taking stock

[truepenny]

As the new year begins, my story "Blue Lace Agate" is live at Lightspeed. (Author interview here.) "Blue Lace Agate" is chronologically the first story about Mick and Jamie, the protagonists of "A Night in Electric Squidland" and "Impostors" (in Somewhere Beneath Those Waves), and I'm delighted that it has finally found a home.

ETA: Also, Mateusz Skutnik has a charming little New Year's game which I commend to your attention.

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Although I don't usually write year-in-review posts, after the year I've just had, I really do feel the need to sit down and take stock (4,691 irradiated haggis, check).

So.

In 2011 I:

• had three books published:
  
  • The Tempering of Men [with matociquala]
    
  • Somewhere Beneath Those Waves
    
  • The Bone Key 2nd ed.

(Also, holy shit, one of my books has a second edition. OMG ELEVENTY-ONE.)

• had two short stories and an essay published:
  
  • "The Devil in Gaylord's Creek" (Fantasy Magazine 50)
    
  • "Why Do You Linger?" (Subterranean Magazine 8)
    
  • "The Kindness of Monsters" (Whedonistas)
  
  
• sold some reprints:
  
  • "The Yellow Dressing Gown" (Apex Magazine 31)
    
  • "Bringing Helena Back" (New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird)
    
  • "Mongoose" [with matociquala] (also New Cthulhu)
    
  • "Boojum" [again with matociquala] (Drabblecast 202-203)
  
  
• self-published a chapbook, Unnatural Creatures, as a fundraiser and raised $3200 for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's Companion Animal Fund
  
• did some erratic blogging for tor.com

Also in 2011 I:

• had two cats die, which was horrible
  
• suffered both a Baker's cyst and a Morton's neuroma in my right lower appendage--said right lower appendage also continued to be stiff and painful (ranging from subliminal ow all the way up to ow!) and generally a freaking nuisance
  
• was Guest of Honor at Odyssey Con and LepreCon, both of which were very cool
  
• began to have some success in managing my RLS, although it seems to take both drugs and acupuncture to keep the little dragons quiet (see above re: right lower appendage, cross-ref.: freaking nuisance)
  
• became gainfully employed outside academia for the first time since the summer of 1991
  
• survived the Great Sleep Deficit of 2011, which--much like the Great Ankle Debacle of 2010--we have vowed never to repeat
  
• got to do a whirlwind trip to Boston, which was awesome
  
• went to my first dressage schooling show and did okay
  
• continued to have chronic non-ulcerous dyspepsia and added in some irritable bowel just for fun
  
• slowly, slowly began to get my brain back

Also, I read a bunch of books:

• Ayçoberry, Pierre. The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945. Transl. Janet Lloyd. New York: The New Press, 1999. (05/17)
  
• Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. (12/12)
  
• Begg, Paul. Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History. (05/04)
  
• Begg, Paul. Jack the Ripper: The Facts. (05/04)
  
• Brown, Arnold R. Lizzie Borden: The Legend, the Truth, the Final Chapter. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1991. (04/21)
  
• Brustein, William. The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. (03/09)
  
• Burrough, Bryan. Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. (06/10)
  
• Cohen, Patricia Cline. The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. (01/18)
  
• Deakin, F. W. The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism. 1962. London: Phoenix Press, 2000. (03/09)
  
• Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker. The Cases That Haunt Us. New York: Lisa Drew-Scribner, 2000. (05/12)
  
• Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence, and American Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. (04/22)
  
• Evans, Richard J. Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial. Basic Books-Perseus Books Group, 2001. (11/06)
  
• Evans, Stewart P., and Keith Skinner. Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2001. (05/18)
  
• Fritzsche, Peter. Life and Death in the Third Reich. Cambridge, MA: Belknap-Harvard University Press, 2008. (05/17)
  
• Glass, James M. "Life Unworthy of Life": Racial Phobia and Mass Murder in Hitler's Germany. N.p.: New Republic-Basic Books, 1997. (03/15)
  
• Godbeer, Richard. The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.(01/29)
  
• Kater, Michael H. Hitler Youth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. (01/09)
  
• Koch, H. W. Hitler Youth: The Duped Generation. Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. (03/09)
  
• Lambert, Angela. The Lost Life of Eva Braun. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006. (05/01)
  
• Lincoln, Victoria. A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967. (05/23)
  
• Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. Lost Prince: The Unsolved Mystery of Kaspar Hauser. New York: The Free Press-Simon & Schuster, 1996. (06/06)
  
• Overy, Richard. Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945. New York: Viking-Penguin Books, 2001. (03/09)
  
• Read, Anthony. The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004. (03/15)
  
• Roseman, Mark. The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution. London: Penguin Books, 2003. (03/09)
  
• Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press, 1993. (04/05)
  
• Rumbelow, Donald. Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook. (05/04)
  
• Schneider, Paul. Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend. New York: John MacRae-Henry Holt and Co., 2009. (06/04)
  
• Segrè, Claudio G. Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. (09/12)
  
• Sereny, Gitta. Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell. 1998. New York: Owl Books-Henry Holt & Co., 2000. (12/12)
  
• Starr, Douglas. The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science. New York: Vintage Books-Random House, 2010. (12/12)
  
• Sugden, Philip. The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1994. (05/19)
  
• Stannard, David E. The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. (02/12)
  
• Trow, M. J. The Many Faces of Jack the Ripper. (05/04)
  
• Wallis, Michael. Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. (07/10)
  
• Zierold, Norman. Little Charley Ross: The Shocking Story of America's First Kidnapping for Ransom. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967. (06/06)

As 2012 begins, I'm going to full-time as a database thrall, and we'll see what effect that has on my health and my writing.

Goals for 2012 (note to self: do not mistype as "gaols," please) include:

• finish The Goblin Emperor
  
• write An Apprentice to Elves [with matociquala]
  
• finish Thirdhop Scarp and write this backlog of Booth stories
  
• write a bunch of other short stories
  
• maybe start on this novel that is twining seductively around my ankles
  
• blog more
  
• BE HEALTHY

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Happy New Year! May 2012 be a better year for all of us than 2011!

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Are you actually seeing the promised Lightspeed content? I have been getting a 404 on the issue order page and your story and the cover and like that. I assume my story isn't up yet, but still.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I found out that "Blue Lace Agate" was up via the power of Google, so, yes.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

How bizarre that it should be hiding it from me, then.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a 404 off of Sarah's link too, for whatever that's worth.

[alan-yee.livejournal.com]

The link worked fine for me. Not sure why you're getting a 404.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

And cantered!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

True!

(I am sorry, btw, that we did not get to see each other during my whirlwind trip to Boston--I meant to say that ... well, a month and a half ago.)

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

So was I! Next time, next time.

[akaten.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that I actually bought Somewhere Beneath Those Waves new, in a store, which I almost never do because it's so much more expensive than Amazon. I'm quite glad that I did, for your books are always worth it, and I'm very thankful that you're still writing; I hope you continue to do so for many years to come, and I wish you a much better 2012 as well.

[heresluck]

Yay, books and stories! *beams at you*

If I were not so very fond of you, your reading list would probably freak me out, but as it is it just makes me laugh. Oh, you. And your brain.

Here's to a better 2012!

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

The Blue Lace Agate link isn't working for me unfortunately.

I hope you get/stay healthier and have a better 2012 too!

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

oooooooh I just finished Somewhere Beneath Those Waves last night, and having now been reminded of how much I love Mick and Jamie, there is another one! Hooray! (The link works fine for me.)

Happy New Year!

[kitgordon.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to Somewhere Beneath Those Waves (purchased at Uncle Hugo's here in Minneapolis)--a special treat to look forward to. Best wishes for a wonderful 2012, Sarah!

[aedifica]

This seems to be a good entry on which to say that I just finished Somewhere Beneath These Waves in ebook form and now I have to go buy a physical copy, because an electronic copy is not enough for such a wonderful book. In other words, I liked it LOTS! Thank you for writing the stories, and for bringing them out like this. :-)

[kisscassandra.livejournal.com]

Well, you don't know me, but I just stopped by to say thanks for unleashing Mick Sharpton on the world. Read Blue Lace Agate, suffered a pang of disappointment that there wasn't more of those two characters that I could hunt out... then switched tab and found A Night In Electric Squidland. My night is officially made.