Myth, the Universe, and Everything

What a year in books! As always, my book list is dominated by science fiction and fantasy (in part because of the long nominations list every year in the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, which I love being on the jury for) with a healthy smattering of romance and comics. I'm facing a couple of big changes in 2014, the biggest of which is that I'm no longer reviewing SFF or comics for Publishers Weekly. My editors and I were all sad about the circumstances that led to this change, and I'm glad for things like Facebook and Twitter that will enable me to keep in touch when I'm not getting regular book shipments from them! Instead, I'm reading more titles for Kirkus, all self-published and many of them picture and chapter books, which suits my reading time with Bug (who is an excellent second opinion when reviewing such titles).



I read twelve fewer books in 2013 than in 2012 (in part because I count the picture book reviews in batches rather than individually), but my total was still 129 books for the year, an average of almost 2 1/2 books per week. A friend asked about the best book I read in 2013, and I said I'd have to consult my spreadsheet -- I forget in what year I've read what books! But here are some of my favorite picks for 2013:

• Wrecked by Shiloh Walker, a very fun contemporary romance


• Merrie Haskell's The Princess Curse


• The manuscript for Max Gladstone's Full Fathom Five, which will be out this coming July; even in manuscript form, this is -- so far -- my favorite of the Craft sequence


• A Man Above Reproach, a delightfully silly regency romance by Evelyn Price, which was so fun that I didn't even care if there were anachronisms


• Digger by Ursula Vernon, which won the MFA in the adult category this year, and which I reviewed at Black Gate back in October


• RASL by Jeff Smith, which I didn't love as much as Bone, but was good in a very different way


• Vessel (the MFA winner for the children's category) and Conjured, both by Sarah Beth Durst, and both very different books, but equally good


• Graveminder by Melissa Marr, which I think appealed to me particularly because my father is a funeral director


• Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch, which I'd been meaning to read for ages and finally picked up


• Sidekicked by John David Anderson, which I already reviewed here


• If I Fall by Kate Noble, which may be the best romance novel I've read


• Sleepless Knights by Mark Williams, a comedic Arthurian novel that's my favorite Arthuriana in awhile

I also caught up on some series reading that I enjoyed:

• Allison Pang's "Heart of the Dreaming" series


• Devon Monk's first three "Age of Steam" books (and I can't wait for more of those!)


• I always compulsively buy whatever novel in Nalini Singh's "Psy/Changeling" or Ilona Andrews's "Kate Daniels" series comes out, so I'm happily caught up there


• After falling behind on Jennifer Estep's "Mythos Academy" books, I read three in a row, and I'm excited for the (soon to be out) final book in the series


• I read the final books in Karen Mahoney's "Iron Witch" trilogy, Ally Carter's "Gallagher Girls" series, and Nicole Peeler's "Jane True" series, all of which were fitting conclusions


• I'm still catching up on the Sartorias-Deles books by Sherwood Smith (because they're such a vast span), but I did read and enjoy her 2012 YA The Spy Princess.


• I am finally almost caught up with "Safehold" by David Weber, but I find sometimes I need to take a break in the middle of them to get away from religious warfare; Weber writes it very well, but it can be so heart-wrenching in the middle that I put the book down and come back to it later.

There are several more titles I could mention -- I read a lot of good books this year, and several that earned a "great" or "great!" or "holy crap awesome!" ratings in my spreadsheet. As for my goals... I didn't quite make them. Let's check in:

• 1 new to me nonfiction book Yeah, this one didn't happen. This goal is staying on my list for 2014, though; I think reading nonfiction, beyond articles at Cracked is important, and I should do more of it, even though I'm dreadfully slow.


• 2 novels not SFF, romance, or YA Didn't even touch this one. Again, reading outside my genres is important, and I don't do enough of it. Keeping this goal the same for 2014.


• 1 novel by an autobio author who I haven't read before Technically, this one's a no-go, too, but I did read some people this year and, because I enjoyed their work, subsequently invite them to the project. So I'll give this one a C for effort. Same goal next year.


• 3 rereads I made 2 rereads, but I have this vague recollection of binging on the "Kate Daniels" books by Ilona Andrews right after reading the newest one. No record of it, so I can't count it. I'm pretty sure I can hit the 3 count next year.


