Last year, in my round up post for 2013, I said this:
I won’t be writing one of my usual ‘looking forward to X year’ posts because I honestly don’t know what 2014 will bring except kindergarten and a few travel invitations that I don’t 100% believe in yet, and I hope something finished that is written by me. Watch this space.
ALL THOSE THINGS HAPPENED.
Jemima started kindergarten and had a great year; Raeli was in grade 4 and had a great year too. Jemima loves school as much as her sister does. Raeli’s main sadness was that she wasn’t allowed to visit Jemima in her kindergarten room multiple times every single day, but oh, she tried.
Raeli is nearly 10, and has read all the Harry Potter books. I’m so proud I could burst. She also wears all black and a scornful expression most of the time.
I was invited to an honest to goodness literary festival here in Tasmania, AND went to London to visit the Worldcon, which is much shinier than going to visit any old queen. I met so many people that I’ve only ever talked to online. I went to the Hugos, and to the Ritz, though the happiest time was simply hanging out in the dealer’s room, selling copies of Kaleidoscope hand over fist and chatting to knitters and readers and Alisa’s baby Mackenzie.
My honey and I even got away on a trip on our own, to the Melbourne Natcon, and had a fantastic time. There was one day when we forgot we were parents completely, and oh we felt guilty afterwards, but it was rather nice 
We managed a family holiday too, having finally figured out that actually, what we need for a happy family holiday is to stay somewhere a couple of hours drive from home, in an apartment or chalet, with access to a pool and someone cooking us breakfast every day. Bliss.
So many trips this year. Not content with Melbourne and flying to London on my own so brave omg, I also jetted off to Perth to launch Drowned Vanilla, to be a guest (as Livia Day) at the cozy and welcoming CrimeScene convention, and to snoodle Mackenzie again. It was wonderful to catch up with my Perth friends, to finally hold an event at Stefan’s Books, and to hang out in Alisa’s living room drinking affogatos while watching Dixie Chicks and Dawson’s Creek.
WRITING STUFF:
As Livia Day I had a murder mystery novel published this year: Drowned Vanilla, sequel to A Trifle Dead. Amanda made me one of my all time favourite covers, and I’m really proud of the book. Its reception has been very positive so far, especially because of the extra delicious recipes which form part of the book’s narrative.
I also had some TansyRR short stories out:
“Cookie Cutter Superhero,” Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Of War and Wings,” Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens
(Zombies Need Brains)
“The Love Letters of Swans,” Phantazein (Fablecroft)
I continue to be overwhelmed by the popular reception of “Cookie Cutter Superhero,” and Kaleidoscope in general. Being part of this book at Loncon was amazing because of the huge swell of support for it, but the fact that so many people have read this story and commented on it to me, either in person or via Twitter, email, gchat, whatever, is just extraordinary.
In other book/writing news, Love and Romanpunk was reprinted in paperback this year for Loncon and we sold SO MANY it was amazing.
Thanks to Tehani of Fablecroft, there are also two collected editions of my essays out there in the world as ebooks: Pratchett’s Women (including a previously unblogged essay on Monstrous Regiment) and 50 Roman Mistresses: Scandal, virtue and womanhood in Ancient Rome.
The original Pratchett’s Women essays on my blog were also picked up by Metafilter and BoingBoing this year, which meant a couple of thousand more people suddenly descended to read them. That was pretty awesome.
“The Raven and her Victory” (2013) originally published in Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe picked up two reprint sales, to Heiresses of Russ and The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2013.
CROWDFUNDING STUFF:
2014 was definitely a year of crowdfunding for me, not only experimenting with it but also talking about it, reaping the rewards of it as a creator and as a supporter.
Cranky Ladies of History is the book that Tehani Wessely and I crowdfunded in March – we’re in final edits right now and the finished product will be out next March, just in time for another Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. It was such an important, exciting project to be involved it, and we were delighted with the level of support we received. Once the fundraising was done, the hard work really started and we have so many amazing stories in this book! I can’t wait to share them with you.
Both podcasts that I’m involved with, Galactic Suburbia and Verity! continued happily throughout 2014. We set up Patreon campaigns for both, allowing our listeners to support us through micropayments, which means covering podcast costs and even being able to save up for important hardware changes like Alisa’s new microphone! It’s been a big weight off our minds and helps the podcasts to be sustainable which is awesome because we love doing them so much.
And speaking of Patreon…
MUSKETEER SPACE:
My big project this year was Musketeer Space, something that I’ve had in mind for a while. I finally bit the bullet on May 22, my birthday. My plan was to get back my writing spark and general depression at not finishing things by setting my own deadlines and using sponsors and readers to spike my adrenalin.
It’s worked in so many ways. Writing Musketeer Space every week has empowered me in all kinds of creative ways, and the associated blogging deadlines for Patreon rewards has done the same. I have written over 350,000 words this year, which completely boggles me. 200,000 of those words are fiction, and 150,000 are non-fiction – which includes commissioned articles, paid blogging such as my Rereading the Empire Trilogy column at Tor.com. Patreon-related blogging and essays.
The campaign has grown from $100 per month back in May to $236 per month now, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it adds up month by month to be the equivalent of a small press advance for the book. More importantly, it gives me accountability to the 60+ supporters, so I absolutely HAVE to post my chapters every week. I haven’t been pushing or publicising the Musketeer Space Patreon campaign much beyond my current readers, because you can’t do the same kind of full on social media blitz for an ongoing campaign that you can with a short, sharp one, but I do need to push this more in the new year because I want to reach $300 so I can commission cover art. COVER ART.
