I held off on writing my 2012 summary because the year didn’t go the way I expected or planned.  I spent months mourning the end of a professional relationship — one that had really been over with for a while, but that I wasn’t willing to let go.  That colored how I felt about the entire year. Once I sat down and listed things out, it actually was a great year.

The Sins of the Sirens ebook came out.  I have four stories in it, ranging from the first story I wrote about the succubus Lorelei to a modern-day affair gone wrong. It also includes the full version of “Still Life with Broken Glass,” which had been published in Cemetery Dance in another version, and an Alondra story set in a hurricane in New Orleans.  It’s available here.

The Ashes & Rust chapbook came out for the Kindle, too.  You can order it here. Sex. Drugs. Rock’n’roll. Space aliens. Demonic possession. Murder. Friendship. Ashes & Rust contains four previously published post-apocalyptic short stories inspired by growing up in Flint, Michigan. The chapbook’s stories originally appeared in Not One of Us, Indigenous Fiction, Blood Rose, and the book Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect.

Ravenous published the Demon Lovers anthology early in the year.  Edited by Inara LaVey and Kilt Kilpatrick, it contains my second Lorelei story, called “Never Bargained for You,” set in Los Angeles on the eve of Led Zeppelin’s first US tour.  That’s available here.

And the Haunted Mansion Project: Year One came out from Damnation Books in April.  It includes two pieces by me:  an Alondra story that explores the nature of fear and an essay about my experiences during the first Haunted Mansion Writers Retreat.  The book includes pieces by Rain Graves, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro, S.G. Browne, Sephira Giron, and more.  You can get your own copy here.

Finally, I published the Cemetery Travels Notebook as a place to keep field notes from your own cemetery adventures. It features 80 lined pages, interspersed with 20 lush full-page color photographs of cemeteries from Paris to Tokyo, with stops at Sleepy Hollow, San Francisco, and all points between. It’s for sale at Blurb.

I had a handful of shorter pieces published, too.  “How to Be Safe in the Cemetery” appeared on the Cemetery Club site. “On Tongues of Flame: A Brief History of Cremation in the US” was commissioned by CemeteryRegistry.us. Black Sunday zine chose my essay to lead off their “How I Got into Horror” feature. I was even quoted in Real Simple‘s November issue!

I was honored to speak at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in April, enthusing about cemetery travel. I taught my first class in July!  I had so much fun that the Writing Salon is going to allow me to teach Presenting in Public again this month.  If you’ve ever wanted to feel braver when speaking or reading in public, this is the class for you.  Here’s the course description.

I did three readings last year: “Never Bargained for You” at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, “Touched by Ghosts” at Peter Finch’s Scary Story Night at San Francisco’s Bazaar Cafe, and “Still Life with Broken Glass” at the inaugural Godless Perverts reading at the Center for Sex and Culture.

Dreadful Tales interviewed me at length for their Women in Horror month. Peter Finch, of San Francisco’s station KGO, interviewed me for his Finch Files. And Britt Bravo chose me as one of her 13 Juicy Bloggers for my work on Cemetery Travel.

The year ended with good news about two of my books of essays.  I should be able to announce the details soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2013 will bring.