My 2013 in review

This is my year in pictures and links. I tried to stuck to two or three links per month but there were times when there was so much going on it was difficult to follow my own rule.

You won't find much soul-searching here; 2013 was a truly fabulous year.

January

Amazing what low light can do...

• I complete the seventh draft of Hild.
• I take a selfie (unusual for me, that, but for some reason I'd been getting lots of requests).

February

The finished cover ends up looking even better, I think

• I become a US citizen and it is surprisingly moving.
• Hild cover reveal. (No, it's not me!)
• I get new author photos.

March

The SCOTUS hearings go so well I just want to send everyone flowers

• US v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry (but even before it happens it is obvious to me how it will go).
• Good lesbian sf novels (though I also make it clear there's no such thing as a lesbian novel, of whatever genre)

April

• I win the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize--and am delighted!
• Fun with Hild ARCs: Hildhenge!
• I take stock of the personal consequences of growing up queer.

May

Photo by the incomparable Jennifer Durham

• Kelley and I go to BEA, where I go beserk doing things. Personal record? Five events in one day.
• Kelley and I get some new photos.
• Hild is a Buzz Book.

June

Photo by Tony Valenzuela

• My night at the Lammys. (Later, I talk about it in Slate.)
• 25 years to the day I met Kelley, SCOTUS strikes down parts of DOMA

July

Photo by Christine Doyle

• Kelley and I go to Sacramento where we're co-Guest of Honour at the wild and wonderful big tent of Westercon 66.
• I'm beginning to feel the work. What follows is the day of mass delete and general apology.

August

Photo by Karina Melendez

• I play with my toys: my ukulele and bow.
• I get my first fab review for Hild, in Kirkus

September

Photo by Jennifer Durham

• Kelley and I get married
• The blurb that puts me over the edge: a fantastic endorsement from Neil Stephenson and other Hild morsels

October

• I have an excellent adventure at the PNBA, in which I discover it's just like a science fiction convention, and sign my first copies--about 200!--of Hild.
• The whole month is about Hild. Lots of reviews and interviews start to go up.

November

Photo by Jim Berg

• Hild is released; I have a splendid party at Hugo House. (Video of same here.)
• Among other fabulous reviews, one from NPR sends Hild rocketing up the charts. And people start sending me pictures of their cats reading Hild.
• I am not feeling too good, and decide to cancel my trip to Miami's Book Fair International.

December

• The Hild audiobook is out--my very first.
• My MS flares and I must cancel many things, including trips to the midwest and San Francisco.
• But, wow, Hild sales look like this:

As I say, it was a great year. I posted less than usual because I was overwhelmed with work. Overwork is probably what triggered the MS exacerbation, too. But it could have been the sheer excitement. Even exhilaration is physiologically stressful.

I'm getting over it--though still not willing to travel for a few weeks--and I'm pretty sure 2014 will be amazing, brilliant, and marvellous for me and Kelley.

I hope 2014 brings you all you dream (and plan, and work) for.

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