2005, the Year in Revision, er, Review

So I began 2005 with a lot of very specific personal and writing goals. The personal goals got off-track by spring, in some really emotioanlly exhausting ways, and the writing goals were derailed by mid-summer. My writing goals were to get 12 new stories out in the mail this year, and finish a new novel -- which would have been a huge year for me. I didn't pull that off.

Despite all this, I end the year happier than when I started. (It's hard to feel bad about any year in which your first two books are publishedl.) My kids are healthy and happy, I find myself surrounded by great friends and good people, and despite the year-end wreck with my car, things are looking better now than they have in a long time.


Published this year:

"Moons Like Great White Whales," Strange Horizons, Feb. 28.

"Love and the Wayward Troll," F&SF, March.

"Horny in the Underworld," Electric Velocipede, #8, Spring.

"Still Life With Action Figure," Argosy Quarterly, #3, Spring.

The Prodigal Troll (Pyr), June.

"Of Silence and the Man at Arms," F&SF, June.

(reprint) "Pervert," Year's Best SF 10, Hartwell and Cramer, eds., June.

"The Slug Breeder's Daughter," Subterranean Magazine, Summer.

"The Nursemaid's Suitor," Black Gate, #8, Summer.

Wild Things (Subterranean), October. The limited edition includes "Her Life Sentence."

"The Moon is Always Full," Strange Horizons, Oct. 31.

In addition, five out of the six stories I published in 2004 received Honorable Mentions in Dozois's Year's Best, and the one fantasy story was HM'd in the YBFH. Not so bad.

As for new fiction, I wrote above that my plan was to get twelve new stories out into the mail this year and finish the Maggot sequel. I didn't manage that, but I did sell several stories, including "The Moon is Always Full," which Strange Horizons has already published. Other sales include a new Maggot novella, "Abandon the Ruins," to F&SF; "Passing Through," another Limestone Island story (like "Lucy, In Her Splendor" and "The Moon is Always Full") to F&SF; "Hail, Conductor" to Talebones; and "The Third Brain," co-authored with James Allison, to Subterranean. I've got another story out in the mail, and I have two more finished, pending revisions, to send out. I don't count words like some folks do, but that all seems pretty good to me.

Related to writing, I taught week 2 at Clarion, and co-taught the writer's workshop at Context in Columbus. My only cons this year were Context and World Fantasy, but those both were great. Bakka-Pheonix Books in Toronto had a launch party for Wild Things that makes me want to return to Toronto again soon, although in better weather. I also served on the Phillip K. Dick Award jury, which gave me the chance to read a lot of great books (and some not so great ones) I wouldn't have otherwise read. Speaking of awards, "Pervert" was shortlisted for the Spectrum Award this year for g/l/bi SF, which made me glad.

After re-enrolling in grad school in January, I also wrote and defended my master's thesis in history, "Resource Competition and Cultural Misunderstandings Between Virginian Colonists and Non-Tributary Native Populations as a Cause of Bacon's Rebellion, 1675-76," clocking in at 142 pages, although a lof of that was footnotes. Then life intervened and I left school for a job before enrolling for one more quarter to file all the forms and graduate. So I have no degree. (I'm not going to talk about it for at least a year, so don't ask.) That's the story of my education -- lots of work, but nothing concrete to show for it. I don't regret it though.


In any case, while I didn't accomplish any of my personal or most of my writing goals for the year, it's hard to look over that list and feel like a shirker. I had a good year, and I'm happy with it. But here's to a better 2006 for everyone.