January 1, 2025
What I want to try to do in 2025
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:
- To make something daily.
- To write something daily.
- To cook more.
- 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.
๐ Anticipating My Reading Year 2025
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.
December 31, 2024
๐ 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.
December 30, 2024
Finished reading: Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli ๐
December 27, 2024
๐ My Reading Year, 2024
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:
December 25, 2024
December 23, 2024
I’m coining a new aesthetic: Dark Twee. Think Jessica Day meets Lydia Deetz. A goth children’s librarian. More to come.
๐ฎ 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.
December 18, 2024
Finished reading: A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen ๐
Viking fantasy romance/romantasy. Not exactly a cliffhanger but not NOT a cliffhanger, either. Highly recommend. ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
December 17, 2024
๐ฌ๐๐ “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.
๐ฌ๐๐ “…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.
December 16, 2024
I’m planning to make 2025 a Year of Making, for reasons. (The reasons are that making stuff is good for my mental health.)
December 14, 2024
Finished reading: Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon ๐
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 ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ. Not for the faint of heart.
December 13, 2024
๐ 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.
๐ 2024 has been a good year for queer sommelier romances.
December 12, 2024
December 10, 2024
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.
๐ฌ๐๐ “The development of relationship creates plot.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
๐ฌ๐๐ “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
December 9, 2024
Finished reading: Swordcrossed by Freya Marske ๐
Lovely! ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
December 6, 2024
Finished reading: A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane ๐
I might love this even more than A Heart of Blood and Ashes. A mild ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ.
๐บ๐๐ Read The Great Experiment: race and authorship in Shonda Rhimesโs Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story by Claudia Calhoun (Adaptation).
This is an eminently readable and beautifully argued journal article.
December 2, 2024
๐ฌ๐ “I’m a student, not a guru.” Derek Sivers, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur
๐ฌ๐ “When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. This is your utopia.” Derek Sivers, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur