Monthly Archives: December 2022

My Fave Reads of the Year, 2022 Edition

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Hello all and welcome to the last Friday of the year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday week last week, and that you are excited for the new year and all the possibilities that might bring. The last year, or two years really, have been pretty rough, and I am really hoping that 2023 will be a bit kinder to us all. But I am… skeptical, let’s say. Still, I am trying to approach the new year with a feeling of cautious optimism. We shall see how it goes.

Before I jump into my fave reads list, I have several things in the works I want to mention. I have officially started my work as a freelance editor. And I am preparing to launch an etsy shop to sell the fluid paintings I’ve been making off-and-on for the last couple months. The first handful were all gifts to various family and friends, but I have a bunch now that are piling up in my office, so I’m hoping to sell them for just a bit – enough to clear out the space in my office and buy supplies so I can make some more. I’ll have the shop linked here probably in the first week of January for the curious.

I am also considering changing the name of the blog… though, I am still on the fence about that. As I mentioned in my About page ages ago, I chose the name “Night Forest Books” as the name of my hypothetical future bookstore. I’ve had the name in mind since AT LEAST 2016. It’s a reference to my favorite book, The Neverending Story, and the location called “Perilin, the Night Forest.” When I first chose the name I did a lot of research to make sure no other bookstore or related business had claimed the name already. I bought the .com domain for future use, and I claimed the IG name (@night.forest.books) and this blog title. However, I was nowhere near ready to actually register a business or LLC name as I knew it would be probably years before I was financially ready to start the bookstore.

Well, apparently in mid-2020 a brand new micro-press started in CANADA, and they named themselves Night Forest Press. Obviously, even if they did research on the name, they did not consider my teeny-tiny blog a problem, whether it had essentially the same name or not, and since I didn’t have an actual business registered under that name it was legally up for grabs. I could probably still get away with naming a bookstore Night Forest Books if I really wanted to (maybe, I’m not certain), but googling “Night Forest Books” right now just brings up the press website. And I had vague ambitions of maybe someday starting a press associated with the hypothetical bookstore, which would no longer be a viable option under the current name. So, I will need to find a new name for the hypothetical bookstore…

Of course, the blog name is still fine right now. However, as I said, googling for “Night Forest Books” right now does not remotely lead to my blog, which is really disheartening. Besides which, my initial thought was that the blog would be a good way to establish some recognition among readership in advance of opening the bookstore, and if the bookstore has an entirely different name from the blog that kind of defeats the purpose…

So… yeah… I’m on the fence about changing the blog name, or just letting it be and worrying about the bookstore name later. Maybe I’ll just go back to using my actual name for the blog for the time being. That might at least make it obvious in search engines again… maybe. *shrug* If anyone has any thoughts, please feel free to share.

OKAY! And now the thing I’m supposed to actually be writing about today. My Favorite Reads of 2022 List!

I had a really difficult time narrowing the list down this year. (Well, ok, every year). What I have ended up with is a list of 10 books. My top 5 favorite new release fiction books, released in the calendar year of 2022, plus my top 5 favorite nonfiction books, none of which were new releases for 2022 but which were all new reads for me.

My Top 5 Fiction New Releases:

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher: This book by the masterful T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) is a beautiful dark fairy tale with prose that makes me weep with awe and jealousy. I wrote a full review for Nettle & Bone way back at the beginning of the year, where I predicted that it might end up being my favorite book of the year when it was all said and done, though I conceded that Nona the Ninth might easily change my mind when it was released. But lo and behold! I stand by my initial statement! I absolutely adored this book and it remains my favorite book of the year.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske: you can find the full review of this one and the first book in the trilogy just a few weeks back. This one is a historical romance fantasy set in Edwardian England, featuring a murder mystery, lots of magic, and some very steamy sex. I loved it (and the first one, A Marvellous Light), and I’ve already re-read it once since finishing it.

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: I know I still owe you all an actual review of this one, oops… For those still in the dark (how?) this book (and series) is a mind-bending, genre-busting, space opera mixed with necromantic magic, and one of the most complex examinations of love in all its forms (including toxic and self-destructive) that I have ever read. I’ll admit that I fully expected this one to overtake Nettle & Bone as my favorite, but though I loved it immensely, it ended up slipping down to third place. Nona the Ninth, the third of the Locked Tomb series, was excellent, and mind-boggling, but of the three it is my least favorite. Nona was a delight of a character, but the first book is still by far the most FUN. So far I love them in order, lol (Gideon, then Harrow, then Nona).

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katherine Schellman: here’s another one I read and reviewed pretty early in the year! It’s a historical murder mystery novel set in the 1920s, which is of course a good portion of what I love about it. And it features a disaster bi protagonist that I relate to rather strongly, lol! I read the whole thing in one sitting, just absolutely DEVOURED it. I fervently await the sequel!

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews: I have not written a full review for this one yet, but I might try to put one together for it and its sequel later. This one is straight romance novel material, historical (Victorian setting), and absolutely lovely! I read it about a month ago and I am currently in a big Victorian-set historical romance brainrot mode. I also read the sequel to this one, The Belle of Belgrave Square. There will be a third one apparently sometime next year, so maybe I’ll do a double review for books 1 and 2 in time for the 3rd release. This book just really made me happy, with a headstrong intelligent female lead and a Indian-immigrant working-class love interest, and lots of witty banter.

My Top 5 Nonfiction Books:

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh: this is the last book that came out before Thich Nhat Hanh’s death in 2021. If you are unfamiliar with him, he was a very famous well-respected Buddhist monk who wrote many books on Buddhist, meditation, and finding peace in your own life. He gave lectures, met with world leaders, ran retreats, and generally just made the world a better place by his existence. He was/is one of the greatest heroes in my life, and I was absolutely DISTRAUGHT when he died last year. (And, shit, I am genuinely getting choked up just typing this.) This book is kind of exactly what the title suggests: a way of approaching the crises of our planet (ecological, political, systemic, personal) from a Buddhist perspective but also from a largely non-denominational place of deeply human spirituality and compassion. It made me cry at least three or four times, and the minute I finished it I threatened to buy a copy for every person I know to make them read it (if I’d had the funds, I really probably would have).

Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens: I have a soft-spot for self-improvement books, but more specifically I really love self-improvement books about living an authentic and creative life. For instance, I also liked Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (though I do find Gilbert a little too woo-woo and mystical hand-wavy at times). This book by Beth Pickens is about living life as an artist — and she defines “artist” very broadly — and offers real concrete advice on how to live that life to the best of your ability and with the most fulfillment you can manage, whether you are a full-time professional artist or someone trying to eke out a practice around a day job and family and other responsibilities. I found it incredibly insightful, down-to-earth, actionable, and really inspiring.

The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt: I really love nonfiction books about history or science, and this one is kind of both. I picked it up on a whim and found it absolutely fascinating. It’s about the exotic fish trade, of all things! Specifically about a rare exotic fish called an arawona, which is allegedly the most expensive kind of collector/live fish in the world (most expensive fish of any kind in the world are, I think, some of the giant tuna caught/killed in Asia and sold by auction to high-end restaurants for sometimes millions of dollars). This book, and the exotic fish trade, includes: trips into the deepest barely-explored jungles of Asia and South America, run-ins with the black market and the mob, and devolves into fraud, betrayal, and even murder. It’s absolutely shocking and enormously fascinating!

1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar by Eric Burns: I think I’ve mentioned before I am a bit obsessed with the 1920s Jazz Age era? So I assume no one is surprised that I picked up this book. It is pretty much exactly what it says it is: its a history book that focused on JUST the single year of 1920, and makes an argument that the events of that single year was the catalyst and predictor for everything that came after it. One of the major events the book focuses on is the 1920 Wall Street bombing, which remained the most destructive incident of domestic terrorism until the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. (I found that section SO interesting that the Wall Street bombing eventually became the instigating event for the plot in my 1920s historical fiction work-in-progress). The whole book was really enlightening and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in American history.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier: the subtitle for this book is “The triumphant, turbulent stories behind how video games are made.” It’s a really well-researched account written by a games journalist about the game industry, using an enormous amount of first-persons accounts and interviews. Each chapter focuses on the story of a different game, including (but not limited to) Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Stardew Valley. I’m not even a big gamer (just a dabbler), so I’m not 100% sure why I decided to pick this one to begin with, but I’m so glad I did! It was so cool to learn about how these games are developed and the kind of crazy sheningans that happen behind the scenes. (The dude who made Stardew Valley continues to blow my mind.) It’s also really fun now to watch the comedy tv show Mythic Quest on Apple+ and constantly go “that’s not how that works! That’s not how any of that works!” Lol…

So, that’s my list, for whatever it’s worth. I’d love to hear what books you read and loved this year! Please feel free to share in the comments!

Christmas Week!

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Hello folks! This is just a quick heads-up to let you all know that I will not have a full blog post up this Friday, as it is Christmas Week and I have family stuff, etc. I plan to have my “Fave Reads of the Year” list up the following Friday (last Friday of the year!). I have a long list worked out, but I am having a very difficult time cutting it down, lol! This is always my problem with all sorts of “best of” lists. I love too many things and I hate trying to prioritize, put in numerical order, or cut down, so we’ll see how it goes…

Also: I have a couple of upcoming-release books I plan to review. HOWEVER, they are both HarperCollins books, and I am waiting to post reviews of these books until the current HarperCollins strike is resolved. While this does impact the authors, most of the affected authors have voiced enthusiastic support for the striking HarperCollins union. They have encouraged book reviewers NOT to cross the virtual picket line, and to withhold reviews until further notice.

If you are unfamiliar with the HarperCollins Union strike, here’s a decent and brief run-down of what’s going on from The Washington Post: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harpercollins-staffers-are-striking-here-e2-80-99s-why-that-matters-to-readers/ar-AA15i38K

For discussion of the strike from the Union itself, there are these two press releases:

Initial Press Release, Oct 17th

Updated Press Release, Dec 7th

I also highly recommend following the Strike account on Twitter: @/hcpunion for all updates, and links to ways you can support the strike.

Ok, that’s all from me for now! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Happy Chanukah to my friends in the Jewish community! And a general happy week to everyone, religious or not! See you all after Christmas!

Book Review: Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

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Title: Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
Author: Chen Chen
Released: 13 September 2022
How I Got It: bought from publisher website
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Today, I have a slightly different sort of book review for you all. I’m talking about a new poetry collection by poet Chen Chen (author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities) titled Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency.

I read a lot of poetry, but I don’t talk about it much on this site, a fact that I want to try to change. Since I literally just finished reading this one a few minutes ago, I thought I’d go ahead and write up a review while it’s still fresh in my mind and before I have a chance to get distracted by other things and forget to do it.

Chen Chen is a queer Chinese-American poet. The vast majority of his poetry centers on his Chinese-ness and his queer-ness to varying degrees. I really enjoyed his first full collection (When I Grow Up…) and so I leapt at the chance to buy his new one. This book did not disappoint.

The language is sharp and playful and incisive and contemporary. At times delightfully vulgar, and at other times fascinatingly opaque. Chen Chen demonstrates skill and ingenuity with a wide range of forms, from compact carefully constructed tercets to large prose poems that are almost breathless with long momentum to a clever little anagram poem that uses only words spelled from the letters of his name (with the clever addition of the phrase “no middle name” to fill out the severe lack of options in just “Chen Chen”).

I took particular pleasure in the homage to other Asian-American poets throughout the collection, including Justin Chin, Marilyn Chin, Bhanu Kapil, and others. But what I loved the most, probably, was the sheer unembarrassed SPECIFICITY of the poems in this collection.

These are poems for now, vital and relevant in the wake of the pandemic and 2020 shutdown, and in the midst of continued tensions. Many of the poems reference the pandemic, as the narrator faces resurgence of anti-Chinese racism, and invokes never-ending questions that all Asian-Americans face in one way or another: are we ever Asian enough? Are we ever American enough? How can we be both at once, and who gets to decide?

Chen Chen also invokes the specificity, locality, and histories of his own personal life with such unabashed and blunt detail that you feel you might as well be sitting at his dining room table, listening to him talk about his family and his partner and his life. The reader lives with him in Massachusetts, struggling with his mother’s disapproval for being gay; and travels to Lubbock, Texas for grad school, and joins him when he visits China, feeling both inside and outside the culture.

The specificity of “Doctor’s Note” in particular, resonates with me as the note declares: “Please excuse Chen Chen from class. He is currently dead.” This poem goes on to list the ways that Chen Chen has attempted to remedy to situation, including the Coldplay song “The Scientist,” new episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Tai Chi in his room. Perhaps not every reader can identify with these specifics, but everyone knows that sensation of being so miserable that all you can do is stay in bed surrounded by the little things you love.

Sometimes the unrelenting detail can be off-putting for the more squeamish: such as in the poem “Winter” in which the narrator contemplates “Big smelly bowel movements this blue January morning” and wonders if the words “shit” or “scat” are “more or less literary than ‘poop’…” Or, in the poem “Ode to Rereading Rimbaud in Lubbock, Texas,” where the narrator describes his “poetics of deep threat & tonguefuck.” These sorts of details might be a bit much for some readers. They make even me squirm a bit in places (and I have a high tolerance), but in the end they only add to the layers upon layers of empathy and emotional resonance that radiate from these poems.

No doubt, the vulgarity can be uncomfortable in places, but it is clearly MEANT to be uncomfortable, and thus shake the reader out of their commonplace experiences). And for every moment of uncomfortable vulgarity, there are dozens of moments of beauty and pathos, as Chen Chen (or the narrator of the poems) showers his lover/partner Jeff with adoration, laments the strained relationship with his mother, and grieves the death of Jeff’s mother.

I was particularly struck by this stanza speaking to his lover in “Summer”:
“You wrap your arms around me & it’s like you’re the patron saint of touch as / well as soft sunlight & soothed dogs. Or you must be the early representative / of divine holding. Or you’re both & also a boy, like me, holding on.”

I was also painfully struck by “a small book of questions: question vii” when the narrator describes his efforts to make his mother acknowledge his boyfriend and laments:
“I want to remember better. / But I want more, more of the / better to remember.”

At its heart, this collection is about the never-ending riddle of identity — race, sexuality, family identity — and also about love and grief and stubborn joy in the face of that grief. Many people will find something in this collection, some empathy, some resonance, some connection. But, if you are a) queer, b) Asian-American, or c) have parents who routinely disappoint you while also being disappointed IN you (bonus points if, like me, you have all three!) then this book was made for YOU SPECIFICALLY. And you definitely need it.

Two-For-One Book Review: A Marvellous Light, and A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

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Titles: A Marvellous Light & A Restless Truth
Author: Freya Marske
Release Dates: 26 Oct 2021 and 1 Nov 2022 
How I Got It: received the first book as an ARC through work, bought the second one
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s a two-for-one sale, folks! Not literally, of course. But I am doing a double review of the first two books in Freya Marske’s historical romance fantasy Last Binding trilogy: A Marvellous Light and its sequel, A Restless Truth. I read A Marvellous Light last year as an ARC, when I was curating for my job at Fox & Wit (and did end up choosing the book for that month’s release), and I always meant to write a full review for it. But alas, as so often happens, it slipped my mind and I never got it.

Fast forward a year later, and the sequel, A Restless Truth, released in September. I bought it immediately on audio (I have the first book in both print and audio, and I really enjoyed the audio so I figured ‘why not?’), and finished it in a day and a half. And again, I have been meaning to write up a review since I finished. So, here we go! I’ll do both of them together, and then I will hopefully review the last book in the trilogy whenever it releases.

The series is set in the early 1900s, Edwardian England, one of my favorite time periods for historical romance, when William Morris was all the rage and Art Nouveau was beginning to emerge (I’m a HUGE Art Nouveau fan). Of course, this is a version of England with magic, but other than that the series adheres very closely to its time period, displaying an impressive amount of research not only into the history but also the aesthetics and attitudes.

A Marvellous Light focuses on the main character of Sir Robin Blythe and Edwin Courcey. Following the death of his parents — famous philanthropists and secret backbiting devious social manipulators — Robin is placed in a seemingly dull low-level government job by an old enemy of his parents. However, when Edwin Courcey, gentleman magician, waltzes into his office fully expecting someone in the know, Robin discovers that magic is real, he has accidentally been placed in a job of liaison to the secret magical community, and his predecessor Reggie has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It’s a lot to absorb on the first day. To make matters worse, a trio of magicians hiding their identities attack Robin that night, believing he must know more than he does, and placed a painful cursed tattoo on his arm. The only one with any hope of helping him remove the curse and find out what happened to his predecessor is Edwin Courcey.

