2016 in review

Well, it was a hell of a year. But right now I don't want to focus on the dark parts of 2016, whether personal or global. I've spent more than enough time thinking about those. I want to remember the bright spots, so I can go into 2017 with some joy in my heart. As Edward Abbey once said, "Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless."

And really, I had many wonderful moments in 2016. It's funny how hard it can be to remember the good things, sometimes. Thank goodness for pictures (and friends and loved ones) to remind us. So what'd I find, looking back through the year?

Writing-wise, not only did I finish all the mailing for The Labyrinth of Flame's Kickstarter, and work out a deal with the printing company to make the illustrated edition available to the general public, but the book won an award! The denizens of r/Fantasy voted Labyrinth of Flame the Best Self-Published/Independent novel of 2015, and I got this very cool dagger as a result:

Oh, how I wish I could say I'd finished the Shattered Sigil short stories as well. Yet here it is, 2017, and I'm still only 20,000 words and 2/3 of the way into the Cara novella The White Serpent, 1/3 of the way through the story of Dev escaping an assassin on his first convoy trip (this one's for one of the Ultimate Fan backers), and I have the Ruslan story and a Lena story plotted out but not yet written.

I did complete and turn in a 8,000-word Lizaveta story called A Game of Mages for the forthcoming Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology--and boy was that completion a struggle, as the story required three rewrites. On the non-fiction side, I wrote three pieces for Lady Business's Readers of the Lost Arc feature, covering under-read books of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (that last post is turned in but not yet up on the blog). Still, I'm terribly ashamed to admit A Game of Mages is the only piece of fiction I finished all year.

The simple truth is that I didn't make writing a priority in 2016 the way I did in previous years. Some of that was by design: I wanted to put my husband and son first for a while, and reduce stress by enjoying more of the activities I'd put on hold while trying to finish The Labyrinth of Flame and run the kickstarter. But I think I let the pendulum swing a little too far over to the non-writing side.

For 2017 I'm resolving to adjust yet again and find a better balance: one that lets me finish all the Shattered Sigil short stories and finally start work on the new fantasy novel I'd like to write. (Still untitled, but this is the one with deadly sea magic, tropical islands and coral reefs, freediving, and a team of spies.) My ultimate goal would be to finish all the stories by summer and complete a rough draft of the new book by the end of the year. That may be too ambitious for a slow writer like me. We'll see.

So what did I do in 2016 instead of writing? Apart from the usual day jobbing...

1) I skied many excellent runs with my kiddo, who just this year got skilled enough to handle black diamonds and trees (woo hoo!):

Powder day at Winter Park

The snow's always best in the trees

Winter wonderland at Steamboat

2) I spent more glorious days hiking in Colorado's mountains. In the words of John Muir, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

Lovely day at Andrews Tarn in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain panorama

Nothing like climbing a nice cold glacier on a hot summer day

Indian Peaks wilderness

Pointing the way toward 14,309-ft Uncompahgre Peak, highest in the San Juans

On top of Uncompahgre--my first new 14er in many years!

3) We returned to our favorite haunts around Moab and the San Rafael Swell and explored some new-to-us areas, like Behind the Rocks, Medieval Chamber and Morning Glory Arch, the Goblin's Lair, and some off-the-beaten-ranger-path parts of the Fiery Furnace. One thing I love about canyon country is how you can visit the same areas again and again and discover new amazing things every time. (As Mary Hunter Austin said, "This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.")

"Behind the Rocks" wilderness area

Desert flowers

The kiddo tackles his first major rappel (into Medieval Chamber)

On rappel beside Morning Glory Arch (technically a natural bridge rather than an arch, but hey)

Exploring the hoodoo canyons of Goblin Valley

At the entrance to the Goblin's Lair (a.k.a. the Chamber of the Basilisk)

Inside the Goblin's Lair

The Fiery Furnace: so many enticing routes to explore

4) I smile every time I think of our June trip to visit family in Australia. We had plenty of fun in and around Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and enjoyed a 3-day sailing adventure in the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands (our first time there, but hopefully not our last!).

The Vivid festival lived up to its name: constantly changing projections of color decorated the Opera House and many other buildings near Sydney Harbour

Avast me hearties, yo ho! The Schafers sail the Whitsundays

Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Rainbow view from the Ruined Castle

4) I didn't go to many cons this year apart from WorldCon in Kansas City, which was awesome. Yet I was lucky enough to spend time with some wonderful authors and SFF folk:

In May I got to hang out with Janny Wurts for a few days: definitely a highlight of my year!

