finalist for a Goldie Award and was released in an ebook edition from Lethe Press. And I did make some headway on a new erotic science fiction novel and on Blood Moon, Silver Moon's sequel.

Writer "bucket" list items achieved in 2012: saw my first novel published, saw it get a positive review in Publisher's Weekly, received an invitation to be a Special Guest at a 2013 con (Diversicon 21) and was a featured author at the TC Books Festival. While 2012 has had its ups and downs, overall, it's been an amazing year. Many, many thanks to everyone who encouraged and supported and hosted me this year! Your help and kind words (and book purchases) have made all the difference. I look forward to working with many of you in 2013 and years to come.

No real resolutions for next year yet, except to write more words, meet more readers and embrace new challenges. :-)

Here's wishing everyone a lovely New Year's and terrific 2013!