Earning some income from my blog is a new and extraordinary thing, but it’s the effect on my creative energy that I am most grateful for. I don’t know what I’m going to do as far as using what I’ve learned here once the Musketeer Space project winds up some time around July/August, but I definitely want to do something like this again, if I can find a project that suits the business model.
(cough, superheroes, perhaps? Though I’m also tempted to go back to epic fantasy and prove it can be written in bite-sized pieces)
BLOGGING/FAN WRITING:
Writing for Tor.com has been another great boost to my confidence this year, and I am enjoying the regular pressure of having to get a piece in every week. (Cough, there isn’t one this week, I fell down in a heap of torn Christmas wrapping, sorry!)
I also wrote a piece for the brand new Uncanny Magazine: Does Sex Make SF “Soft”?
I’ve been loving the Musketeer themed blogging that I’ve done for my Musketeer Space project, both the Robotech Rewatch posts and the Musketeer Media Monday essays.
I’m especially proud of my BBC Musketeer essays which were I think the most fun I had writing anything this year:
Looks Good in Leather: BBC Musketeer Edition Part I (2014)
You Can Leave Your Hat On: BBC Musketeer Edition Part II (2014)
It’s Raining Musketeers: BBC Musketeer Edition Part III (2014)
We only managed a couple of installments in the ongoing Watching New Who series of conversational reviews, but hope to get David caught up next year!
We took part in another Aussie SF Snapshot too, just before Loncon, which was great fun and bigger than ever before.
I’ve hardly done any non-Musketeer related pop culture blogging on my own site, but I did write a piece earlier on the year with my reactions to Captain America: Winter Soldier and how a Black Widow movie would work. I’m still pretty pleased with the piece although obviously multiple rewatchings, catching up on relevant comics and cough, fanfic, has taught me that I was totally wrong about Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier not being pretty awesome in this film.
See, I can change!
I also wrote essays on The Chosen Mum: Coming of Age in Yonderland, The Chauvelin Effect, and On Influence, about the various female writers who have inspired me over the years.
Oh, and a guest appearance on the SF Signal podcast, talking about Space Opera.
READING:
This year’s reading has been predominantly things that are not eligible for Hugo awards, ie almost no SF and Fantasy at all, which is both frustrating and liberating. I spent the first part of the year obsessively consuming historical romance novels, as described here in The Feminist Rake and Other Stories.
Once I recovered from that frenzy, I found myself accidentally falling back into obsessive fanfic reading, thanks to the BBC Musketeers TV series (you’ve got to love a fandom where the most common OTP involves at least four characters), Harry Potter (for old times’ sake) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I was delighted to discover that fanfic communities are a lot less about hating the lady characters these days, and also that it’s possible to download Kindle-friendly files directly from Archive of Our Own. Living in the future, I tell you, it’s awesome.
My third reading frenzy of the year is all about comics, comics and more comics, so the new iPad mini that I found under the Christmas tree (and does not have to be SHARED WITH FAMILY) made me exceedingly happy. I hope to write more about comics & superheroes in the new year, though I did manage this post on Squeeing About Superheroines at Skiffy and Fanty for their Month of Joy. In the mean time, if you’ve ever wondered if it’s worth investing in the massive hardback of Brian Michael Bendis’ noir-in-superhero-universe series Alias, starring Jessica Jones? Yes, totally worth it. I’m also very into the Young Avengers, New Avengers, Hawkeye and All-New X-Men. Raeli’s favourite comic is the new Ms Marvel which makes me happy like I can’t believe.
I do have actual fantasy novels that were released this year that I really want to read. As soon as my brain lets me, I’ll be there. Books I wish I had read this year include Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, Ben Peek’s The Godless, and Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire. Seriously, I have them in hardcover, they are sitting RIGHT THERE. I hope to have consumed them all by the end of the summer.
NEXT YEAR:
Next year’s work is pretty much sewn up. I have to finish the second half of Musketeer Space, publish the book and wind up the project. I have to write Keep Calm & Kill the Chef, the third Livia Day novel, thanks to a lovely Arts Tasmania grant. I have a couple of short story commitments, mainly to anthologies that are going to have crowdfunding campaigns next year.
Cranky Ladies of History will be released in March, which is so exciting. I also have an essay coming out in Companion Piece, the next in the ‘Chicks Dig Time Lords’ series of books from Mad Norwegian Press. The e-edition of Drowned Vanilla will be out, as will the bonus Tabitha Darling novelette, “The Blackmail Blend.”
Oh, and my eldest daughter turns ten and starts Grade 5, and is drawing comics like a demon so she’ll probably have her own Patreon campaign by this time next year. My youngest daughter starts prep which is FULL TIME SCHOOL AND THE WORLD AS I KNOW IT WILL BE SO DIFFERENT.
We have family holidays and get togethers booked in. I will be the Guest of Honour at Continuum in Melbourne this year, in June. I don’t expect to be travelling much beyond this, because 2013 was the Year of Planes and I’m so, so tired.
My goal is to write 204,000 words of fiction next year, all specified projects.
I’d better get started.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!