Whoa. We made it. Somehow…

I started writing this post on the weekend, but I stopped because I couldn’t find the full version of one of these reviews and I was so sure I’d finished it. Then I remembered I’d already started this post and found it in my drafts…
But of course, it’s only half-done and I still need to rummage through my brain to fill in the rest.

I’ve also been working on a lot of stuff for Quiet Writers. We’re getting serious this year. We have a few planned monthly posts, working on some extra content, and we added a couple of new people to the review team so we can hopefully actually take on the review requests people send in. Woo!
We set up a new reading challenge for this year, and will be posting a rec list each month for one of the prompts, and we’ve got a few author interviews scheduled as well!
Idk what happened honestly. Quiet Writers was so quiet last year, indie author Threads was almost essentially deserted… and suddenly in the last couple of weeks things have been blowing up. So… stuff is happening and we are trying to keep on top of it while also trying to manage all the other stuff we had going on. (And by “we” I mean me…)

The Lurkers by Catherine Butler
4/5 stars
I picked this up in an op shop, a little uncertain, but definitely intrigued.
It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, and even after reading the book, the blurb doesn’t make much sense… but it was still a great read. The “blurb” is also the beginning of the first chapter, but the whole “gates of memory” thing is never talked about aside from in that first chunk and the epilogue. I have no idea what it means. Ignoring that, it was a pretty good book.
It’s a fairly easy read, which I mistakingly interpreted as “it probably won’t be too detailed or intense. Ah… no. Silly Jake. In fact, one chapter had me staring very firmly at the page, holding my breath in combined anticipation and horror.
I found the ending a little confusing, but the lead-up to it was a little clever, and I was firmly invested in the story from start to finish.

A Gallery of Children by A. A. Milne
5/5 stars
I was so lucky to find a copy of this in the op shop and instantly snatched it up. This is a lovely collection of short stories about kids being kids. The second story followed a girl going for a walk on her own, and admiring the other children on their own outings, which turned out to be referring to the children from future stories in the collection (I thought this was quite lovely and clever).
The stories are quite short, but each contains a little snippet of joy and wonder, and I could be found with a grin on my face throughout the entire book.

Goosebumps: Monster Blood III by R.L. Stine
3/5 stars
Monster blood is horrifying, and it does keep finding ways to ooze back into our lives… but most of this wasn’t even really about the monster blood, and even the part that was just… wasn’t spooky. There wasn’t even an “Oh heck, how are they going to fix this?” moment, because the solution was obvious right from the start of the book.

Goosebumps: It Came From Beneath the Sink by R.L. Stine
4/5 stars
This is one of the first Goosebumps books I ever owned and almost twenty years later it’s still standing strong as one of the best. It’s creepy, unsettling, gross, and makes the reader question how they’ll ever get out of the situation they’re in. One of my top go-to recommendations for those interested in the series.

365 Days of Memorable Moments and Impossible Things by Justin Richards
4/5 stars
This book is great for any Doctor Who fan, though it is very largely about the original series, which I, of course, have not seen.
Each date contains anything between a paragraph and two pages about a specific topic or event, as well as a list of events or moments that occurred on that date (and the year they happened) in a panel on the side of the page. Most of these events are things like an episode airing, or something happening in an episode, but there are also things like births and deaths of prominent people in Doctor Who (actors, writers, other people who worked on the show), and that all makes sense… but then there’s the occasional thing that’s got absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Who at all (such as the birth of a US president) and I really don’t understand why that was included.
The information included on each page could be things like recurring themes throughout the show, closer looks at specific characters or episodes, extra details on certain species, background on events, and so much more. Even as someone who hasn’t seen the original show and doesn’t know what most of this was about, it’s still an incredibly interesting read, and the daily page set-up makes it manageable (unless you forget and suddenly end up a month behind).
There were a few issues with phrasing, where it felt like the author was trying too hard to sound smart or fancy, and ended up writing a sentence that didn’t make sense. A few pages also felt like repeats, with the same subject coming up with different wording. But for the most part, it really was a unique chunk of information for every day of the year.

Ah, there’s still a sale in my stores, and I still haven’t posted about it anywhere (am kinda useless actually).

One of my goals? hopes? a thing I wanted to do? in 2024 was release new music, because it has been a few years. But where I’m currently living, opportunities to record are not that common, and the chance they will overlap with timing (me not being busy), outside noises (mostly dogs and lawnmowers), and also being in the right state to record… rare. I share a wall with my neighbour, right down the middle of the house, so I can’t record when she’s home, but even when she does go out I can only record if she takes her dog with her (I don’t want to upset him and he is a little guy with a lot of anxiety).
But sometimes the opportunity does arise.
And, as it turns out, I did actually manage to record a couple of songs. I just… didn’t deal with them beyond that. But it looks like I might be able to release something this year, so… yay? Progress, kinda.

And finally, possible most importantly, I’ve set a release date for Poetry 4.
Have I finished writing it? No.
Is it still going to be hard to deal with? Yes, of course. But I have plans for it and they are beautiful and I need to see it through. I’ll give more info on that next update though, because I do owe it to my Patreon followers to at least try to tell them first.

In short: things are happening. I have plans. And while it is true I have managed to land myself in a situation with far too many tasks and ended up overwhelmed less than a week into the new year… I’m sure I will sort it all out eventually.

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