It's My Birthday! 2025 Edition
Birthday musings
September 2025
Hey Friend!
It’s my birthday!!!!! And Labor day but forgive me if I just want to talk about me for a minute.
Somehow it’s hard to believe I’ve taken another trip around the sun. If you’re anything like me, who likes to look at things in parts but sometimes forgets to look at the whole, then a year can feel like you haven’t gotten anything done. What’s changed? How have you improved?
And if you’re a regular person who isn’t obsessed with improvement maybe you say, the little bit of growth I had was worth it. Or this year was about maintaining all my good progress and that’s good enough.
But baby, mama is a virgo and I’ve never been the sit still type.
When I look back at this year, though it’s hard to acknowledge, I can see the growth. How much more I understand myself and what i need. How I understand my process for writing and life a little better. None of it is perfect but all of it is good data that I can do something with.
And isn’t that all we’re looking for? A little good data that makes it easier to realize that you’ve actually done a lot and changed quite a bit and you’re growing baby. That’s the point.
So I’m excited to be one step closer to 40 and another step closer to the best version of myself, built brick by careful brick.
And thanks to you for being on the journey. You may not realize it but you’re doing me a favor. Thanks, friends.
Special Request
I’m still looking for your feedback my friend! Thanks to those who did it already. Here is a feedback form to better understand what’s working and what’s not about the newsletter. Should just take a few minutes and I’ll appreciate you more than you know!
Still working on the vampire story this month! Did I ever tell you I intended 100k for it? Well, I’m pretty close to the 70k mark and I’m not sure how much further this is going to go. This my friends is the joy of being an underwriting discovery writer (doesn’t that sound fancy? I still just think of myself as a pantser most of the time), I set goals for myself cause they motivate me but at the same time, I have no way of knowing if that goal is realistic because I don’t know where I’m going.
Someone some where is screaming at me about an outline and to you a say:
I know an outline would help. Does that make it easier to write with an outline? Nope. So you know let me complain without bringing this up.
Still, I keep reminding myself that revision is the place for adding words and cleaning things up. 100k is just a number. Who cares?
(me, I care. Why me all the time?)
I’m going to try to finish this draft before some travel we have planned but also not going to beat myself up about this. Whatever happens, happens.
I did decide that for the last three months of the year, I’m doubling down on WSMS and going to focus on edits and prepping my query package. I want to start the new year strong.
Goals Review:
Write Shorts/Novelettes: 5/5 ✅
Write novels: 0/2
Edit shorts/Novelettes: 5/5 ✅
Edit Novel: 1/1 ✅
Beta Novel: 1/1 ✅
No updates since BayCon 2025/Westercon 77! But a reminder that you can watch the “Black Poetics” session here.
I don’t have any current planned events for this year but I’m hoping to be able to panel at Flights of Foundry in September. Are you planning to attend? You can express your interest in the sessions I’m interested in!
We’ll see what happens!
Reading
 | I received this as a review copy via NetGalley and Orbit. By now I hope you know I’m a sucker for queer fantasy stories and if they are poly well that’s fun too. I’ve liked a bunch of S.T. Gibson’s other work so when I saw the description I thought this would be fun. This novel follows four young people in the depths of Scotland at an old home called Craigmar. One is Adam Lancaster, who just wants to understand what relationship his late grandfather has to this family in Scotland. Another, is his dear friend Nicola who he’s in love with and who is a student of fairytales and folklore. These two friends meet Finley, a groundskeeper at Craigsmar, who brings them to Eileen, the lord of Craigsmar. Over the course of the story we come to understand there is more to Adam’s connection to Craigsmar than his grandfather passing through as a youth. There’s an undercurrent of fairy magic and ancient bargains. Darkness and drama. A little BDSM. It has all the things I could want and yet somehow it didn’t all work for me. It took a while to warm up (which may just have been me I can take a while) but once it got going I was happy to be there. It ended on a big cliffhanger though, and this was annoying less in the “What?? You’re not going to tell us what happens next?” and more in the “But the plot was just getting started? Why did we end here?” Will I read the next book in this series? I will. I’m a plot what plot Fan Fic reader at hot and this speaks to me. But if you want something that’s heavy on the magic and the dark fairy tale aspects this might not be your bag. Its there but it’s feather light with some glaring moment but mostly we all forget the danger out there in the moors. |
 | I was in a reading slump this past month and looking for something just light and fun. Axes & O’s was definitely that. What happens when a slightly uptight twenty something quits his job and gets in an accident in a snowstorm? Well he meets two extremely attractive kinky lumberjacks and falls in love of course. This was really fun and a little bit plot what plot (is there a theme for this month? Unintentionally maybe) but I knew that going in. I didn’t come for a big plot and magic, I came for the sexy times and Kayla Grosse delivered. One big thing i will say is, there is the third act miscommunication trope (which I HATE) but i think it’s done well here. It doesn’t last very long but it sobers the trio up to think about what they really want and how to move forward. Smartly done so I let it slide lol. |
 | I don’t read a lot of work in translation. I think I get stuck sometimes on the idea that there is so much missing nuance in the language when you translate from one language to another. Some words have no perfect translation. They have a cultural signifigance more than a linguistic one. It’s interesting. Still, you all know I’m kind of on a vampire kick lately and shockingly this book is dealing both with vampirism and suicide, or at least so it seems. There is a lot about lonliness and community, about what it means to love and lose. I really enjoyed this and as my last book of August felt pretty fitting. |
Are you on StoryGraph? That’s where I’m doing all my tracking. Come find me.
Looking for a new audiobook platform that’s not going to support B*zos? Check out Libro.fm (this is a referral link).
Watching
 | My wife and I are always behind on Drag Race but we enjoyed this season. I feel like this season felt really different from previous seasons in terms of the contestants. I can’t put my finder on why but it did feel different. Maybe it’s because the winner felt so clear so early on to me. I won’t spoil it for you but I had a good time. |
 | Lest you forget I am a bravo girlie and of course I’ve been watching the latest season of Below Deck. I haven’t watched original recepe before but i can tell you right now, So-So is the most annoying human being I’ve witnessed in a work context |
 | I started watching Shiv on TikTok appreciating her guidance on workouts and exercise. Her Youtube features those same vids as shorts AND she’s starting to get more into vlogging. Shiv is hilarious and has me and my wife trading british slang. |
Listening
The Summer Playlist has blown up! It’s got all kinds of things on it. Check it out.
Happy Birthday to me!