For his part, Edwin Courcey just wants this whole mess dealt with and out of his hair. He had considered Reggie a friend, and is distraught over his disappearance, and he doesn’t have the time or the energy to help guide a brand new “civilian” learn about the magical community. Still, it is quickly apparent that he will have to deal with it, so he takes Robin to his family’s country estate to research the curse and try to remove it. Unfortunately, among his family Edwin feels he is instantly revealed to be a weakling and failure: weakest of all his family in magic, though by far the most brilliant and learned in his study of the field. And his family, including his abusive older father and his glittery empty-headed sister, seemed determined to make him miserable and embarrass his guest. And to make matters even more complicated, Robin starts having visions.

As Robin and Edwin research the curse, and try to find out what happened to Reggie, they find themselves caught in the middle of a tangled conspiracy or murder, magic, and fantastical objects of great power that may or may not exist, and which could change the lives of every magician in England. Along the way, they also discover their similarities in taste and attitude, and grow closer, something almost like friends (a novel concept for Edwin), and then possibly more. As their attraction increases, and Robin begins to contemplate the possibility of a future together, Edwin tries desperately to keep control of the situation, even as danger closes in on them with deadly urgency.

The sequel, A Restless Truth, focuses on Robin’s sister, Maud, previously introduced in the first book. With the main conflicts of the first book resolved but new and dangerous threats established for the rest of the trilogy, Robin has sent Maud to collect an older woman magician from America who may hold the key to the whole problem. However, on the return voyage from America to England on a White Star ocean liner, the woman magician is murdered within hours of heading out to sea and an important magical artifact is stolen. Now, Maud must find out who killed her and stole the artifact, find out what they know about the business her brother Robin has gotten involved in, and not get killed herself in the process.

To help her in this endeavor she recruits the charming and beautiful Miss Violet Debenham, a British transplant to the U.S. who is returning home to England, now an actress and a huge walking scandal (of her own making), and the disdainful, perpetually-annoyed Lord Hawthorne (also briefly introduced in the first book), who would really rather not have anything to do with any of this nonsense, thank you very much.

As they work together, Maud finds herself growing more and more attracted to Violet, a previously-unrealized romantic inclination now awakening in her with sudden passion. Violet, meanwhile, is happy to be a dalliance while aboard ship but is desperate to keep her secrets and her heart as detached and distant as possible. As the two women try to work out what they desire and what they are willing to sacrifice to get it, they must contend with at least one murderer, a jewel thief, an obnoxious parrot, and a whole menagerie of animals in the cargo hold. And, just to make matters worse, Maud discovers she may or may not be a medium. In the face of all these problems, Maud is determined not to fail at this mission her brother has given her, conscious more than ever that Robin is the only person in her life she has ever been able to rely on.

These books are UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL. When I first read the arc for A Marvellous Light, I had it in ebook format, and I devoured it. As soon as the book was released I got the hardcover AND the audiobook version immediately, and re-read it by audio. I have since re-read it in one format or another 3 or 4 times. And A Restless Truth is just as delightful and re-readable.

Both stories feature an exciting, tense, action-packed plot full of murder, mystery, and magical artifacts of importance to all the magicians of England. In classic mystery fashion, the artifacts in these first two books function as macguffins – an item that everyone is after, and which propels the actions of the plot, but which seem to have little-to-no actual influence on what finally happens. I am very curious/excited to see how these artifacts come together in the final book of the trilogy and prove as powerful (or not) as they are believed to be.

True to their billing as romance fantasies, both books also give heavy importance to the romantic subplots between Robin and Edwin, and Maud and Violet. They follow the traditional romance series formula of each book focusing on a different couple who are connected in some way or another through one or more repeating characters (think of the Bridgerton series in which each book focuses on a different Bridgerton sibling finding their happily-ever-after). In this case, obviously, the books are connected through the Blyth siblings Robin and Maud, as well as by the overarching external plot. There is not another Blyth sibling for the third book, but I suspect Lord Hawthorne will be the focus for the romantic subplot of the final installment. However, in that case, the main plot will also have to combine all the previous characters in order to reach its conclusion.

