So, things I did this year, in no particular order:
-Published my first hardback! The House of Shattered Wings, my post-magical-war Paris dystopia with Fallen angels, Vietnamese mythical beings and entirely too many dead bodies, was published in the US by Roc and in the UK by Gollancz. Reviews were mostly good (yes, really nervous author here). It received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers’ Weekly and a “Top Pick” from RT Book Reviews, made Best of the Year on SFF World’s list.  You can find more info and quotes etc. here.

Even more haunting following recent events, de Bodard’s atmospheric fantasy is set in a fractured version of our own world, where a magical war has left a ruined Paris living under the rule of fallen angels. De Bodard spices her plot with a dash of mystery, which pulled me through her exquisitely constructed and darkly mesmerising decaying urban landscape.

-For people wondering: yes, there is a sequel to The House of Shattered Wings that will (hopefully!) tie up some of the loose ends left in HoSW (though the book is very largely self-contained). It’s called The House of Binding Thorns, it’s focused on the House of Hawthorn (and on a spoilery bit of Paris), and I’m working on it right now (and pulling my hair out :p)
-Took my first stab at cover design for self-pub and kind of, er, decided I wasn’t cut out for this :p But the story in question (a fluffy tie-in to House of Shattered Wings, “Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship”, is available on amazon and other retailers).
-Got the rights back to my Aztec noir fantasies Obsidian and Blood, ordered some new fabulous covers from Jonathon Dalton and Melanie Ujimori (thanks to Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein). Release to come–we’re hoping to get them up before the holidays but it might be a little too late for that…
-Published a bunch of short fiction stuff, and a novella set in the Xuya universe, “The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” (which I’m very pleased will be reprinted in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best next year).
-Learnt to bake bread! (English muffins FTW. So good).
-Made a first pass at my annual recs post, which will be published over at the Book Smugglers. Lots and lots of novels this time around, because I didn’t have much time for reading short fiction (I read short fiction at home, and novels on the commute, that’s why)
-Lost a Nebula and two Locus Awards. I can live with that 🙂
– A couple of my blog posts went viral (aka 0_0). “The Stories I Wanted to Read” is about me as a child (and why Andre Norton’s “Year of the Unicorn” is the best thing ever). And “On Colonialism, Evil Empires and Oppressive Systems”, my rant about how colonialism is depicted in SFF, also got some wide circulation (thanks to the Tor.com reprint!)
-And hum, that’s it mostly? I’m holing up with family for the holidays, and here’s to next year’s adventures! (I would also like to thank everyone who was reading, signal boosting and generally supporting me and my writing this year, because it’s not been the easiest–thank you toddler *sigh*)

Oh, also! It’s Christmas soon, so here’s a little The House of Shattered Wings gift. Head on over to Ghostwords (and check out all the other fun snippets while you’re at it). This is a snippet from The House of Binding Thorns–it’s not going to be in the actual book (and I’m still writing actual book so it’s not canon yet, either), but it’s set in the interval between the ending of The House of Shattered Wings and the new one. Featuring everyone’s favorite sarcastic Fallen.