Five Ways
Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free story!
Share this:

2013 Wrap-Up

Photo of Cat Rambo.
Here I am with a peacock's worth of color in my hair.
Well, it’s been a very good year.

I had 20 original stories come out. Here’s the list, if you want to look for some of them.


My short story, “Five Ways to Fall In Love on Planet Porcelain,” appeared on the Nebula Ballot. Another first happened on that trip: got to see my charming spouse in a tux for the Nebula Banquet. The story has been reprinted into several different languages as well as in the Nebula Awards volume for 2013 edited by Kij Johnson.

I won an Ictineu Prize for the best fantasy short story translated into Catalan in 2012. The story was “Kallakak’s Cousins,” which originally appeared in Asimov’s, and was reprinted in my collection, Near + Far.

I wrote a nonfiction book, Creating an Online Presence, based on my online class of the same name. Classes overall have gone well, and I’ve even added a few more, including an advanced workshop that has been tremendous fun to teach.

I got a shiny new agent, the amazing Seth Fishman, and began shopping a novel around.

As a result of letting my blog readers determine my hair color for LoneStarCon, I’ve developed an unfortunate Manic Panic habit. I look forward to trying some additional new colors in the coming year.

I turned 50, which felt extremely weird. However, we had a rousing party for it over at the Wilde Rover in Kirkland, thanks to the party organization skills of Deanna Francis and Caren Gussoff. I felt extremely blessed to see so many of my friends in one place and realize what a great group I’m associated with.

In March, I began working with the moderating team for the SFWA private discussion boards. In some ways, it’s been a lot like working with the Armageddon MUD boards. But more cantankerous at times, which is saying a lot. Still, I was pleased to see, when looking at the logs, that traffic on those boards has literally increased tenfold. We’ve added a lot, and one effort that I’m very pleased with is the scheduled chats, which have been a lot of fun as well as very informative.

Time with my godkids is always golden. This year I accompanied them to Disneyworld in May and then got some additional time with them at Thanksgiving. Cutest, smartest, most wonderful kids in the world. 🙂

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Fiction in Your Mailbox Each Month

Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.

Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.

 

"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."

~K. Richardson

You may also like...

Adventures in E-Publishing: First Book is Out!

Book cover for Halloween QuartetWell, the first of the mini-books is out, HALLOWEEN QUARTET. (Non-Kindlers, don’t despair. I’m working on the Smashwords version today.)

The description: A quartet of short horror stories by fabulist Cat Rambo. Follow the mystery of “Whose Face This Is, I Do Not Know,” weep with “Niobe in the Rain,” enjoy a spoof on reality TV with “So Glad We Had This Time Together,” and fear the ancient forces exposed in “Pumpkin Knight.”

If you check out the Amazon listing, feel free to click that Like button or agree with some tags…

Some thoughts and observations:

  • Because some of the content is available online, Amazon flagged it and made me write in to clarify that I had the right to publish it. It also meant I couldn’t enroll the book in the Select program. This is something I may want to take into consideration in future books, since that program has some advantages. If I want to be able to use the KDP Program, though, I’ll need to either only use stuff that isn’t available on the web or ask some sites to take stuff down (which I doubt I would do, that goes against the grain, somehow.)
  • The biggest pain in the butt? The cover. I’m going to look for someone who wants to swap cover design for story crits, because as you can tell, I’m not so hot at it. But it’s adequate.
  • I did the document in Word. Things like installing jumps from the ToC was pretty easy. In the future, I may indent less, since it ended up looking a little weird.

And, serendipitously, another e-book is out today. A SEED ON THE WIND is the first part of a two-part series set in the world of the Fathomless Abyss.

...

Putting Stuff Up

Cover for Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart.
In this steampunk short story, Pinkerton agents Artemus West and Elspeth Sorehs have been chasing their prey across the country. When they finally catch up near the outskirts of the Cascades, though, they find he's gone to ground in a mysterious house that once belonged to his mother, a famous inventor. What secrets hidden in the house will they discover -- and how will the house protect its returned son?
I’ve been putting some stories up on Amazon and Smashwords – I’ve got close to 75 that could go up there, so it’s slow slogging but eventually everything will be up on Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords. Here’s the categories they fit into:

Altered America series: These are steampunk stories, and include Rappaccini’s Crow, which originally appeared on Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Previously unpublished Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart is part of that series, and so are two stories that are yet to come: “Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?” and “Snakes on a Train”. You can see some of the images inspiring the stories here on Pinterest. Currently in progress is “Blue Train,” which takes place in this world although over in a France beleaguered by fairies, vampires, and werewolves.

Tales of Tabat series: These fantasy stories are set in a world I often write in, and so I won’t list all of them. Most have been previously published. Right now the only ones up are “Narrative of a Beast’s Life” and “How Dogs Came to the New Continent.”

Women of Zalanthas: I’ve written a number of stories based on Zalanthas, the world of Armageddon MUD, so I’ve put them together. Right now, stories up include “Aquila’s Ring“, “Karaluvian Fale“, and “Mirabai the Twice-lived“. Others to come include “Besana Kurac” and the title story from Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight.

The Villa Encantada series: None of these urban fantasy stories are up yet, but there’s a slew of them, primarily horror. Slightly related to them is previously unpublished horror story, “Jaco Tours.”

SF Stories: I haven’t made the SF stories a series because there’s no real link between most of them. Up so far are “Grandmother“, “Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable“, “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain,” “Bus Ride to Mars,” and “Elsewhere, Within, Elsewhen.”

Remember that if you want fresh stories from me each month in your mailbox, you can get them via my Patreon campaign.

#sfwapro

...

Skip to content