I haven’t said a lot about Chicon–probably because, well, 5 days in Chicago, not quite 3 days home, then 2 days judging a cat show in White Rock, British Columbia. I’m still catching up. There were quite a few high points: going to the bar for a nibble that first night and meeting George R.R. Martin, meeting Jim C. Hines just moments after purchasing Libriomancer and getting it signed, meeting Ferrett Steinmetz and having dinner with him, his lovely wife Gini Judd, and Amy Sundberg (and my dh Mike). I did my first ever worldcon panels, and committed to Lonestarcon (Worldcon 2013) next year and supported the Phoenix in 2014 bid for NasFic (and got an awesome Magnus and Loki t-shirt).
And, best of all, thanks to Larry Smith, Bookseller, my latest publishing effort, Galactic Creatures, was on sale in the Worldcon hucksters’ room. I have proof.
I am pleased and proud to announce Galactic Creatures, a new science fiction anthology to be published by Sparkito Press, featuring a gorgeous cover by Pyracantha.
Cover of Galactic Creatures~art by Pyracantha
There will be a book launch event at
Balticon, Memorial Day weekend, on Sunday the 27th from 7pm to 9pm, in the Garden Room, along with several other Dark Quest titles. Many of the contributors will be present, as will the cover artist and the collection editor (me).
Here is the table of contents. Start anticipating how much you’ll enjoy reading these terrific stories!
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Dragon Child
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by Leona Wisoker
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Lawn Care
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by C.J. Henderson
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Slow and Steady
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by John L. French
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The Dragon Ships of Tycho
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by Alex Shvartsman
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The Scrapper and the Saint Bernard
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by Scott W. Baker
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The Geas Ingenerate
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by Don Sakers
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The Sky Above the Sky
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by Brian Koscienski & Chris Pisano
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Heart of a Lion
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by James Daniel Ross
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Kudzu: A Prologue
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by Bernie Mojzes
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Broken in the Place of Dragons
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by Rosemary Edghill
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Crossing Roads
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by Patrick Thomas
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The year 2012 actually started the way a new year is supposed to–with champagne, and music, and friends. Of course, it was a bit of a slow start–I’m still limping from the toe surgery I had on the 28th, and I don’t get my stitches out until the 3rd. I’ve been sitting down a lot.
2011 saw a lot more editing work come my way, as well as my first published story. Of course, more editing work means that I’m writing less to keep up with the editing. I need to find a better balance. The year also saw a shift in the balance between the sci-fi/fantasy and cat show worlds. BlueBlaze produced two litters of maine coon kittens (now all sold), and is now showing a havana queen, but on the whole I spent more of my available [weekend] time at conventions or book-related events rather than cat-oriented events. This shift has made me a happier person, and I plan to continue it. I have some [cat show] judging assignments coming up in the next year, and I look forward to them [particularly spending Valentine’s week in Malta], but I am severely curtailing my exhibition-only weekends in favor of sci-fi conventions, book fairs, and steampunk events.
Thanks to my GP sending me back to Physical Therapy, I finally started exercising, and I was doing close to an hour of cardio at a stretch prior to having my toe sliced open. I’m still trying to figure out how to do something, but I fear I need to wait until the stitches come out before either the exercise bike or the treadmill is an option.
In 2012, I want to:
Write more. And get better about putting aside time for it. To help achieve this, I’ve signed up for Jonathan Maberry’s Novel in Nine Months class, starting in mid-January. It’s about an hour-and-a-half drive each way, but only meets physically once a month, and I’ve heard very good things about it. Hopefully that will be the push I need.
Edit more. And perhaps more effectively. I’ve decided it’s time for a refresher–I’m planning on the EFA Advanced Copyediting class, which I haven’t taken yet. In the past I’ve found the online EFA classes to be extremely worthwhile and well worth the cost. The class runs six weeks and starts in late February–I’ll assess at the beginning of the month if I can manage it while taking Jonathan’s class.
Get more organized. I’ve started this, but I need to keep up with it, and refine it. I’m freelancing in enough different directions I need to be certain nothing falls through the cracks. I’m starting to think I need a virtual corkboard–or maybe a real one.
Get back into shape. This is somewhat contingent on the healing of the toe, but I had a pretty good start on it before the surgery slowed me down.
Lose the last blasted fifty pounds. Related to the above getting in shape. I’m tired of being overweight. It’s a bit tricky trying to diet when traveling, but I’ve done it before. I just need to wrap my head around it again. Exercising will help, I think.
De-clutter. Especially the extraneous paperwork. Some of this is part of various ongoing projects to scan and dump old stuff, and some of it is just dumping old stuff that we’ll never look at again anyway. There’s a lot of paperwork that we have no room for, and I’m tired of having it in the way.
Read my way through some of the backlog. And sift through some of the books and donate them. I could read from now until doomsday, and I’d never get through them all . . . it’s time to be merciless and cull the backlog again.
Clean out and organize the craft stuff/sewing stuff/needlework stuff in the guest room so guests will fit in there. ’nuff said
I think that will keep me busy until next year.
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Thanks to the efforts of Mike McPhail, Sparkito Press [an imprint of Dark Press Books] now has a steampunky logo of its very own.
Let’s publish some books!
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I returned to Lunacon this year after a very long absence*. I was only able to attend for Saturday (I zipped to Reading, PA Saturday night and judged a cat show all day Sunday), but I tried to squeeze in as much con-going experience as I could into the day.
I went to a few nice panels, said a brief hello to Laura Anne (and got my books signed!), spent a little time at the Dark Quest table in the Dealer’s Room, had a very productive meeting with Neal about Sparkito Press (an Imprint of Dark Quest Books), talked with a few friends, and chatted with the folks at the fan tables about how to do a better job of promoting Darkovercon. I also went to the book launch for Buffalo Contingency and ended the day with a nice deli sandwich with the Dark Quest folks before heading off into the night. And I signed a contract for my first fiction sale, a short story going into the anthology In an Iron Cage http://www.darkquestbooks.com/store/product-info.php?pid91.html.
I wished I could have stayed for the whole weekend.
*The last Lunacon we were at, the GOH was Roger Zelazny. The Program Book tells me that was 1989. I need to get out more.
As many of you know, I’ve been copyediting for Dark Quest Books for some months now.
I’ve now agreed to take on some additional responsibilities. Dark Quest has split into several sub-imprints: Ambrotos Press (specializing in Horror, run by Ty Schwamberger), Starsong Press (unmanned as yet) and Sparkito Press (specializing in Steampunk and anything that catches my eye, run by yours truly). I’m really excited about this, and I hope all my friends with help with this new venture!!
