December 2023 Newsletter

End-of-year updates

Io Saturnalia, blessed Yule, and whatever else you might be celebrating!

News

I have set up sections on this substack!

See, I know that I post pretty randomly. I’m not good at “content buckets” or whatever it is you’re supposed to do as a content provider, possibly because I really hate thinking of myself as a “content provider.” I post as the whim strikes me, and the topics can vary wildly.

And that means that you might not be interested in everything I post! Now, you can choose which types of posts you’ll get notifications for. Just go to your settings and edit your subscription to this publication, then unclick anything you’re not interested in. I promise my feelings won’t be hurt. I’m glad you’re here, whatever your reason!

The sections are as follows:

• Newsletter: Just the major updates! Which is to say, posts like this one, which I try to put out monthly.

• Stories: Fiction things! Might be microfiction, one-shots, snippets of works-in-progress, abandoned projects, deleted scenes, etc. (A lot of the stuff here is exclusive to paid memberships and overlaps with what I share on Patreon)

• Book Recommendations: Will include the regular Backlist Book Love feature and any other recommendation posts as and when they occur.

• Writing Craft: Tightly focused on the craft and process of writing. Will include writing prompts, tools I use for drafting and editing, and behind-the-page views of how I work.

• Blog: Everything else! Musings and ruminations and analyses on all sorts of topics, usually though certainly not limited to the world of writing, publishing, immersive experiences, and speculative fiction.

You’ll still be able to see all the posts on my site, through their individual sections or in aggregate through the archive; you just won’t get emails or in-app notifications for the categories you un-check.

In other news: There’s been some change and excitement on the Worldbuilding for Masochists podcast! Rowenna Miller, who’s been a co-host since the beginning, is stepping back for reasons of Life And Everything. She’s not disappearing forever; she’s still working on the anthology with us, and we’ll certainly pull her in to be a guest in the future. Marshall and I will miss her, but we’re also very excited to welcome Natania Barron as our new co-host!

Natania is a fantastic person who I first met through, if I’m remembering it correctly, yelling about corsets on Twitter-that-was. She had the popular #ThreadTalk feature there, showcasing her expertise as a fashion historian. She’s also a medievalist and Arthuriana-ist! I got to hang out with her at ConCarolinas a couple of years ago, and she’s as delightful in real life as she is online. Listeners can get to know her a bit in this week’s episode, Passing the Torch.

Upcoming Stuff

It’s getting to be awards season! If you’re a nominating sort of person, I am eligible for things this year!

I’m particularly interested in the Queer Indie Awards, since The Bloodstained Shade is my first book that is fully indie and thus eligible! They also have a ton of really fun sub-categories, so head over there to nominate Shade and all your other favorite queer reads!

And if you specifically would like to nominate Worldbuilding for Masochists for the Best Fancast Hugo Award (so that I have an excuse to go to Scotland next summer), you will need to have WSFS Membership (formerly called a Supporting Membership) for Glasgow 2024 by January 31st, 2024.

This year the WSFS Membership is £45.00. Note that that’s pounds, not dollars — which is still a screaming deal, since you’ll get to download the entire voting packet, absolutely stuffed with the novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, related works, and even videos and audio that will be on the ballot.

Register here!

What I’ve Been Reading

I made the Whole Choice in late November to start re-reading Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series (one of the big early influences on the Aven Cycle), so that’s taken up most of my reading time and energy since then! These books are massive, but I do enjoy them. I have gotten a little other reading done via print and audio, though! (Okay, I might not have finished all of these, yet, but they’re in-progress and I expect to have them done by the end of the year).

• The First Man in Rome and The Grass Crown, Colleen McCullough

• The Late Mrs. Willoughby, Claudia Gray

• Lei and the Fire Goddess, Malia Maunakea

• The Valkyrie, Kate Heartfield

• Fit for the Gods, ed. Jenn Northington & S. Zainab Williams

As always, these are affiliate links; if you use them to purchase from Bookshop.org, I’ll get a small commission, which gets funnelled right into more book-buying. And hey, it’s not too late to get books to give as winter holiday presents!

Wrapping It Up

2023 has been a wildly uneven year for me. Just… wild. It’s had such chaotic ups and downs, starting in its very first week and careening all the way through to the end. (In what I consider to be a staggering act of “because screw you, that’s why” from the universe, this week I got a summons for jury duty. Just had to get one last dig in, huh, 2023?)

Time is ridiculous, and human delineations of time are obviously just constructs, but those constructs can still be useful. Even if you’re not someone who makes New Year’s Resolutions, there can be something nice about feeling like you can shut the door on the old year. Leave behind what doesn’t need to come with you into the future. Dust off your life and make, if not a totally new start, a new phase. The god Janus may look both forward and back, but we can only move forward, and we choose what we take with us as much as we choose the path we wish to follow.

And of course, you can make new choices anytime. You don’t have to wait for the calendar or the stars to tell you. But if you’re like me, that little kick can sure help — and sometimes, it’s nice to feel you’re doing that cleansing and revitalizing right alongside so many of your fellow humans.

So here’s to 2024, amici: May it be gentle. May it treat us kindly. May it give us opportunities and afford us the energy to puruse them. And may we all make choices that lead us closer to happiness.