Another highlight was getting to meet New Zealand author Helen Lowe while I was in Sydney

And having a lovely lunch with Pellinor author Alison Croggon while in Melbourne

Yet another was a summer hike with blogger/reviewer/all-around awesome guy Paul Weimer and author Alex Acks in the Indian Peaks

5) I read a lot of excellent books. I had plans to do a whole big long "reading review" post with cover pics and mini-reviews, but in all honesty I prefer to focus on short-story writing right now. So instead I'll do a quick list of the reads that stood out most to me this year:

• Janny Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow series--I just recently finished book 8, Stormed Fortress, and I continue to be hugely impressed with the careful plotting and layered reveals
• Helen Lowe's Daughter of Blood--book 3 in her excellent Wall of Night epic fantasy series. Her world is rich and fascinating, and I love what she's doing with the story and characters.
• Mark Lawrence's Wheel of Osheim--final book of his Red Queen's War trilogy. Mark really knows how to stick a landing. Tons of great action, character work, and sly humor.
• Teresa Frohock's Los Nefilim--her three excellent dark fantasy novellas featuring half-daimon, half-angel Diago, all collected into one volume. My God, these are good. Terrific characters and atmosphere.
• Jeff Salyards's Chains of the Heretic--another great trilogy-ender. If you love military fantasy, you've got to read this series.
• Kate Elliott's Poisoned Blade--2nd in her YA Court of Fives series. I'd liked the first one well enough, but this one I thought took the series to a whole new level.
• Laura Ruby's Bone Gap--magical realism done right. Powerful and beautiful.
• Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree and Cuckoo Song--I'd seen lots of people raving about Hardinge but the first book I tried by her (A Face Like Glass) didn't entirely work for me. These two did, big time, and I'm now a convert. Her imagination is amazing.
• Megan O'Keefe's Steal the Sky and Break the Chains--oh, how I loved these, because they pushed a lot of my personal buttons as a reader. Addictive yet dangerous psychic-power-style magic, strong bonds of friendship, scoundrels with hidden depths...yes, please. 
• Alison Croggon's The Bone Queen--a haunting, lovely prequel to her epic Pellinor series. Tied for my favorite Pellinor book with the 3rd of the main series, The Crow.
• Ben Peek's The Godless and Leviathan's blood--beautifully written literary epic fantasy, thoughtful and weird and unique in all the best ways
• Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char--dark and imaginative and compelling. 

So, yeah. 2016 definitely wasn't all suck, by a long shot. I hope 2017 will likewise have some victories and joys, not just for me, but for everyone who fears the path the world is taking. Hope and kindness and courage and compassion still matter, now more than ever, and it's not all darkness out there. So many people are trying in whatever ways they can to make the world just that little bit better. For one small example, check out this currently running charity fundraiser from Booknest.eu, where 100 SFF authors (including me) donated signed books for a prize lottery; all money raised through ticket sales will be given to Doctors Without Borders.

Sometimes everything we do, whether donating or writing letters or volunteering or simply offering kindness to a stranger, feels negligible in impact. But as Mark Helprin wrote in his sublime fantasy Winter's Tale, "No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile."

In 2017, my biggest goal is to focus on what's worthwhile, no matter how unimportant my actions may feel.

The return of the Thursday Adventure! Andrews Glacier/Flattop Mtn Loop

The best part about handing off The Labyrinth of Flame to the line editor is that I have time for mountain adventures again! Having finally recovered from my awful cold, I accompanied a coworker last weekend to Rocky Mountain National Park for a lovely loop hike with some snow climbing and plenty of spectacular scenery.

RMNP is a bit of a zoo in the summer. Arriving at 7:20am, the trailhead lots on Bear Lake road were already full, so we had to park at the visitor center and take a shuttle bus to the Glacier Gorge trailhead. We headed up the pretty and very popular Loch Vale trail:

Stream in the Loch vale

But despite the crowds in the vale, once past the junction for the rough, steep trail to Andrews Glacier, we soon found ourselves in solitude. The views of Sharkstooth are terrific - I wished we had ropes and climbing gear to ascend the 5.6 route to the summit.

Sharkstooth and the Andrews valley

The trail climbs through talus toward the headwall below Andrews Tarn:

My hiking partner Dustin on the way to Andrews Tarn

Alpine meadow with Sharkstooth still looming on the ridge

Andrews Tarn is a beautiful little blue-green lake, surrounded by wildflowers and backed by the Andrews Glacier - which is really more of a permanent snowfield, but I guess RMNP decided "glacier" sounds more impressive. The snowfield does develop dangerous crevasses in the late summer, and people have died descending when conditions are icy.

Andrews Tarn and Andrews Glacier

Edge of the glacier

We came prepared with ice axes and microspikes, and the snow was in great condition: soft enough to kick steps in, but firm enough to prevent any postholing. 

