Kimberly Hirsh

🍿 Watched Wicked Part I.

I had a great time! I am a person who took a while to warm up to Wicked the show. The movie does a lot to move it in the direction of something I strongly enjoy.

Finished reading: The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson 📚

I loved this! A woman who has to learn to let love in, a man who is patient enough to wait for her to do so, a coven of friends, political machinations, and magic. Chef kiss! 🔥🔥🔥

Austin Kleon’s list of 100 things that made his year always delights me. I aspire to notice more things like he does.

💬📚 “A new notebook is not about starting over—it’s about leveling up.” - Ryder Carroll, The Bullet Journal Method

I didn’t want to write this blog post in 2024. For reasons I cannot remotely explain, my gut/intuition/heart wanted to write this in the new year.

So here we are. I’m very sleepy.

I don’t make resolutions. Instead, I choose a word of the year (MORE) and I make a list of things I want to try. Here’s this year’s list:

1. To make something daily.
2. To write something daily.
3. To cook more.
4. To dig deep into my personal spiritual practices.

Those are the main ones. I’m sure others will pop up. I’ll document them when they do.

In anticipation of my reading this year, I want to articulate one main goal and a few stretch goals.

My main reading goal is to read one more book than I already have. This means the total for the year is a moving target

Here are some stretch goals, meaning I want to remember to do them but I want them to be low pressure:

• Read one nonfiction book a month.
• Stop requesting books from NetGalley that I don’t know anything about except what is on NetGalley.
• Stop requesting books from NetGalley based on marketing emails they send me.
• Keep up with new releases from authors I love.
• Any time I’m in a city with a romance-only bookstore, visit it.

My timeline is conspiring to get me planning, via @cygnoir@social.lol and @cheribaker@writing.exchange. (But I may delay until tomorrow, I am so tired.)

FEBRUARY

• 4 A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera

MARCH

• 4 Shadow’s Heart by Kresley Cole

APRIL

• 15 Love in 280 Characters or Less by Ravynn K. Stringfield

• 29 Once Upon You & Me by Timothy Janovsky

MAY

• 13 A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen

JULY

• 8 These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

• 15 A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

SEPTEMBER

• 2 By the Horns by Ruby Dixon

• 30 A Mannequin for Christmas by Timothy Janovsky

🔖 Read The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by Elizabeth Minkel (Fansplaining).

If you care about fandom, fanfiction, bad actors, and the pull-to-publish pipeline, this is a great read.

Finished reading: Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli 📚

Like last year, I’m going to share some notes on my reading before popping the full list of all the books I read this year in here.

I read 106 books this year, including 4 picture books/easy readers. As with last year, I overwhelmingly read romance. This is about twice as much as I normally read, which can be attributed to two things: how propulsive so many romance books are, and the fact that I was freelancing and only doing that minimally from January through July. This left a LOT of time for reading. I read two or three books a week in that period. I’ve slowed down to my usual one a week since beginning my part-time school librarian job in August.

I did deep dives into the backlist of Kresley Cole and Sarah MacLean, thanks to the podcast Fated Mates. This podcast has been the greatest influence on my choice of what to read this year. I read a lot of old X-Men comics reading along with the book The Best There Is at What He Does: Examining Chris Claremont’s X-Men. I’m still in the middle of that project, which I started after watching X-Men ‘97. I think I’m going to pick it back up soon.

In just the past couple of months, I have really found my way into fantasy romance. My favorite and the series that really got me here is Milla Vane’s barbarian fantasy romance series, A Gathering of Dragons. It answers the question, “What if grimdark, but romance?” which is not something I thought I would want when I first started this tear of romance reading but actually is exactly the thing I want right now.

Here are all the books I read this year:

Hi Internet friends. I hope your December 25 goes swimmingly!

I’m coining a new aesthetic: Dark Twee. Think Jessica Day meets Lydia Deetz. A goth children’s librarian. More to come.

🎮 Finished The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom last night. Super fun! I love puzzles, I love getting to be Zelda without her having to be disguised, and I love that the world is still making new games I can play now that 3D games seem to give me motion sickness.

Finished reading: A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen 📚

Viking fantasy romance/romantasy. Not exactly a cliffhanger but not NOT a cliffhanger, either. Highly recommend. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

💬📚📝 “Writing is about communicating what’s going on. Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Timeless.

💬📚📝 “…in order to be a writer, you have to be reverent.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

I am very resentful of my body’s need for sleep.

I’m planning to make 2025 a Year of Making, for reasons. (The reasons are that making stuff is good for my mental health.)

Finished reading: Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon 📚

I really enjoyed this, mostly for the fantasy and emotional stuff. Love a nerdy heroine and a bull-headed hero (literally, in this case). The uniquely minotaurish monster romance bits were not the main source of its appeal for me. Definitely a very hot 🔥🔥🔥🔥. Not for the faint of heart.

🔖 Read The open social web is the future of the internet. Here’s why I’m excited. by Ben Werdmuller.

This is a great articulation of what’s good.

📚 2024 has been a good year for queer sommelier romances.

I am very behind on Lower Decks and I kinda need to just hide from the Internet until I catch up.

💬📚📝 “The development of relationship creates plot.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚📝 “All you can give us is what life is about from your point of view. You are not going to be able to give us the plans to the submarine. Life is not a submarine. There are no plans.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life