Well, 2013 is drawing to a close–I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I’m on vacation, which is just bliss I must say. Lots of time to spend with hubby, board games, and writing of course.
Looking back on 2013, lots of things happened. I finally declared my fantasy novel The Binding finished and sent it out into the world. The characters are still very close to my heart, even if it’s almost ten years since I wrote the first draft, back when I was still living in Italy. (I can’t believe it’s been that long already!) Kim, with her courage and tenacity despite the magic that slowly makes her lose herself, and Aerian, so willing to let the end justify the means. I’ve revised it from the ground up a number of times, as well as taken breaks to write other things, but in 2013, I finally reached the point where I felt the book was as good as I could make it. Later on, I was thrilled to find others who shared my love for it, and I signed with my wonderful agent!
Writing-wise, 2013 might be better described as the year of Before and After the Wedding. Although I wrote the first (brief and experimental) draft during the end of 2012, 2013 is the year in which I turned it into a book. Em and Mark has kept me company virtually every day this year, in their torturous journey to patch up their marriage. It’s my third novel, and my very first foray into a novel-length erotic romance, and it’s been both challenging and fun to write in a different genre. (My second novel is another fantasy novel with the working title Dual, but it’s not ready yet.) It was great fun to use Italy as a setting as well, especially during those gray and dreary months.
In reading, I’ve been gobbling up more Romance books than ever (check out my favorite romantic novels of 2013), though I also really enjoyed several books in other genres, like Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, or Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.
It will be interesting to see what 2014 holds. I feel pretty confident it will include a lot of reading and writing–hopefully also board games, video games and, last but not least, health and happiness to share with my husband. 🙂