• 1 new graphic novel not a review book I aced this one -- I read 12. So, um, this goal is coming off the list. I don't need incentive to read comics apparently. I'm also buying some books in single issues (Saga!) from Comixology, which I count like webcomics (which is to day, I don't write them down).


• 15 TBR books Another abject failure. I only read 3. I realized though that from March until June I didn't read a single book that wasn't for a review or for the MFA list, so it makes a little sense that I fell behind in pleasure reading. Especially as we move onto the next one...


• 4 kids books not for the MFAs A bunch of pleasure reading apparently happened here instead. I read 16 kids books last year. Again, this goal is coming down -- no incentive needed here.


• And though this one's not a goal, my reviews totalled out to 74 books. According to my January recap of reading last year, I read 80 review books in 2012. So that number looks to be holding just about steady.

What books did you read last year that you'd recommend? What reading goals have you set?

I've written here about using a few different goals strategies, and about how I particularly liked devonmonk's reasonable goals combined with above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty goals, as it's encouraging to land somewhere in the middle. I decided to set some for the summer, thanks to kaz_mahoney's Summer Camp. She's doing a writing goals thing (not a challenge, as that sounds too competitive) for the summer months, with a Tuesday check in, starting next week.



To share with you all, here are my summer writing goals:

Reasonable goal:
* With my cowriter, finish the draft of our serial novel. (We're at chapter 10 of 20 -- halfway there!)
* Complete typesetting on four essays written by other authors (this is contracted, so it's kinda cheating to count it).
* Write one short story.
* Write multiple book reviews (not contracted, but already arranged with the venues in which they'll appear).

Extended goal:
All of the above, plus:
* Write three chapters of the YA novel I'm working on.
* Write three short stories (including the one above).
* Restart the adult novel I haltingly began last year now that it's percolated and I have an idea of where it's going.
* Blog at least three times a week.

If you're looking for motivation, do check out Kaz's Summer Camp and join us!

I read an article, probably in the New York Times Book Review and probably in 2001 or 2002 -- whenever Zadie Smith was the new "Hot Young Writer" -- about the term "Hot Young Writer." (If only I could track it down, I'd link to it here.) The contributor wrote about how suddenly, a "Hot Young Writer" would be an "overnight" success -- despite the fact that they, like all of us, had slaved away at their apprenticeships. The benefit to them is that they were noticed early. The detriment? That at some point, you're no longer the "Hot Young Writer." Your second novel might not live up to the expectations of the first as you hit a sophomore slump. Then where will you be? Still at young writer, perhaps, but no longer hot? Or perhaps you'll hit 30 (the age I believe the contributor selected). You might still be hot, but you're not a prodigy any more.

As some folks noticed (via lj's and facebook's helpful reminder system), it was my birthday yesterday, and I've hit that fateful number the NYTBR contributor labeled as no-longer-young. A lot of my identity since I was sixteen has been about doing things early, ahead of the curve (which is, I suppose, a common experience for people who go to Simon's Rock). So, as I told my father over the phone, it's odd to just be a regular grown-up.

On the other hand, I feel pretty much like, for right now, I'm exactly where I want to be in my life -- give or take 30,000 words (which kaz_mahoney has faith I can write -- and with her encouragement, maybe I'll actually do the YaNo challenge this year, since NaNo is definitely not going to fit into my schedule). Do I need to do things to improve? Well, yes. If you've got nothing left to learn, and nowhere left to grow, it takes a lot of the fun out of life! So I think I'll get back to devonmonk's goals strategy: setting reachable goals and shooting for the moon and trying to land in between. This year's already set up to be a great year -- a huge, life-changing year -- and I'm excited for the possibilities.

--

Edit: I forgot to wish jimhines a happy book birthday! The Mermaid's Madness is officially out today. (I got my copy last week and loved it.)

All right, one week to get myself back on my feet, and here I am, returning to ye olde blog. (I was delayed in turning in my short story to my editor, and one of the things I forbade myself from doing was blogging before it was finished and ready to turn in.) But a couple of cool things happened today, and I wanted to make sure to blog about them, and update you guys on my goals from the trip, before Saturday turned into Sunday. (Hopefully, the novel tourism post will go up tomorrow!)

