2013 in review
Oh, 2013 I am NOT sorry to see you go. We had some highs and lows together, but professionally you were great to me, so I won’t complain.
Soooo, let’s start with January:
I submitted 2 stories to anthologies and began getting a 3rd edited. I also started writing the final novel in the War of the Seasons trilogy, The Hunter, (something I was both excited and scared to do)
I also began putting together my first anthology, A Hero by Any Other Name, which was a bit scary, but fun at the same time – it’s was something I’d never done before.
I also attended the Presidential inauguration (a first for me!) and visited SEVERAL countries for the first time: Algeria, Cyprus, Germany (where I met Vice President Biden!), Israel, Morocco, and Turkey (where I met Vice President Biden!).
All in all, a VERY busy month.
Matt Slay’s artwork from “Time Traveled Tales.” Story by Jean Rabe, “My Faire Lady.”
February:
I was 8 chapters and over 20,000 words into the War of the Seasons: the Hunter. My self-imposed deadline for completion of the first draft was April 1st.
ShevaCon in Roanoake where I met wonderful artist Matt Slay and THAT eventually led to him doing the interior artwork for Time Traveled Tales.
There was also StellarCon in NC somewhere in there – always a wonderful place to connect with old friends.
And I believe I submitted my story for Defending the Future: Dogs of War, and it was accepted!
Later that month my husband and I celebrated our 12th anniversary and I participated in my 5th Disney Princess 1/2 marathon, making me a “Perfect Princess.” THEY EVEN GAVE ME A TIARA!
By Mark Dos Santos, from “Stupendous Sparkle” in “A Hero By Any Other Name.”
March:
I DID IT! I wrote “THE END” on the War of the Seasons trilogy on March 31st. Then the real work began… turning it into something actually worth reading!
Work continued to progress on A Hero By Any Other Name as stories from the authors (Michael A. Stackpole, Jean Rabe, Aaron Allston, Maggie Allen, and more) and internal illustrations from Mark Dos Santos came in. I’m really happy with how this anthology turned out.
No conventions or work trips this month, though I did run several local races. WOOT!
Yup, that’s me. Photo by TheBigTog.
April:
I continued to work on A Hero by Any Other Name, and stepped away from War of the Seasons to get some distance from the manuscript before I revised it.
Aside from that, the month was jam packed with RavenCon in Richmond, a trip to New York City for a costumed 5k AND a rooftop Avengers photoshoot (any excuse to wear my Thor costume & see Betsy (Loki), y’all), a 200 mile relay race (American Odyssey Relay) through some of the most amazing battle fields (like Gettysburg) and a downtown DC, and a Literary Book festival here on Capitol Hill – it doesn’t get more local than that!`
May:
I was really bad about getting any new writing done, but I did get a 2nd draft of War of the Seasons: the Hunter done and out to my beta readers.
Finishing touches were put on A Hero by Any Other Name and it went off to the printer. Meanwhile, I ran the Capitol Hill Classic (again, doesn’t get more local than that), and escorted several Congresswomen to Afghanistan and UAE to visit the troops for Mother’s Day. This was my 2nd year going on this trip and I’m always glad I can help make it happen. Being away from your family when you’re deployed is never easy – Mother’s Day, like Christmas is just that much worse. If I can help ease that even just a little bit, I’m happy.
Also, I saw camels for the first time (and trust me, I’ve spent a lot of my life in the Middle East, so that was a big deal to me). Had to take a pic!
June:
Busy for sure! I had TWO short stories come out in anthologies (both superhero stories – “He Was a Marvelous Man” and “Stupendous Sparkle”) and a kickstarter for a 3rd.
The first is the official Origins anthology Heroes (keep an eye out for a kickstarter for a re-issue from Silence in the Library later this year).
The second was, of course, the companion volume to Heroes, A Hero By Any Other Name. You can buy it here if you’re interested.
The third was the Silence in the Library kickstarter for Time Traveled Tales (which has now ended) – this one definitely has some names you’ll recognize (Zahn, Stackpole, Allston, Drake, and Young) in addition to my own story, “Slug”. You can purchase Time Traveled Tales here.
As far as travel, I attended two cons – ConCarolinas and OriginsGameFair and both were fantastic!
July:
A quiet month for me – no conventions, and no traveling. Which almost left me stir crazy. Heh. On the upside, I was able to write a short story for a charity anthology that was 9,000+ words (my story was called “Fire and Rain”, and you can get it here), I outlined a massive comic book story line and did all the background/world building for it (that was fun!), and plotted another story for Time Traveled Tales II wrote the first 3500 words. Which is good since my deadlines keep creeping…
Oh, and Maggie Allen and I sent out the first invites for Athena’s Daughters. Sooooo exciting!
