2015 has been full of change – most of it very good! Here’s my year in review.
1. I launched an anthology in London!
I finished out my role as co-editor for Bath Spa University’s Class of 2014 anthology, Beautiful Lies! It was amazing to see the book come together, and to watch my classmates connect with agents and publishers on the big night.
2. Sarah and I drove the Ring Road in Iceland!
In five days, we rounded the majority of the island. With our trustworthy steed (aka car) Thorny the Bold, we traversed unpaved roads, braved mountainsides, and had many an adventure.
Also: I didn’t get sea sick when we went whale watching, despite rough seas and 3 meter waves! This is my superpower.
3. I finally went to Portland (and Washington)!
As soon as I landed back in the USA, I boarded another plane bound for the west. I reconnected with the Hankins (aka, my adopted family from the Berry College era), helped my mom through her first kidney stone (not fun!), met my second book BBF (after the British Library): Powell’s Bookstore, and dragged my brother around Seattle.
4. I started freelancing!
While I job searched, I started doing freelance editing and writing. I’ve edited approximately fifteen books this year, plus five dissertations. I also became a regular blogger over at Travelversed. I particularly like my 9 Insiders Tips for Visiting Bath entry.
5. I was named valedictorian and gave a speech at Bath Abbey.
While in Portland, I had an email from my course leader Julia Green asking me to come back to England for graduation – as valedictorian! I carefully composed a speech, purchased tickets with the generous help of a cousin, and made my way back across the Pond. It was an amazing experience – and (surprisingly!) I wasn’t the least bit nervous.
6. I got a puppy!
Maeve, named for an Irish faerie queen, joined the family in the spring. She went on to graduate valedictorian from her puppy and intermediate classes (a girl after my own heart). She is a little less tiny now, but still adorable and snuggly.
Artwork from my sister.
7. I wrote. A LOT.
In the spring, I finished another round of revisions on Blessings. I also completed the initial full revisions on Illuminate. Then over the summer I finished a complete draft of Popinjay. Come August, I was back in revisions with Illuminate – cutting 30k and bringing the manuscript up to snuff. By November, it was time to rewrite Popinjay into a somewhat respectable draft (still on-going).
Oh, and in July my friend Annie and I happened to watch Cash for Class, a documentary about the late 1800s. Within 24 hours, we’d built an entire alternate universe, full of magic and politics and Anglo-Saxon relations and murder. We wrote 200 pages in two weeks, and finished the first draft in two months. It was mostly a for funsies project, but we have hopes.
I’m not even going to count up all the words or hours from this year. Let’s leave it at a lot.
8. I moved to a new flat!
In October, I moved in with a friend from church. In typical military brat style, I was unpacked and set to go in under 24 hours. This picture is proof.
9. My nieces moved in down the street!
My brother brought his family over from CA to stay with my parents while he transitions into his own surfboard shaping business (or pro photography – just check out his instagram!). This means my awesome nieces are in town! They are Maeve’s favorite people. (Mine, too.)
10. I went back to NYC for the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity ceremony.
When I tweeted about the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity’s Prize in Ethics, I got a surprise invite to come to the ceremony again! I was thrilled, and even brought my lumberjack brother along. It was awesome to be back in NYC and to hear Elie Wiesel speak. I also had the chance to reconnect with an old friend and another cousin. (I have a lot of cousins.)
11. I got my first full time job since university… at a university.
(Actually that’s not strictly true but it makes a good header.) This fall, I was hired as an administrative assistant in Christopher Newport University’s Honors Program. I love the people I work with! And I especially love eavesdropping on students while they solve the world’s problems in our study area.
12. I saw my sister’s artwork in Lunar Chronicles.
It was amazing to walk into Target, find Marissa Meyer’s latest book Winter, and open it to Laura’s artwork! Though I am a little jealous she got to be in Target before me. (Just kidding – it’s been crazy fun to brag on her!)
13. I introduced a British friend to a very American Thanksgiving.
The lovely Sarah came to the USA to have an American Thanksgiving. Our holiday was filled with D.C. museums, patriotic bonfires, food, and archery. (Also, Sarah’s book sold to Egmont while she was here, and it was awesome to party it up with her!)
14. I acquired two more autoimmune diseases – Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac.
A downer side of the year: My autoimmune system is still very active, it seems, in the sense that it is on the attack once more.
In April, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Soon I was making life adjustments, hooked up to an insulin pump, and trying to brush the dust off my knees as I moved forward.
But some health problems lingered, and in the last couple of weeks I’ve been officially diagnosed with Celiac. The life changes that come with that will happen in the new year, mostly, while I take the holidays to catch my breath.
This makes autoimmune disease #5, for anyone who’s keeping count. (Raynaud’s syndrome, Hashimoto hypothyroid, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and Celiac.) Kind of a bummer. (Okay, a lot of a bummer.)
15. I signed with a literary agent!
I’ve saved the best for last!
Remember that launch party? Well, at the event I was approached by the lovely Amber Caraveo from Skylark Literary Agency. In the following months, I worked with her on Illuminate, doing the aforementioned revisions and getting everything ship-shape (or, approximately more ship-shape than before!).
Last week, we had a Skype meeting, and Amber made me an offer of representation. Needless to say, I was pleased to accept!
(More accurately, I giggled like a small child and then had to dance around the flat with the puppy after we ended the call.)
It looks like (after some more revisions, of course!) Illuminate will be sent out to publishers in 2016!
So here’s to a new year, and all the adventures yet to come!
