People of Micro.blog please welcome my friends from all of us enjoying books and talking about it online, @lgmhamm and @cedickie. Two of our new Micro.one neighbors!

🍿 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

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.)

🔖 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 📚

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

🎮 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.

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

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. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

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

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

💬📚📝 “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.

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.

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

🔖 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.

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

💬📚📝 “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

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

I’ve been writing in 750 Words for a few days. I’m feeling motivated to make notes on our travels from 2023. Eventually, maybe I’ll pull some pearls out of there and polish them up to continue my belated travel blog series.

Finished reading: Swordcrossed by Freya Marske 📚

Lovely! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

📺📚📓 Read The Great Experiment: race and authorship in Shonda Rhimes’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story by Claudia Calhoun (Adaptation).

This is an eminently readable and beautifully argued journal article.