One thing I found enormously amusing about both A Marvellous Light and A Restless Truth is the ways that both Blyth siblings are friendly, cheerful, high-energy puppy characters who both fall in love with introverted, cynical, suspicious and paranoid cat people. It’s hilarious. However, where Robin was long aware of his own proclivities for men, and indulged them in secret (as more men than some might suspect did in boarding school and in gentlemen’s clubs), Maud enters her romantic situation completely unaware of her own interests. Violet sparks a sudden sexual awakening for her, and its amusing to watch as Maud throws herself enthusiastically into the discovery.

Speaking of sexual awakening: be aware that these books are NOT shy about the sexual content. Steamy isn’t a sufficient enough word. They are explicit, and sexy, and creative. So if that’s not your thing, reader beware. I, personally, love that shit. The steamier the better.

bonus! look at this fan art of Edwin and Robin by Ellie Bailey (@efpbailey on twitter)

As much as I loved both books, and both couples, I will say that my heart belongs to Robin and Edwin first and foremost. Robin was just so wonderful: cheerful, honest, optimistic. And Edwin was… well, Edwin was me. I identified so strongly with Edwin it was kind of pathetic: shy, introverted, nerdy, the weakest/least successful member of his family and looked down on by his siblings, with a disastrous love life, whose happy place is always in a library and buried in a book. Like Edwin, I could not help but love Robin, who saw him for who he really was, believed in him even when everyone else was laughing at him, and dragged him gently out of his shell. Yep, I am absolutely an Edwin Courcey still searching for my own Robin Blyth.

Long story short (too late, I know): if you enjoy historical fantasy and/or queer romance novels, plus a large helping of murder mystery, these books are for you. The magical murderous plots are exciting and adventurous, the romances are swoony and sexy, and the characters are all wonderfully complex and charming and relatable. You should totally pick them up now so you’re ready when the final book in the trilogy releases! (There’s no solid date on that yet, but I would guess sometime late next year… *fingers crossed*)

Tinkering Update

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Hello all! If you take a look around, you’ll notice that I have been tinkering with the site a bit! I have a new static landing page, and I have added other pages as well. Don’t worry! The blog is still running and will be easy enough to find under the “Blog” tab. And if you subscribe by email you’ll be sent directly to the new post anyway, without having to navigate anywhere.

However, I’d love it if you folks took a look around when you have a chance. As mentioned in my previous post, I have gone ahead and added an information page specifically for freelance editing, for which I am now open. Even if you yourselves are not in need of such services, I would greatly appreciate if you could share the word with any writer-type friends who might be!

In addition, as you may see in the “Featured” column on the Home page, in the coming days/weeks I will be adding a separate page/tab for my personal writings (not blog posts or book reviews, but poetry, snippets of fiction, and creative nonfiction kinds of things). AND I will be linking to a new little side project shop I am in the process of putting together on Etsy.

In the meantime, you can definitely still expect a full book review post from me this upcoming Friday!

(Also, I’m not entirely happy with the header image still, so that will likely continue to change for awhile.)

Welcome to December!

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Hello folks! I just have a few updates this week. We have officially hit December and the holiday season, and there are only 5 Fridays left in the year (including today). I know! I’m shocked and horrified by this as well. I hope everyone is having fun preparing for their various holiday-season traditions (there are so many holidays in so many religions and cultures around the world this time of year, it’s pretty amazing!) And I hope that the concurrent issues of shopping, travel, dealing with family, etc don’t stress anyone out too badly (they always stress me out plenty).

As we are nearing the end of the year, and all that entails, I wanted to give you heads up that weekly posts will probably be a bit spotty this month. I have one book review in draft right now, that I will probably post next week. And I am planning to do a “My Favorite Reads of the Year” list in time for the New Year. That might be it from me for the month. I suspect most people aren’t going to mind too much; they have other things to worry about besides reading my blog posts, lol. But I apologize for the slow-down anyway.

