swan_tower | The Egotism Post

Long-time readers of this journal will be familiar with today's exercise, but for those who are new, an introduction in three points:

1) Today is my birthday.

2) So long as I continue to be involved in academia, my birthday will fall during a rather hectic and stressful period of the year.

3) I am perhaps a little too skilled for my own good at pointing the flaws in my accomplishments, how I've done this thing but not that other one, etc.

So, for several years now, to counteract my tendency to be in a bad mood on my birthday (for reasons that have nothing to do with my age) and my habit of denigrating my own achievements, I've made a practice of posting, on this day, a listing of all the cool stuff I've done in the previous year. And I'm utterly forbidden to qualify my statements or include anything that isn't positive (and you have no idea how much self-editing it takes to obey that rule).

So. I'm twenty-six today. What do I have to show for it?

I think the item that belongs at the top of the list is, I'm engaged. *^_^* After seven years of being committment-shy, I finally bit the bullet and asked him to marry me, and he said yes. (After laughing hysterically for several minutes at the irony of the event, and complaining that I had ruined all of his plans.) Yay!

On another personal-life note, I have made serious progress in defeating my phobia of things happening to my eyes. (When I have defeated it utterly, then I'll let them go after my eyes with lasers.)

Regarding writing, let's start off with yesterday's good news: my flash story "Shadows' Bride," which appeared in the charity anthology Shadow Box, received an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. It's the first I've gotten. I've had six short stories appear in print since this time last year, in Talebones, Son and Foe, Fictitious Force, Dark Wisdom, Aberrant Dreams, and the aforementioned antho. All of them have received positive comments on forums or in reviews.

And I published a novel! Doppelganger came out in April, and appears to be selling quite well; I'll know more when I get my first royalty statement. Nearly four dozen total strangers have taken the time to send me an e-mail saying how much they liked it. Several have mailed me their copies of the book to sign and send back. It's garnered quite a few enthusiastic reviews; if I weren't so tired (this is the only bit of whining I'm allowing myself), I would link all the online ones. Warrior and Witch comes out next month, and it looks lovely.

I've done a reading in Chicago, at the invitation of one of the Twilight Times staff. I've completed several interviews promoting Warrior and Witch, and written one short essay on it. I've sold two upcoming novels. I've sold a fifth article to Strange Horizons, and seen it go live. I've sold five short stories, one of which is already in print. I've been on panels at two cons, and have had a good time at both.

Academically, I've presented papers at the American Folklore Society annual meeting (my first there), the Pushing Boundaries conference (again, my first), and the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (second paper, fourth time attending). I've taught sections for two unfamiliar classes (People and Animals, and Human Origins in Prehistory; I'm back to intro archaeology now). I've taken courses on prehistoric North America, fieldwork methods, cultural theory, game theory, performance studies, and acting.

I've started running a tabletop game, for which my players frequently express their undying enthusiasm. I've co-ST'd a LARP that went off very much to my satisfaction. I've been invited into two new games, and continued playing in several old ones. I've sewn what's effectively a Renaissance dress and a variety of other, smaller costume pieces (and one very much larger one, namely that bloody toga). I've made soundtracks for two characters, and three more for my own game (with a few in progress).

That is, at the moment, all I can think of, on account of the aforementioned tiredness. It makes a good list, though. I wish I had my scores from the test I took today, so I would know whether I can legitimately add "tricked IU into believing I speak Spanish" to the list. <g> But I've plenty to be proud of, regardless.

Let's see what I can do with my twenty-sixth year. ^_^