This Year and Books

2012 wasn’t a bad year for me.  I put in much time editing and writing and as a result have taken a novel farther than I have ever done before.  I took a real vacation for the first time in nearly a decade to a place that has fascinated me since I was a kid = awesome with awesome sauce. 

I didn’t read as much as I’d like; time spent writing is time not reading.  Looking over the list, it was a year of mostly favorite authors, their new stuff as well as re-reading older works.  Here it is, with ocasional notes: 

JANUARY
(1)  David Jauss, On Writing Fiction, Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the Craft.  Essays on point of view, flow, epiphanies, and more. 
(2)  Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn.  Beautiful writing.

FEBRUARY
None

MARCH
(3) Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon.  Marvelous fun!  A monster-protecting competition-level ballroom dancer protagonist who is seriously awesome!  This book made the Grande Finale of the Cover Battle of 2012 at Ranting Dragon.  Up against Blackbirds, as of now (12/31/12) the count is 52%/48% in favor of Blackbirds. 
(4) Elizabeth Bear, By the Mountain Bound.  Prequel to All the Windwracked Stars.  Good fantasy, spun from a Norse foundation

APRIL
(5) Elizabeth Bear, The Sea Thy Mistress.  Sequel to All the Windwracked Stars.  Now I’ve finally read all three books that make up the Edda of Burdens series. 

MAY
(6) N.K. Jemisin, The Kingdom of Gods.  Book three in The Inheritance Trilogy.  Marvelous and satisfying.
(7) Ellen Datlow, ed, Naked City.  Anthology of urban fantasy stories by Jim Butcher, Holly Black, Elizabeth Bear, and others.  Loved it! 

JUNE
(8) Carol King, A Natural Woman.  A memoir that brought back memories of events we all lived through and how important her music, and the music of others, was in defining and solidifying those times.
(9) Jenny Lawson, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir).  Hilarious and sad and fascinating.  At times like watching a train wreck.  But in a good way.

JULY
None.  :-( 

AUGUST
(10) Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth.  New SF book, not Discworld.  I enjoyed it. 

SEPTEMBER
None.  :-( 

OCTOBER
(11) Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia’s Honor.  Re-read of a loved book.

NOVEMBER
(12) Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens.  Another re-read of a favorite.  Yes, I took time off from writing during NaNoWriMo to read!  If you look at my stats [Kat's NaNo Stats] you can probably tell when it was, too.  {Oops.  Maybe not!  It was the first slump; the second slump was work-induced.}

DECEMBER
(13) Elizabeth Bear, shoggoths in bloom.  Collection of many good short stories
(14) Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.  Traditional to read this at Christmastime.  Starting back when my daughter was around 14, we would read this out loud to each other, doing voices.  She does Death’s voice very well. 
(15) Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time.  The book that follows Hogfather.
In Progress:  Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts.  Thought I might get it finished today, but didn’t.

Well, I managed more than one book per month.  Perhaps I will do better next year.

OMG, my cup of New Year's Egg Nog is nearly gone!  I blame that for any typos.

I know 2012 could not end soon enough for many.  I feel fortunate that I was not in that group this time.

May 2013 be kind to all.