So, first cool thing: my review of Caitlin Kittridge's (blackaire's) novel, Street Magic, went up on Flames Rising. Matt was kind enough to post it for me on a Saturday, because the book has just hit the shelves, and I didn't want to have gotten an advanced reader copy for nothing! It's a really, really excellent novel, which I expound upon in my review. Check out what I had to say, and look for the novel at your local bookstore!

Second cool thing: I finally got to meet Anton Strout (antonstrout) (who is, for the record, the most beloved low-to-midlist urban fantasy writer in America, or so I hear) live and in person. He did a book signing up in Pittsfield, his home stomping grounds and not distant from my college stomping grounds. So finally, I have my books signed. Hooray! I decided that bringing him a PEZ dispenser would border on creepy fangirl, so I decided to eschew it and just bring books and questions and a big smile. He did a reading from the first chapter of Deader Still, which was brilliantly creepy and got wonderful reactions from the audience (including me -- I'd forgotten how vivid, and, frankly, gross, that scene was!). The best part, however, was his commentary -- as he was reading, he'd interrupt himself and tell us little bits about the characters or his word choice or things that he liked about the scene, which was a huge enhancement to the story for me. Also (and I hope I'm not blowing his cover), he is super nice in person. Based on his blog and his books, I was expecting more snark, but he was totally gracious and sweet. (And I'm not just saying this because he might find this entry later. These are honest impressions here!)

The Barnes and Noble in Pittsfield is pretty darn great. They didn't have Pandora's Closet in stock, sadly, but I did pick up Red Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells and Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. The staff was really great, too, but my favorite part was walking in and seeing a young woman reading manga with this huge grin on her face, totally oblivious to anyone walking by. Seeing the power of reading in person like that gives me a little thrill.

So, those are my good things. ( Now to catch up on my goals... )

I had the privilege yesterday of visiting Dona Cady's science fiction course at Middlesex Community College. The class sounds like something I would have loved to take as an undergrad: they study the hero's journey, talk about myth and literature, read a lot of really excellent books, watch some great movies, and are required to play Warhammer as part of the course, using that character as the voice for a travelogue that takes them through the hero's journey as a creative writing project. Amazing, right? Dona has a real passion for her course material, and is really dedicated to giving her students a really good picture, not only for what the academic/critical side look like, but also for what the industry looks like. That's where I came in. She has several other guests coming, including Christopher Golden, and all of the guests talk about their career and their writing.

For me, that meant telling the story of handing out business cards, getting my first gigs through EnWorld, and talking about Dungeons and Dragons. Most of the students weren't tabletop gamers, but a couple who were asked some really great questions. More of them were familiar with the Forgotten Realms through the fiction, so we talked a little bit about the way games and comics do ret-cons, and I discussed not only the Spellplague (more of a reboot than a ret-con), but also taking over Cowboys and Aliens II from a different team, and thinking about what details (sometimes culturally and historically incorrect) we felt we had to keep to prevent ourselves from doing a ret-con. It was overall a great experience, and there are things that I'll do differently when I return to the class next year, hoping to get a little more cross-talk instead of Q&A. But we'll see--I studied in a very conversation based environment for all of my undergrad classes, so I acknowledge I'm a little more on the everyone-talk-around-the-table side of things than the lecture side.

That said, sometimes Q&As are great on their own. devonmonk did a great Q&A on her blog the other day and addressed one of my questions about online presence (since I've been thinking about that since Monday). I loved her thoughts on the topic (and they reassert my opinion of her as a genuinely sweet individual). The online presence and how it impacts how people read your fiction is definitely I'll continue to explore--not only because it's relevant to me as a writer, but because there's something really interesting going on with virtual worlds and how we create ourselves. According to Professor Cady, there's a correlation between virtual worlds and Asian philosophy, and that's a paper I'd love to read once she has it published.

