Looking Back at 2015

First off, can someone explain to me how it is the end of 2015? Seriously. What the heck happened to this year? Oh, wait, this happened...

WRITING
This was an insane year for the writing--probably the busiest I have ever had.

1. I wrote the book for the fabulous Llewellyn Tarot Deck I'm doing with illustrator Elisabeth Alba. 
2. I signed the second contract with Berkley for the next two books in the Baba Yaga series, a novella, plus Veiled Magic, the urban fantasy I'd written a few years ago.  
3. Everyday Witchcraft came out from Llewellyn in April (and is still #4 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality > Wicca, Witchcraft & Paganism on Amazon!) followed by the Midsummer book in May. 
4. Witches & Pagans Magazine  put out an edition (#29) with me on the cover
5. Veiled Magic came out in mid-November. 
6. In the midst of all that, I was doing major revisions on Veiled Magic, writing and revising the third Baba Yaga book WICKEDLY POWERFUL and the novella Wickedly Ever After (both of which are up for pre-order, she said with a wink) and writing the first Rider book, Dangerously Charming. [More on that in another blog post, because OY.] 
7. Plus, of course, there was promo and giveaways and all that for all the books I had out already. Plus my column for Witches & Pagans, and a few misc. articles for Llewellyn.
8. Then in December, I signed a contract with Llewellyn for one more book, tentatively called "365 Days of Everyday Witchcraft." 

This was 2015!

So a good year, but INSANE. Hopefully 2016 will be a tad bit calmer.

Yeah, sure. That could happen.

TRAVEL
Then there was the traveling. I rarely travel much, in part because the cats don't like it, in part because frankly, I am a lousy traveler, and in part because I don't have the time or money. None of that seemed to stop me this year. This is where I went:

1. February--San Diego to visit my family and then on to San Jose for Pantheacon, one of my favorite Pagan conferences, where I got to hang out with my step-daughter Jenn, my beloved Llewellyn editor Elysia and publisher Bill, as well as lots of other cool folks.
2. July--New York City for the Romance Writers of America National conference. There I met up with my editor, my agents, lots of writing friends, participated in a panel, and hatched some interesting plans with Mindy Klasky. (Plus I finally got to meet the lovely Patience Bloom in person, which was a huge treat, and go to two panels by author Jennifer Crusie, who knows more about writing than anyone else I have ever met.)
3. August--Eight days after I returned from NYC, I took off for Boston to join my extended family for a long-overdue family reunion vacation in Cape Cod for nine days. The highlight of that was getting to spend time with my cousin Peter and his wife and two amazing boys, who I hadn't seen in years (or in the youngest boy's case, ever). Also, you know, BEACH.
4. September--I spent two days in Binghamton at an up-and-coming local SF/fantasy con, Robercon, with my pal Ellen. The best part of that one was meeting and hanging out with the shockingly talented and equally nice guest of honor, Tamora Pierce, who I have adored for years. We were online pals for ages, but now that we've met in person, we're best friends. (Okay, she probably doesn't realize that, but really, we are.)
5. November--Author pal Nancy Holzner and I headed to Saratoga Springs for World Fantasy Con, where I got to spend lots of time with author friends old and new, including the fabulous Carol Berg and Lucienne Diver.

To say that I am happy to be done with traveling for the year would be a huge understatement, although I am heading back out in February for four days in Daytona Beach for Coastal Magic.

The beach in San Diego. In February.

Me and Elysia

With Jenny Crusie

Alex, Mariana, Misho, Peter and me on the Cape

Nancy, me, Tamora, Crystal S at Robercon

Esther Friesner, Lucienne Diver, me, and Carol Berg plotting world domination

Personal Stuff
In between all this, I was dealing with my step-daughter Jenn's mom Jo (also a friend of mine) who had a massive heart attack in March and then another smaller one in early November. This has meant a lot more visits from Jenn, mostly to see her mom, and adding care-taking to my list of things to do, now that Jo is in a nursing home (since Jenn lives across the country and can't do handle most things from there). But we had a lovely Christmas together with our friend Ellen this year, so that was nice. (Ellen gave us all imaginary perfect gifts...that's what we're holding up.)

Me, Jo, Jenn on Christmas morning

Plus, of course, CATS:

Angus & Mystic

Luna

Minerva & Mystic

Magic the Cat, Queen of the Universe

 And running The Artisans Guild and making jewelry, and doing all manner of work on my house...so pretty much, life. But a good one.

I hope that you had a great 2015. I'd love to hear what the highlight of your year was. I think mine was meeting Tamora Pierce. What was yours?

Thanks for spending this year with me, and I look forward to sharing 2016 with you--may it be filled with health, prosperity, achievement, joy, love, and at least a little magic!

World Fantasy Convention Report

Sorry I haven't been around, but I literally haven't been around. (Although I have read all of your comments on the giveaway post!) I left on Thursday night for the World Fantasy Convention, held this year in lovely Saratoga NY, about 2  hours from where I live, which is one of the reasons I went when I was already traveling too much this year. I just got back last night.

It was an interesting con...the convention itself wasn't great (for a number of reasons too complicated to go into), but I got to spend time with some fabulous folks (including authors I knew from Facebook but had never met in person, as well as an old friend I hadn't seen since 2008), see the amazing art show, and eat WAY too much wonderful food. Here are a few highlights:

Either Magic the Cat was helping me pack or telling me not to go away again. Which do you think it was?

Dinner Friday night with Lucienne Diver, Nancy Holzner, Esther Friesner, Carol Berg, and a couple of other folks.

This was my dinner! Crab stuffed shrimp--YUM!

The hysterical Esther Friesner, charming C.S. MacCath, me, and the brilliant Carol Berg

 Getting to meet Esther Friesner and Carol Berg (two of my favorite authors) and spend time with them was such a treat! As was hanging out with the gorgous Lucienne Diver, and my old pal C. S. MacCath, who I met back in 2018 at Pantheacon. We're both in the Llewellyn Pagan Anthology together. She and I and Crystal Sarakas, another friend, may have hatched a sekret plan. Or not. I can't say.

Esther, Lucienne, me, and Carol Berg. It is clear that we were plotting something and Esther was setting it into motion...

Dinner Saturday night...or what was left of it. We went to the Boca Bistro, which was an amazing tapas and wine place. Best food evah!

Author pal and roommate for the con, Nancy Holzner. She was great company!

Naturally, I didn't make it home without some books. A few of those were given to attendees in a cool bookbag, and others I bought to get signed by Esther and Carol, or just because I didn't have them yet. Lucienne and I swapped books, because we each had the other's books only on Kindle.

To top the whole thing off, I got to have breakfast on Sunday morning with my sister Sarah, talented brother in-law Rich, and my much-adored niece Addy, who live nearby.

It was a lovely time, but I'm glad to be home with the kitties and getting ready to dive back into working on Baba #4. Plus, of course, Veiled Magic is out in a week! The KINDLE FIRE HD GIVEAWAY is still on for another three days, so be sure to enter if you haven't done so yet! (And the Tweet about it option can be used every day.) I'll be posting another giveaway soon, too!

Have you gone anyplace interesting lately? (Or, you know, eaten anything good or bought a cool new book?)