Awesome moment of the month, though? Hands down the Paul McCartney concert!
Artwork by Autumn Frederickson for my story “Millie” in “Athena’s Daughters.”
August:
I finished a my story for Athena’s Daughters (you can read an excerpt here), and was nearly done with another for a Military Sci-Fi anthology (my 2nd for the year). I was also approached to submit an essay for a Divergent anthology.
Big travel for August was DRAGON CON! I had a blast promoting GeekGirlsRun AND meeting wonderful new people like Charlie Schlatter and Beth Revis. Also, I cannot say often enough how AWESOME the Kaleidoscope Track at DragonCon is. Seriously fun programming y’all – the sing along needs to happen again in 2014!
Gratuitous selfie in front of where the Marine Corps currently has me stationed – it’s definitely played a big role in my life this year.
September:
I finished the final draft of War of the Seasons: the Hunter. THAT was kind of a big deal for me – I felt so happy, and at the same time melancholy. I was sad to say goodbye to my trilogy. But still, I can write more short stories for Ailionora. I was also approached about two other anthologies which I said yes to – more on those later in the year.
I went to Baltimore ComicCon – my FIRST comic con! It was eye opening for sure. I also traveled a bit to Egypt, Italy, Libya, Malta – my Marine heart was very excited when we flew over the “shores of Tripoli.” Now I just need to visit the “Halls of Montezuma.”
Also, made it down to Disney World to run the Tower of Terror 10 miler where I placed 3rd in the military division! WOOT! And then later that month tied for 1st place over all in the “Banned books 1/2 Marathon.” 😀
October:
I launched the kickstarter for my final novel in the War of the Seasons trilogy, The Hunter, and boy oh boy, it did fantastically! Thank you to everyone who supported me in that. You’re awesome. You should have all received your eBooks and the final print proof will be arriving on Friday, and we are still on track for a January (this month!) shipment of getting all of you your print copies. Also, if you want to order The Hunter and missed the Kickstarter, you still can here.
Additionally, I was part of another kickstarter for another military sci-fi anthology call War Stories. My story, “Coming Home,” features Space Marines, pilots, docs, and addresses PTSD. It’shere if you want to check it out (though the kickstarter for that one has ended, you should be able to order it later this year from the publisher).
A companion story to “Coming Home” (above) is one I wrote for Defending the Future: Dogs of War titled “The Marine Breed” that was released this month. You can get it here.
Capclave was also this month where I met wonderfully talented writers Diana Peterfreund, Jon Skovron, and Alethea Kontis. I also went to GMX in Nashville (it’s like a mini-DragonCon and I looooove it!) – if you’ve never been YOU NEED TO GO!
Last but not least, I ended the month running the Marine Corps Marathon and promptly broke my foot doing so. But I still finished the race! Yes, I know, sometimes I don’t make the best decisions, but in all fairness I didn’t know it was broken. It just hurt a lot & things hurt a lot on marathons.
November:
My husband and I host a little writer’s workshop every November and this one went off quite well I think, with a bonus original RPG written and GM’d by Aaron Allston. SO FUN! We also had a Time Traveled Tales “sweat shop” where we packaged and sent out several hundred packages to our backers. Good times!
My essay for the Divergant companion was accepted (but it took multiple rewrites on my part) – definitely the hardest I’ve had to work on a submission. But that was good for me I think – I learned a lot!
As far as big events/travel, I went to Disney with my husband to cheer him on as he ran his last Disney race for 2013. You see, back in 2012 I said “wouldn’t it be cool if you ran ALLLLLL the Disney races in 2013 to celebrate your 40th birthday?” And said “Yeah totally!” Well, turns out, there are a LOT of Disney races.
Check out his bling! Hard earned, every last one of them!
December:
No travel for me in December as I was in a cast and on crutches due to my broken foot (diagnosed at the end of November). BUT still lots of excitement going on in December! For starters, War of the Seasons: The Hunter, came out, which was totally exciting! And from what I can tell, none of my readers hate me yet.
And of course, as you are well aware, the Athena’s Daughters kickstarter launched. It’s still going on (less than 1 week left). This is a project I’m really excited about and it’s doing so well! Over 1200 backers and nearly $30k! It’s the most successful KS Silence in the Library has ever done! $5 gets you SO MUCH FREE STUFF! We are talking novels, audio books, tons of short stories, and of course, the anthology itself!
So all in all, a great, productive year. Many thanks to everyone who helped me hit all these milestones – I have truly enjoyed and been honored to work with each and every one of you. Here’s to a great 2014 to all of us!
