Ah, 2017. I think most people will agree you’ve been a bit of a bastard all round.
(Scroll down for fun stuff.)
As far as I’m concerned, it’s been a bit of a tempestuous year for personal and professional reasons. As well as moving house – twice – I struggled through a heavy bout of depression throughout the spring and early summer after the death of my grandmother. In early autumn, my husband and I began divorce proceedings; consequently, I’m back home living with my parents again.
Told you it’d been a bit tempestuous…
BUT! It’s far from being all doom and gloom. Very far indeed. Here are ten awesome things that happened to me in 2017.
Ten awesome things that happened to me in 2017
- I had three more articles published over on Tor.com (reviews of Skullsworn by Brian Staveley and Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, as well as a Beginner’s Guide to Deadhouse Gates!).
- I was made Assistant Editor on Fantasy-Faction (where I’ve been contributing since July 2016) underneath Marc Aplin and alongside Jennie Ivins.
- I attended my first event – Edge-Lit in Derby, where I finally met some of my best mates (Kareem Mahfouz, Mike Evans, Sadir Samir and J. P. Ashman) for reals, as well as being introduced to the madness that is RJ Barker (and Mrs. RJ, of course), we well as Anna Stephens and Clan Gwynne, Ann and Stan Nicholls, Peter and Emma Newman, Lucy Hounsom, Zen Cho, and more.
- I wrote short stories for no less than THREE anthologies, all of which will be published in 2018.
- I left my day job to start my own freelance editing business.
- I went to more than a few smaller events in London for the first time, including Fantasy in the Court and SRFC, and was introduced to the likes of Jo Fletcher, Anna Smith Spark, Michael Miller, Harry Illingworth, Alex (A.Z.) Anthony, Ed McDonald, Kristen Ciccarelli, Genevieve Cogman, G. R. Matthews, Magnus Anderson, Phil Exon, Laura Jayne Dodds, Kitty G, and more.
- Danse Macabre as an audiobook! It’s narrated by Nigel Peever, who does a stellar job of bringing Blue, Crow, Snail and the others to life – and accompanied by interludes from the composition ‘Danse Macabre’ by Camille Saint-Saens!
- I experienced BristolCon for the first time, where I met even more amazing people in person, including T. O. Munro (aka. Theo), Rita Sloan, Thomas Clews, Dominick Murray, Dan Sutcliffe, Mark Lawrence, Marc Aplin, A.F.E. Smith, Steve McHugh, Petros Triantafyllou, and even the erudite Dyrk Ashton! (And, a few days later, the equally erudite Jeramy Goble!)
Me and Dyrk Ashton (I’m the one on the right) - Re-released Danse Macabre with a brand new cover, designed by the fabulous Rachel Lawston!
- Founded The Fantasy Hive! (It launches on January 1st, 2018).
I’ll stick a few more cringeworthy pictures of myself and the rest of the fantasy community in at the end of this post, but first, here are some of my best reads of 2017 (also in the form of a gallery, because I am apparently super lazy today).
Best Books Read in 2017
Aaand as promised, more randomness from BristolCon, Edge-Lit, Fantasy in the Court, SRFC and various other fantastical gatherings (including a trip to visit RJ Barker):
All in all, much fun was had. The good balanced the bad, lessons were learned, and I look forward to making 2018 the best year yet. 🙂
Anindita@A Bohemian Mind at Work
Love the photographs. You had a blast. 🙂
proxyfish
Wow! That’s quite the year!! So many amazing achievements 😀 and so many books I still need to read…! As usual.
Really enjoyed meeting you at the V.E. Schwab signing too 😀 good luck for 2018!
Laura M Hughes
Thank you so much! And the same to you. Hopefully we’ll bump into each other at some Waterstones event or another this year, too! 😀