Today is 2014. Which seems vaguely implausible, since yesterday it was decades ago and I was nine and twenty-four and twelve and also eighteen and thirty, because historically, I have a very hard time noting/remembering/reconciling myself with the passage of time.

(I think it might be fake.)

Here are some of the things that happened this year:

In Winter, Paper Valentine came out, and that was on January 8, 2013, which means a year ago minus one week. (See? I’m doing time!) (Or … at least math.)

In Spring, I left my hibiscus tree outside because it likes it outside, but then it got hailed on because weather is like that here, and now it looks kind of ragged and aggressive. It has become a potted tree with an attitude. This was a sort of a learning experience, and I’ve since vowed not leave it outside unsupervised again, no matter how nice the evening looks.*

In Summer, I finished edits on Fiendish, and it became, in essence, a real live book that has corners and edges and takes up space and exists!

In Fall, Maggie, Tess, and I got our picture taken together for the Beyond Words charity calendar, which features a variety of wonderful authors in fancy costumes, and if you are in the market for a calendar (which I know you are, because today is 2014), consider this your opportunity to totally get one.

Then, just this last month … Paper Valentine was named a best book of the year by both NPR and The Boston Globe, which is squirmy and twirly and overwhelming and I-don’t-know-what!

(A really spectacular way to end a year, is what.)

Now though, it is 2014, which means it is the future. So here are some things that are happening in the coming year.

1. Fiendish will be out this summer, which means that soon (ish), I will be talking about it a lot—like probably all the time*—and having contests where you can win ARCs and prizes-not-specified, and telling you long, disjointed stories about when I lived in Arkansas, and trying to think of stories that don’t involve snakes, because about 85% of my Arkansas stories are about snakes, because 85% of Arkansas is made of snakes.
2. I am currently working on an A-plus-1#-top-secret book, because working on books is what I do, and while I can’t promise you any what’s and when’s because these things take how long that take, I can say that I’ll be very delighted if it doesn’t have to be secret for tooooooo much longer, because while publishing is full of many secrets and while I am, in many respects, an inveterate secret-keeper, there are certain things that are simply much better shared. This is one of them.
3. In a week (!) I will be meeting up with Tess and Maggie (!) to drink coffee and pet goats and work on the impending follow-up to The Curiosities (!), which will feature fiction, discussion, revision, and most likely … ridiculousness?

That’s pretty much what I know about the coming year, and also (let’s be honest) only slightly less than I know about the year that just passed.

There will be more things.

There will be prizes and announcements and surprises.

There always are.

*What I mean is, I will probably leave it outside again, like, tomorrow.

**I’ll endeavor to keep it under control so that you can find yourself marginally as excited for Fiendish as I am, rather than lovingly thinking back to a time when I didn’t talk so much about it! (However.) (You are warned.) Prizes!