In other news, I am considering starting to take on freelance editing work – this kind of editing (developmental and copy/line-editing) is usually for folks who are preparing to indie or self-publish, but can be useful even for those planning to submit manuscripts to agents/editors in traditional publishing. I have done some editing work in the past, but it has always been for friends, or friends of friends, for small amounts of money or pro bono. I have recently picked up a couple new potential clients (we’re still hammering out confirmations) based on word-of-mouth, and it has made me think I might like to try making it more official. I might post the information as a page here, or possibly make a full website landing page for everything. But in any case, if this is something anyone out there has been looking into for a project, feel free to contact me!

I am also thinking about some things I would like to do for the blog starting in the new year.

The blog I ran in the height of the blog-popularity from 2011-2015 or so was not huge — I didn’t have thousands of readers or anything — but it did fairly well. It had around 500 subscribers, lots of comments, averaged a couple thousand hits a week, etc. This new one doesn’t get a fraction of that engagement. I know the blogging heyday is past. I can’t expect anything like that again, but it’s still disheartening. I keep wondering if writing this blog is like screaming into a void that no one else hears or cares about, and I would be better off just redirecting this writing time/energy back toward my own personal writing. On the other hand, I do enjoy writing these little book reviews, and my main goal originally was to help support and spread the word about books/authors that I really love. I’m just not sure I’m even doing that if NO ONE reads these (except for DirtyBuddha, the only reader who consistently looks at/likes every post! Shout out to you! Thanks!)

On top of all that, I’ve had ideas for things I wanted to write/talk about that I haven’t yet because, as few readers I have now, I fear that people will care even less about these other things. Most of them are still book-related (though not all), but they aren’t book reviews and if that’s what most of my readers (few as they are) are here for it would feel like a waste of time to even sit down to type these other ideas out. The problem stems, I think, from the fact that I have advanced degrees in literature but I stopped teaching and I feel like I have all this information and all these niche interests floating around my head with no useful outlet.

I talked to my best friend about that a bit, and she gave me some good advice that kind of boiled down to: don’t worry about what others think. On one level, that’s kind of the point of a blog, to share content that you think/hope others will engage with, so you kind of have to care. On another level, though, she’s right. If the blog is for me, for talking about things I’m interested in (even if it’s aimed at an empty void), then does it really matter? And, she said, maybe you’ll write a post that will show up on someone’s google search someday, for someone with the same niche interests who never thought anyone else had ever written about the topic before, and even if that’s the only reader you ever get for that post, won’t it be nice to be there for the one person who really wanted to read it?

It’s a nice thought. Though it still begs the question of how much time and energy I should pour into this blog, and how much of that time is a waste that should be aimed at things that will have more long-term benefits (like finishing one of my damn novels).

In any case, it’s something I’ve been thinking about. Some of the things I’ve been thinking about writing about include an old course syllabus idea I had for (anti)war novels, and one for planetary romances, and one for time travel narratives. While these would all at least still be book lists/discussions, it feels like people only care about new/recent releases these days, so I don’t know that anyone would care about reading lists of mostly-classics. I also have thoughts on indulging some more of anime nerdiness – for instance, I’ve considered writing about Robotech (an American dub/adaptation of a Japanese anime that aired in 1985, and one of my personal obsessions). I’ve also thought about writing about art more. And I’ve had a grand idea for a big essay about an obscure 1940s novel called The Journal of Albion Moonlight bouncing around my head for years. So yeah, the ideas are ALL OVER THE PLACE.

I suppose what I’m saying is that these are things that might happen in 2023, but I’m not certain yet, because despite my best friend’s assurances that it’s my blog and I can do what I want with it, I’m still a bit tired of screaming into an empty void. If anyone has an opinion in one direction or the other, please feel free to comment.

My final announcement is a big one for me personally. For the first time in TWELVE YEARS, I have successfully “won”/completed the NaNoWriMo challenge! I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally accomplish this again after so many attempts! I actually hit the official word count goal, 50k words, on Monday, November 28th. And then I spent the last two days of the month seeing if I could stretch that word count a bit before Nano was officially over. I finally ended up with: 55,828 words, nearly 6k over the word goal!

So yeah, I’m pretty stoked about that!

Anyway, that’s a lot of information and ideas to throw at you all so I’ll stop talking now. If anyone has any opinions/feelings on any of this, please feel free to comment! In the meantime, have a good weekend and happy “start of December and the mad-rush to the new year” season, everyone!