it’s the end of 2023, and i have some thoughts. but first, some housekeeping!

📨 TinyLetter is shutting down, so i’m moving everything over to Buttondown. (thanks, no thanks, to Substack; it is just not for me.) you don’t have to do anything — if all goes as they claim it will, everything will be migrated over. this email will come from a new server, and i might make a fancy new header in Canva, but otherwise, same same.

📚 first and foremost: books! i am deep in reread season (which i talked about recently on SFF Yeah!) and i’m having one of those lovely coincidences where books sync up. 

i got myself a digital copy of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO — which i affectionately and pretentiously refer to as LE COMTE, and this is now the third edition of that book i own, and i regret nothing — and am using that as my bedtime book; it felt like high time for a reread, for so many reasons. i also had put Alexis Hall’s MORTAL FOLLIES on hold at the library and forgot about it, and that arrived yesterday and seemed like the right book to pick up next, and LO AND BEHOLD it is set in the same time period as LE COMTE and is full of Napoleonic jokes as well as magic, sexy mayhem, and Hall’s trademark wit. i double-regret nothing.

i also need you all to know that Aliette de Bodard’s A FIRE BORN OF EXILE is an incredible retelling of LE COMTE, she makes it completely her own and i am such a fangirl for the Xuya Universe, so this was a freaking delight. i especially love how de Bodard zeroes in on the beating, burning, angry heart of the story and lets everything spiral out of that … well, fire. (the title is very apt, ok?) give me all the retellings, all the times, the end.

🪴i made my first terrarium recently; i’ve been planning on buying one or making one for literal years, and things finally came together. i was clearing counters in prep for hosting family for the holidays and found a giant glass flour jar we’re not using; i have a fern that has been on the struggle bus since i bought it at Home Depot months ago (genuinely didn’t think it was going to survive the summer, but it’s still kicking somehow!). i had to go to three stores to find moss, and absolutely no one had activated charcoal or coco coir, but i have Extremely Good Dirt from my backyard planters, so i’m hoping that the rock drainage layer plus moss plus good dirt is enough to get started with. i got a little pink Fittonia and a Hemigraphis Repanda that was hiding in a back corner, looking extremely neglected and sad, to keep the fern company. the terrarium lives on my desk now, and we’ll see how it does!

🪱 i have been thinking a lot about compost lately. my backyard composter (one of the spinny ones) is finally active enough that i don’t have to get a pick-up service for the winter (huzzah!), and every time i go to chuck kitchen scraps or moldy leftovers in there, i marvel at how grossly beautiful it is. active compost is GROSS, y’all — there are worms and tiny flies (i know, i need to spin it more often) and things are disintegrating and gooey. it doesn’t smell bad, though? which i always find astonishing. and then when it’s fully absorbed whatever i chucked in there, it looks so rich and dark and glorious. 

homemade compost, at least mine, is not as amazing for plants as purchased compost, likely because commercially produced compost contains detritus from many households and restaurants, which means they have many different kinds of ingredients, and also it is made and mixed by professionals. mine is probably 75% egg shells, tea leaves, and coffee grounds, with a regular smattering of vegetable peelings and the aforementioned sad leftovers, plus whatever dead leaves are lying around. i have never bothered to sort out what that means about it’s make-up; i just really like making it. we moved into this house three years ago and set up the composter right away; after this winter, i will finally have a full batch to use in my garden. it feels like a milestone of some kind. if i figure out what kind, i’ll let you know.

👋 here’s to leaving 2023 in 2023, and whatever 2024 has to hold. it’s going to be a doozy for the world and i have a bunch of big life moments coming, and i would be lying if i said i wasn't nervous. but to quote Rolf Gates, “The universe is full of radiant possibility,” and i’m trying to keep an eye out for radiance.