2016: Looking Back

Before I get started, let me say the last couple of months have been horrible. And not just because I'm terrified for the future of our nation. I'm not going there. Not now. This is more personal than that.

For the last couple of months, I've been watching my mother's health decline. As I'm writing this, she's in a coma. All of her meds have been discontinued. We're in limbo, waiting for the inevitable. Therefore, my view of the world right now is colored with sorrow.

[Taking a deep breath and plunging ahead]

However, the entire year was NOT bad. In fact, looking back, I had some of the best moments of my career and my life in 2016.

Henery Press released my fourth Zoe Chambers mystery, With a Vengeance! That's Trevor and Natalie of Mystery Lovers Bookshop hamming it up with an advanced copy of it. AND Bridges Burned was an Agatha Award nominee for Best Contemporary Novel!!! That photo was taken at the celebratory lunch my critique group threw for me.

The Agatha nomination was awesome beyond words. Just look at the women with whom I shared the category! Catriona McPherson, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Margaret Maron, and (not pictured) Louise Penny. I still can't believe it.

It was so much fun getting dressed up for the banquet. And I wasn't at all nervous like I had been last year, because I knew full well I wasn't going to win. (Margaret Maron did...no surprise).

I got to wear the dress a second time at the Pennwriters Conference in May. Always fun, especially when sharing the good times with these folks, my Sisters (and Mister) in Crime.

In June I went on the best vacation ever. I started with a week in New Mexico, relaxing with my best friend, Leta Burns. It was a research trip for my next book (more on that in my post about what's ahead in 2017), but it was also a chance to unwind, something I desperately needed.

I detoured on the way home from New Mexico to attend the Memphis Film Festival in Mississippi. Yeah, don't ask about the geography. I got to meet one of my all-time favorite actors, Robert Fuller, who played Dr. Brackett in Emergency! That show is the reason I became an EMT, which is the reason I'm writing a mystery series about a paramedic.

It was a joy to meet Bob, and an equally great joy to hang out with the other members of his Fandom. I danced at the sock hop, I played pool in the bar, and just generally cut loose.

Speaking of cutting loose, Bouchercon was held in New Orleans this year. Another wild trip. Another chance to hang out with fabulous friends.

The following few months were a whirlwind of library panels, book clubs, and workshops. And I already mentioned how the last two have gone, so we won't speak of the rest of it.

So I'm going to think of 2016 as a fabulous ten months. Books. Friends, old and new. And travel.

Happy New Year!