Dustin on the glacier

On my way up

I'd been worried about my fitness level, or lack thereof, after months spent at the keyboard instead of on the trails. Thankfully, my genetic gift of altitude adaptation did not fail me. Most hikers slow waaaaay down once you get over 11,000-12,000 ft, whereas to me, that feels no different than sea level. I wasn't exactly blazing up the glacier, but I had no trouble keeping a steady pace.  Let's hear it for extra red blood cells! (And golden mega-stuff oreos. They help a lot, too.)

A distant Dustin nears the top of the glacier

Woo hoo! Nothing like a beautiful day in the mountains.

At the top of the glacier is Andrews Pass and the continental divide, which in this area of the park is an open expanse of tundra. 

View from Andrews Pass

I love the tiny wildflowers that cover the tundra in summer. So delicate, so beautiful, and so hard to capture with an ordinary camera! But here's a shot of my favorite little blue flowers:

Tundra wildflowers

From Andrews Pass, it's possible to reach a whole host of mountain summits. If you start early enough, you can even do five peaks in a day. But since we could see clouds building, we headed straight for Flattop Mountain and our descent trail. On the way, we passed Tyndall Glacier, which is far steeper than Andrews:

Tyndall Glacier and Hallett Peak

We met some friendly young marmots on the way:

And enjoyed some impressive views of Longs Peak:

Backside of Longs Peak

The clouds were growing ever darker, so we hurried down the Flattop Mountain trail, not wanting to get caught by a thunderstorm above timberline:

The storms are coming!

Thankfully, the thunder held off until we'd reached the trees. Along the way to Bear Lake, we had a nice view down into the gorge that holds Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. (Dream Lake is where I filmed my Kickstarter video!)

Looking down at Emerald Lake

My endurance and conditioning hold up well even after a long time without hiking, but my little feet do not. They were quite sore by the time we reached the Bear Lake parking lot and the shuttle back to our car. But every ounce of soreness was worth it (and they'll soon toughen up properly). A day in the mountains is like a drink of cool water to my soul. There's no better way to refresh creativity - and now Labyrinth of Flame is nearing publication, I look forward to many more mountains days to come!

Thursday Adventure: Longs Peak (Keyhole Route), Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park

The RMNP rangers want to make sure newbies know what they're in for

Today a co-worker and I took the day off work and climbed 14,259 ft. Longs Peak, the highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Longs's proximity to the Denver area (the trailhead is only an hour's drive from Boulder) and imposing domination of the front range skyline make it a magnet for local hikers.  There are many ways to ascend Longs (including a host of "big wall" alpine rock climbs up the famous Diamond east face), but the most popular (and easiest - if any route up Longs can be called "easy") is the "Keyhole Route."  16 miles round trip, 5100 ft elevation gain, and the entire upper section of the route is one long class 2/3 scramble over steep, airy ledges and granite slabs.  It's a beautiful, spectacular climb - and horrendously popular on summer weekends.  I'd done Longs via the Keyhole 6 times in the past, all on weekend days, and one time I estimated from the trail register that upwards of 800 people attempted the trail that day.  Basically, there's a solid line of people all the way from the trailhead up to the summit - not exactly a wilderness experience!

But my co-worker told me that Longs on a weekday is an entirely different, better experience - and I'm delighted to report he was right!  We only passed three other parties on our way up.  As is normal for a Longs Peak climb, we started on the trail before dawn (which meant a 4AM wake-up, ugh, but the trail is so long and arduous you've got to start early).  Headlamps are a must for the first, forested section as you hike up in the dark.  But we enjoyed a lovely sunrise after reaching timberline about 3 miles up the trail:

Sunrise on the Longs Peak trail

We even saw a hint of alpenglow on the Diamond - not nearly so much as usual, though, thanks to the all the haze from Wyoming wildfires that's currently clogging Colorado's air.

Alpenglow turns the great east face of Longs Peak pink

 At about 4 miles up the trail, a side trail splits off toward Chasm Lake.  I did a Thursday Adventure post on Chasm Lake a while back - it's a lovely lake tucked right beneath Longs's east face, and the surrounding scenery is absolutely stunning.

Me at the Chasm Lake trail junction (Longs Peak visible behind).  

 Instead of heading straight for Longs, the Keyhole trail veers north and circles around Mt. Lady Washington to reach a vast open bowl of talus called the Boulderfield.  The Keyhole for which the route is named is a distinctive notch in the ridge high above the Boulderfield.  Climbers must ascend steep talus to the Keyhole, then cross through to reach an improbable system of ledges that runs along the peak's west face.

Ascending toward the Boulderfield.  The little notch on the far right of the ridge in the picture is the Keyhole.

Ascending talus toward the Keyhole. (Climber visible at lefthand side of notch.)