2016 has been a bugbear of a year. If it wasn’t kicking us all in the political sweetmeats, it was winnowing out the ranks of cultural icons. Worst of all, it still has a couple of weeks to go before it is over. So fingers crossed that it’s going to coast on its bloody laurels to the end of the year.

Still, there’s nothing else for it but to go forwards, and for all the things I am worried about (closing the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland seem a tragic, possibly disruptive, back step) there are things I am looking forward to in my personal and professional life.

• Being done with my current Work In Progress! Don’t get me wrong, I love the characters and the settings. However, with the deadline politely coughing into its fist, I will be glad to have wrapped up my loose ends, made sure that no-one is missing any essential bits, and sent it off to its destiny in the editorial wilds. Where hopefully someone will love it as much as me.
• In February I will be going to the Dreamspinner Author’s Workshop in Florida! My first time, and I am simultaneously looking forward to it and a leetle bit petrified. I keep having dreams where the soundtrack is ‘Hotel California’, but I have faith that one my friends would have told me if there was any point in proceedings where ‘stab it with their steely knives’ was a fair depiction of events. Of course, Rhys Ford once told me two people had fallen to their death on Space Mountain when in fact it was just an empty seat, so who knows!
• I’ll be spending a couple of weeks in San Diego too while I’m there, which will be a blast. Possibly my hosts will get sick of me and throw me out on the streets, but I know how to get to Disneyland from there and I’m pretty sure I could get a job in Animal Kingdom! I am cynical enough to fit in!
• On my way back from San Diego, Rhys Ford and I will be stopping off in London for a night and hosting a Salon. Well, meeting a bunch of people for snacks and drinks (might be coffee for me, I don’t travel well!), but same difference, right? At the minute it’s all still in the hem and haw stages but if you’re into it let us know!
• Paris! Leaving the best to last, I’ll be attending the 2017 Salon du Livre de Paris with Rhys Ford, bringing along a freshly translated version of Dog Days* (with thanks to Ariel Tachna!). It’s extremely exciting, I’ve never had a book translated before and the 2016 Salon du Livre looked amazing from what I saw online!

I’m also looking forward to — hoping — that 2017 will be better than 2016 for everyone, and that everyone will stay safe and well.

Take care.