Got to keep from going under in all this modern wonder

[sovay]

This year. Looking over my year-end summary for 2017, it is difficult not to feel like this was a year in which I did not do very much.

I published exactly one piece of new fiction, though it is one I am very proud of:

"The Creeping Influences" in Shimmer #39, September 2017.

New poetry fared somewhat better:

"The Process" in Mithila Review #7, January 2017.
"Post-Millennial Augury Blues" in Through the Gate #27, January 2017.
"The Conversation" in Care (ed. John Benson), January 2017.
"An Obedience Experiment" in Rattle: Poets Respond, February 2017.
"The Warm Past" in Mythic Delirium 3.3, March 2017.
"Andromache" in Not One of Us #57, March 2017.
"The Firebird's Revenge" in The Cascadia Subduction Zone 7.1, April 2017.
"Twenty Seventy-One" in Uncanny Magazine #16, May 2017.
"bn ʾdnbʿl bn ʾdrbʿl" in Mythic Delirium 3.4, June 2017.
"On the Day When Dumuzi Comes Up" in Mythic Delirium 4.1, August 2017.
"And All the Brothers Too" in Polu Texni 8/28/17, August 2017.
"The House Always Wins" in Not One of Us #58, September 2017.
"Dive" in Not One of Us #58, September 2017.
"Dis Genite et Geniture Deos" in The Cascadia Subduction 7.3, October 2017.
"Cosmopolitan Bias" in The Cascadia Subduction 7.3, October 2017.
"If it will help you think of me as Sappho" in Blossomry #1, October 2017.
"אש לבנה חרותה באש שחורה" in Blossomry #1, October 2017.

And there were some very rewarding reprints:

"Skerry-Bride" in Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction (ed. Bogi Takács), November 2017.
"The True Alchemist" in GlitterShip Year One (ed. Keffy R.M. Kehrli), December 2017.
"The Boatman's Cure" in Lightspeed Magazine #91, December 2017.
"The Creeping Influences" in Shimmer 2017: The Collected Stories (ed. E. Catherine Tobler), December 2017.

My major intellectual achievement once again appears to have been my film writing for Patreon:

The Moon Is Down (1943), January 2017.
Wonder Bar (1934), January 2017.
Wheeler & Woolsey [Rio Rita (1929), Hold 'Em Jail (1932), Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934), Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934)], January 2017.
Time Without Pity (1957), February 2017.
Boston Sci-Fi Marathon 42 [Galaxy Quest (1999), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Gattaca (1997), John Dies at the End (2012), Neither Heaven nor Earth (Ni le ciel ni la terre, 2015), This Giant Papier-Mâché Boulder Is Actually Really Heavy (2016), Predator (1987), The Rocketeer (1991)], February 2017.
The Dark Tower (1943), February 2017.
The Ghost Camera (1933), March 2017.
On Approval (1944), March 2017.
They Live by Night (1949), March 2017.
Tension (1949), April 2017.
The Golem, How He Came into the World ( Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, 1920), April 2017.
Rollercoaster (1977) and Prince of the Himalayas (2007), April 2017.
From the Four Corners (1941) [Leslie Howard, A Canterbury Tale (1944)], April 2017.
Ramrod (1947), May 2017.
Pretty Poison (1968) and Green Grow the Rushes (1951), May 2017.
Strange Cargo (1940), May 2017.
The Quiet American (1958), May 2017.
Sapphire & Steel (1979–82), June 2017.
Girl of the Port (1930), June 2017.
book-to-film follow-up, July 2017.
Doctor Who: The Robots of Death (1977), July 2017.
Kid Glove Killer (1942), July 2017.
Way Out West (1930), July 2017.
House on Haunted Hill (1959), August 2017.
Dunkirk (2017), August 2017.
Moana (2016), August 2017.
Penda's Fen (1974), August 2017.
Robin Redbreast (1970), August 2017.
HFA Vampire Marathon [Dracula's Daughter (1936), Dracula (1958), The Hunger (1983), Near Dark (1987), Nadja (1995), Trouble Every Day (2001), Thirst (박쥐, 2009)], September 2017.
The Mummy (1999), September 2017.
Speak Easily (1932), September 2017.
The Last of England (1987), September 2017.
Michael Clayton (2007), September 2017.
Cleopatra (1963), October 2017.
Nothing Sacred (1937), October 2017.
Woman on the Run (1950), October 2017.
The Haunting (1963), October 2017.
Beggars of Life (1928), October 2017.
Evening Primrose (1966), November 2017.
The Captive Heart (1946), November 2017.
Went the Day Well? (1942), November 2017.
The Blue Gardenia (1953), November 2017.
Phantom (1922), December 2017.
Pushover (1954), December 2017.
thoughts on Van Heflin, December 2017.
99 River Street (1953), December 2017.
Fallen Angel (1945), December 2017.

And even there, all I can see are the movies I meant to review and didn't, all the things I didn't say.

[edit: kathmandu points out that this summary elides my political year, in which I attended multiple marches, protests, rallies, and vigils, wrote letters to numerous politicians, and voted in my state Democratic convention, having unexpectedly become a ward delegate. This is all true and took a great deal of energy of the year. It was worth it.]

But 2017 was a dreadful year for lots of reasons. And I am still here at the end of it. And I wrote stories and poems anyway, some that have already seen print, some that have not, and I have to feel that anything I salvaged out of this year counts for something, because I have been saying as much to other people all year and I should learn to take my own advice. I am delighted seeing what other people did in the face of 2017. They are still here. We are still here.

