Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! Since it’s important to think about where you’ve been and where you’re going, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my accomplishments this year and my goals for next year.
Accomplishments: Wildlife
-I worked as an intern for the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program in Alpine, Arizona for six months. I tracked wolves with radio telemetry, helped to care for pups and release a young adult into the wild, monitored carnivores with trail cameras, investigated tracks and scat in the woods, and more!
A cute Halloween decoration in Alpine. It reads, “Just RAVEN about how much fun we had in Alpine.”
-I was listed as a coauthor on a scientific paper for the first time, an article about feral cat vocalizations, with some amazing colleagues I met while working as a field crew leader at Montana State University:
Jessica L. Owens, Mariana Olsen, Amy Fontaine, Christopher Kloth, Arik Kershenbaum, Sara Waller; Visual classification of feral cat Felis silvestris catus vocalizations. Curr Zool 2017; 63 (3): 331-339. doi: 10.1093/cz/zox013 https://academic.oup.com/cz/article/doi/10.1093/cz/zox013/3056230/Visual-classification-of-feral-cat-Felis
Accomplishments: Writing
-My first novel, Mist, was published by Thurston Howl Publications.
-I made my first professional, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America-qualifying fiction sale, my short story “The Moon Fox” to the zine Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores.
-I had three other short stories and two poems published. At least three more of my short stories will appear in anthologies sometime next year.
-I won NaNoWriMo in November, wrote 17 new short stories and various poems over the course of the year, and significantly rewrote an older story (“The Moon Fox”) which was then accepted for publication.
Accomplishments: Editing
-I became an editorial assistant for Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/about/our-team/
-I became an assistant editor/independent contractor, working with Goal Publications and AnthroAquatic Literary Editing.
Goals for 2018:
Wildlife Goals: Gain new experiences with animals, whether that means seabirds, dolphins, foxes, elephants, or dogs!
Writing Goals:
-Keep writing and submitting and improving my craft! I plan to write at least one new novel, start a visual novel, and hopefully get some more pro sales under my belt!
-Become an active member of Codex (my application is currently being processed).
-Continue to follow a modified version of this 1000 Day MFA plan.
Editing Goals:
-Keep learning more about the art and science of editing! My aforementioned positions as editor and editorial assistant are the first ones I’ve ever had in this field, so I’m still learning and growing, and I’m eager to do the best job I can!
Personal Goals: Become a more loving, compassionate, enlightened human being.
Thank you all SO much for following my updates and progress this year! Here’s to all of us learning and adventuring and growing together more next year!
Amy Clare Fontaine 