2010 in review

[mount_oregano]

The big news for this year is about next year: my first novel, tentatively called Transplants, should be released by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing in September 2011. Expect to hear more about that, a lot more.

I've been busy on the literary front this year, too. A story called "Zero Hour" was published in Daily Science Fiction and a haiku in Tinywords.

The website for my ongoing translation of Amadis of Gaul, a medieval Spanish novel that became a Renaissance best-seller, has gotten more than 10,000 visitors.

I also participated in Broad Universe's Broadpod, a podcast featuring women who write speculative fiction. Each month, they read works that focus on a different theme. In Episode 4, about mothers, I read a flash fiction story called "Who Loved Their Babies More." In Episode 6, about military fiction, I read a battle scene from Amadis of Gaul.

You had to be here in Madrid to enjoy the sound of my voice when I participated in the Mad Open Mic series, the 14th annual Continuous Reading of Don Quijote de La Mancha, and the International Literary Cabaret open mic.

In the day job, I'm still attempting to teach English to adolescents at an after-school academy. I've had to explain that the past tense of want is not went, of leave is not love, of give is not gift, of think is not thank, and of behave is not behad.

I got to travel a little this year. During Easter week I accompanied my husband on a business trip and visited Istanbul, Constantinople, and Byzantium. During the summer, we got back to the 'States to visit family. Wisconsin still has too many mosquitoes. We also visited the Royal Palace in Aranjuez and the recreation of a 1649 Royal Wedding in Navalcarnerno, Spain — which is where this photo is from.

This year marks eleven years of living in Madrid — my husband and I moved here in December 1999 — and to celebrate that landmark, Spain's soccer team won the World Cup.

Not a bad year.

— Sue Burke

Also posted at my professional website, http://www.sue.burke.name

Comments

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm looking foward to next year.