Happy New Year. Let's be here in 2018, too.

Comments

[justice_turtle]

You’re still here, and your post on The Mummy is why I finally went and watched it, and then I loved it, so that might be worth a little something. :-)

*is not very coherent*

[sovay]

You’re still here, and your post on The Mummy is why I finally went and watched it, and then I loved it, so that might be worth a little something.

That is worth a lot! Thank you. (Yay.)

[swan_tower]

Your post is also why I requested it for Yuletide.

And I am still here at the end of it.

I am glad of it.

[sovay]

Your post is also why I requested it for Yuletide.

I remain honored. (Did you get it?)

I am glad of it.

Thank you. You, too.

[thawrecka]

To me that looks like you've achieved a lot! And, for what it's worth, your poetry and film reviews both are brilliant.

[sovay]

To me that looks like you've achieved a lot! And, for what it's worth, your poetry and film reviews both are brilliant.

Thank you! That means a lot. I am working on remembering that things I didn't do are not visible to everyone else from space.

[gwynnega]

It seems to me you've done a lot to be proud of this year. And I am very glad you're still here.

[sovay]

It seems to me you've done a lot to be proud of this year. And I am very glad you're still here.

Thank you. I am glad you're here, too!

It was a dreadful year.

[kathmandu]

*Most* years do not require a separate heading for 'political protests attended, letters written, calls sent'. But I have the impression you did a lot of that this year. Maybe if you added a category, your overall activity levels would suddenly look higher?

I too have enjoyed your Patreon writing; in fact, that was a big part of why I followed you. It is interesting.

May this next one be a better year, and may we all get through it.

Re: It was a dreadful year.

[sovay]

Maybe if you added a category, your overall activity levels would suddenly look higher?

I did not think to include my political activities at all and you're right, that was where a lot of time and energy—gladly—went. I've edited them into the post. Thank you for pointing that out.

You're right that most years don't need it, but 2017 really did.

I too have enjoyed your Patreon writing; in fact, that was a big part of why I followed you. It is interesting.

Thank you. I'm really glad. It is something I really enjoy and it makes me feel like I am doing something with my brain.

May this next one be a better year, and may we all get through it.

Amen!

[thisbluespirit]

Happy New Year! I hope 2018 is much better. And it is definitely something, anyway, to still be here. <3

And your reviews are all beautiful and interesting and well worth being proud of. Your S&S one was a work of art and I should probably frame it or something, and you are regularly adding to the to-watch list. (Just give me a while, it often takes a few years! I am a tortoise.)

I hope 2018 holds more writing, better health, and, you know, yr current gov't being chucked into the dumpster, but I am sure it will at least hold plenty more fictional works and worlds (visual and otherwise) worth writing about.

[sovay]

Happy New Year! I hope 2018 is much better. And it is definitely something, anyway, to still be here.

Same to you, truly.

And your reviews are all beautiful and interesting and well worth being proud of. Your S&S one was a work of art and I should probably frame it or something, and you are regularly adding to the to-watch list. (Just give me a while, it often takes a few years! I am a tortoise.)

No pressure! I am very glad you are finding the things I write about interesting enough to follow up on, and I hope you enjoy them whenever they come around.

I hope 2018 holds more writing, better health, and, you know, yr current gov't being chucked into the dumpster, but I am sure it will at least hold plenty more fictional works and worlds (visual and otherwise) worth writing about.

Thank you! That is a very fine wish for the new year and I hope you're right about the dumpster.

[asakiyume]

Your story in Shimmer was *excellent*, and your poetry continues to be breathtaking. And you continue to make truly worthwhile contributions to film literature. Everyone interested in film should read your film posts. (And everyone interested in storytelling. And everyone who just wants a good read.)

[sovay]

Everyone interested in film should read your film posts. (And everyone interested in storytelling. And everyone who just wants a good read.)

That's a really wonderful thing to hear. Thank you.

I'm glad you're here in this year, too, you know.

[asakiyume]

I'm glad you're here in this year, too, you know. ♥ That means a lot to me.

[ethelmay]

I think you may have seen more films in the last year than I have seen in my whole life.

[sovay]

I think you may have seen more films in the last year than I have seen in my whole life.

I did not use to watch almost any movies. That kind of changed.

[ada_hoffmann]

That is a delightful number of poems to have out, I must say! And I'm glad someone pointed out your political year before I did, because that was one of the huge impressions that I've always taken away from reading this journal, along with the film reviews: you've spent an astounding and admirable amount of energy and time on politics in 2017. If only the circumstances making it necessary to do so weren't so vile.

[sovay]

That is a delightful number of poems to have out, I must say!

Thank you!

And I'm glad someone pointed out your political year before I did, because that was one of the huge impressions that I've always taken away from reading this journal, along with the film reviews: you've spent an astounding and admirable amount of energy and time on politics in 2017.

I appreciate it. I really didn't think of it as a thing I did with my year, except I did. I am working on my reality check.

If only the circumstances making it necessary to do so weren't so vile.

Amen!

[brigdh]

Wow, so many things! Your year seems very impressive to me.

[sovay]

Wow, so many things! Your year seems very impressive to me.

Thank you. I think the fact that it felt like so little may have said more about me than the year. I do normally write more and publish more in terms of fiction and poetry, but that doesn't mean this was nothing, or even all that scant.