Thanks again to Shelley/Dawnsister, one of the original New England Browncoats, for the introduction and encouragement to come up. She's another person I'd only known virtually until yesterday, and it's lovely to put a face to her online identity. :)

So, back at the beginning of January, I posted some goals: one about developing a spiritual practice and one about returning to an actual writing practice. Then devonmonk posted another entry about goals over at Deadline Dames, and I set a couple of mini-goals, mostly about meeting my deadlines (with additional uber-goal of doing actual fiction writing between then and now). How am I doing?

With the spiritual practice, actually pretty well, comparatively. I'd been doing nothing, really, so anything is an improvement! Breakfast with Barfield is going well, and I'm pleasantly pleased with how easy Saving the Appearances is to read this time around. It's not as hard to wrap my brain around the ideas as it was when I first started contemplating them, and I'm glad of that. I've also been back to lighting candles for people with some regularity, which is in part due to the ridiculous number of candles we found when we moved, but largely because I've been thinking about people who need positive spiritual energy sent their way--and even if candles are only a representation, it's a meaningful practice for me.

As for the writing practice, I have say I'm not doing as well as I'd like. This is, in part, because I keep taking more work. I haven't yet gotten up to Jayne-level ("The money was too good. I got stupid."), but I'm keeping myself busy and working. If all goes well, I'll have an adventure gig shortly, and I've been working on Baeg Tobar shorts; I'll soon be starting the long project for them as well. That's definitely good work flexing my writing muscles, and I'm enjoying it. But "Good Company," "Chalice Girl," "Saving Tara," and the Blackstone novel are still just hanging out, waiting for me to pay more attention to them than I've been able to.

What about those mini-goals? I mostly made them. Considering my schedule being shifted some by new work that inserted itself, I think I met them all. Specifically, though, there's one piece that didn't get written that I still need to work on this week, before next week's deadlines catch up with me. To use Devon's technique, I'll put my goals here for my next two week period: one reasonable goal and one completely unreasonable, sky-high goal, and then I'll check back in two weeks from now and see how I did.

Reasonable Goal: Finish the essay that I meant to complete for the last set, complete the first set of copyediting/writing assignments that go with a three-part project, complete one reference writing project, and complete one large review/article project. Blog at least twice a week. Provide good critiques to the Substrate crew. Make progress on either "Good Company" or the Blackstone novel.

Unreasonable Goal: All of that, plus finishing another reference writing assignment early, blogging every day, and completing "Good Company," "Chalice Girl," and several Blackstone chapters.

For those of you who do resolutions, how are you keeping up with your January goals?

P.S. Congrats to devonmonk on getting contracted for six Allie Beckstrom books! I really enjoyed Magic to the Bone, and I'm thrilled that there will be that many in the series!

I just have to say: you livejournal people are far too interesting and difficult to keep up with. I had far more concrete writing plans for today, but spent a good chunk of the day reading other people's ljs instead.

Note: I am still not entirely caught up. But I think I'm as close as I'm going to get.

Today is a link day, in part because there's contests that require linking (and I'm a sucker for that) and in part because there were some fun Joss Whedon articles that got tossed around on my mailing lists, and dutiful Browncoat that I am, I must share them.

So, first, the Whedon:

WGA magazine has an article about Joss as a writer (and mammoth-drawer, were he a Cro-magnon) and about the Dr. Horrible phenomenon.

caitrin posted news about Joss's movie, Cabin in the Woods, which will apparently star Bradley Whitford. I didn't know anything about this project, so it's a nice head's up. (It's not Goners, though, which is somewhat disappointing.)

For contest number one, the Urban Fantasy Land Readers Choice Awards need your votes! There are so many good books up for awards that it's tough to narrow it down: devonmonk, blue_succubus, antonstrout, mdhenry, rkvincent, frost_light, blackaire, melissa_writing, stacia_kane, katatomic, ilona_andrews, Jes Battis, and Carrie Vaughn are among the nominees. The polls close on the 30th, and if you also link to the blog, you're entered for a $25 amazon gift card. Who doesn't need one of those?

And finally, the Deadline Dames (including devonmonk and rkvincent) are hosting a number of contests on the new blog, which launched on the 19th. Devon's involves setting goals--and one of mine is to post on livejournal at least twice a week. (The unreasonable expectation? Every day.) So, we'll see how I do!