It’s New Year’s Eve, and no December 31st would be complete without a review of the outgoing year. I could talk about things in my personal life, but really, I’d rather not because who is actually interested? Instead, I’d like to look at three main areas in 2014 – my writing, my handcrafts, and my travels!
Writing
Writing took the form of both fiction, and academia, with work continuing on my PhD thesis throughout the year. I also had some publishing success, which I think is worth highlighting.
The Necromancer’s Apprentice was published in March 2014 by Dark Continents, before being republished by Crossroads Press in August. Reviews described it as “a chilling read”, “a gripping read”, “a well written tale that will keep you turning one page after next”, “one part Neverwhere, one part Hammer Horror” and “a must read for anyone who likes horror or fantasy tales”, while I was described as “the secret love-child of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett”! It’s all pretty flattering stuff. You can read other reviews over on Goodreads. I was so pleased to see it finally available, and you can get it from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and the Kobo store – I’m still hoping for a second paperback release. For those who have read it, rest assured that work is underway on its sequel, The Necromancer’s Rogue, and there is a third book planned, tentatively named The Necromancer’s Mage! I don’t think it’ll be any longer than a trilogy but there is plenty for Jyx to do in the mean time!
I also had a story in the Suspended in Dusk anthology, which was edited by Simon Dewar and came out in September through Books of the Dead Press. My story, ‘A Woman of Disrepute’, was inspired by Crossbones Cemetery, Victorian London and all things gothic after a chat with fellow writer Michael Shean, and I’ve written a blog post about the inception of the story here. The anthology also features tales by Ramsey Campbell, Benjamin Knox and Alan Baxter, among others – most of the reviews will highlight about six or seven of the stories, but there are a whopping nineteen to get your teeth into! It’s tremendous value for money – at the time of writing, it’s just 77p on Amazon, which makes each story just 4p. Where else can you get entertainment at 4p a time? One review described ‘A Woman of Disrepute’ as “a gothic style story with a Jack the Ripper feel. I thought this one ROCKED!” You can get Suspended in Dusk from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo and Smashwords.
In December, the European Monsters collection by Fox Spirit Press came out, featuring my story, ‘The Cursed One’. The story is a monster story set in eighteenth century Venice, during the Carnevale, about a mysterious Order, and their quest to hunt down ageless beings who hide in the deep, dark places of the world. I wrote a blog post about it here. The anthology is a combination of illustration, stories and beautiful art, and while you can get European Monsters from Amazon, it’s only available in traditional dead tree format due to its stunning content, which I think makes a bit of a change in this digital age. I can’t wait to see the reviews of this one.
Handcrafts
I originally launched my Icy Handmade line in September 2013 but 2014 was the year in which I finally started to see more sales, possibly as my pieces got better and I got more exposure through Twitter chats such as #CraftHour. My initial concept was to make original, one-off jewellery pieces that were both quirky and affordable, with nothing being more expensive than £15, but as the year progressed, I expanded into handknits, and even merchandise for The Necromancer’s Apprentice. My handknits are original designs and are again one-off pieces, but in 2015 I’m going to focus on only using premium yarns, while my jewellery is going to centre around semi precious stones, glass, wire and resin. Being a handcrafter also helped when it came to making Christmas presents, as my Secret Santa post will attest!
Travels
2014 was the Year of the Jaunt, with a few trips to London for various exhibitions, a weekend in Yorkshire poking around abbeys and priories, a trip to Oslo in June for the annual conference of the New Zealand Studies Association, and a week in Paris. Oslo was particularly good, as I got to see the opera house, explore the Kon-Tiki and Maritime museums as they were our conference venue, and hang out at the botanical gardens with my writer friend Margrét Helgadóttir!
Paris was a lot of fun, as I got to see Notre Dame, the Catacombs, the Palace of Versailles, Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, and the Opera House. I can’t quite believe I queued for three and a half house to get into the Catacombs but they were definitely worth it – especially since they’ve made an appearance in The Necromancer’s Rogue. I think the Opera House was my favourite thing to see, but that might just be due to my Phantom of the Opera fixation. I even got to see Box 5!
Inside the Catacombs. I’d never seen so many bones in my life. It certainly brought a new perspective to As Above, So Below, which I saw earlier this year!
Mummy, who ended up in a lot of the photos, with Georges Melies, founder of sci-fi cinema, in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. I wrote a post about Mummy’s selfies here.
The truly stunning opera house.
It’s difficult to sum up a year in a few words, but I hope I’ve managed to highlight the best parts in photographic form! So I’ll raise a mug (coffee, naturally) to the outgoing year, and leave out a slice of cake for the incoming 2015. I hope it treats everyone well!
Icy
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Sounds like a great year, Icy!
Sounds like you had a great year, Icy!