It looks strange to celebrate a blogversary after a year like 2021.
So many things happened in the last twelve months, and if I had thought 2020 was the worst on the record, I was badly mistaken. 2021 was challenging for everybody, at different levels of seriousness, but all of us struggled. And forced me to do some soul-searching, including about this blog.
I started The Earthian Hivemind in December 2013 just to write about speculative fiction, history, and space, and talk with like-minded people. I would have never imagined getting involved in publishing, both as an editor and a fiction writer. Yet, looking at it now, it seems the normal evolution of a passion of a lifetime.
Frozen Wavelets, the tiny ezine I edit, had a challenging year, losing one of its editors, which of course left me with all the responsibilities and not enough time to deal with them. Until I won’t find a replacement, I guess I’ll have to stick to twice a year instead of the four issues originally planned.
As a fiction author (w/a Russell Hemmell), it was not that bad. I had a few pieces of poetry and fiction published and got nominated for Best of the Web and Pushcart Prize (my sincere thanks to the editors who were so kind to select my work for that). One of my flashes will appear next year at some moment on Pseudopod, which makes me incredibly happy. Also, my historical horror novella, acquired by the award-winning independent Scottish press Luna Press Publishing, will come out in February 2022, and again, this is thrilling.
Future plans. Writing on the blog more, of course, getting back to what were my usual rubrics on space news, book reviews, and updates about the speculative fiction community. If we’re lucky, we should be able to attend conventions and workshops in 2022, and I really look forward to them. I have been missing that scene.
I want also to take the opportunity to thank my fellow bloggers, whose posts kept me company during this year’s difficult moments. Thank you: you make the blogosphere the great and warm place it is now. To another year, all tentacles crossed!
And thank you (as a fellow blogger 😉 )
Happy anniversary, Steph! It’s been fun and interesting to watch you branch out the way you have. Keeps life interesting, as it should be. I hope 2022 brings you more success and thrills, and I look forward to more space news! Cinda
Happy blogversary! And let’s hope that next year will leave you more free time for the blogging community! 🙂
Yes, 2021 turned out more difficult than we were all prepared for. In fact, I have, at times, felt nostalgic for 2020!
As for Conventions, I’m still not sure about Eastercon 2020……