It’s been a year, and for me a good one in some ways. I published four new things I am especially proud of:
- “Roll the Dice,” with Holly Elander: a words-and-pictures game for the lit mag 7×7.
- “The Apartment Dweller’s Alphabetical Dream Book,” part of a series of experimental stories, for Conjunctions Online.
- “What It’s Like,” some creative nonfiction for the North American Review.
- …and a guest blog, My Favorite Things, for speculativechic.com. I just reread this, and I still love it.
Two more stories were written and will come out this spring: “The Apartment Dweller’s Stavebook” at DIAGRAM, and “Noah’s Raven” at Lightspeed. And there was yet another, “An Attempt at Exhausting An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec,” though I have no idea if that will ever find a home.
There were (and are) also a bunch of reprints. I am especially excited that Lightspeed is reprinting what is in some ways the most ambitious story I have ever written, “Story Kit,” in February.
Yeah, there was an award, too, the World Fantasy Award, for “The Privilege of the Happy Ending.”
I did a lot of thinking about and prep for several longer works, but neither of them have gelled yet, so here we are.
Teaching got easier this year, though my spring was so full of dissertations and theses that I wasn’t sure I could compete it all. I went to Iceland. I moved to a lovely house in the woods. I got another cat. I joined a gym and started getting strong again. I finally realized there is a difference between people who are good company and people who are reliable. I got involved with a nonprofit. I joined a club. I tried to be a better person. Sometimes I was stressed, sometimes I grieved, sometimes I despaired — but more of the time I worked and thought and was happy in various ways.
