Another year ends

Edinburgh Castle from Princess Street Gardens

Another year ends; another blog post commemorates it. I’ve been fairly consistent in writing these recaps, even if I forget to post anything here otherwise.

It’s my 12th year with this blog and it started well, for a change. I wrote weekly at first and then twice a month, until in May, I stopped writing completely. In my defence, I had a long bout of flu that wouldn’t give up and kept returning, so I spent most of the month in bed. Then it was the summer and who writes blog posts then. But I didn’t pick it up later either. I guess I didn’t have anything to write.

The last post I wrote in April was about book videos. I learned to make those, and then stopped with them too. It’s a time-consuming process, at least for me, and the results aren’t anything to write home about. But it’s fun, so hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up again.

Apart from the lengthy flu, the only memorable thing for me this year was turning fifty. I didn’t go through any crisis, buy a bike or turn my life upside down. It was a birthday among others. We travelled to Edinburgh to mark it, and it was a lovely trip that will help me to remember it. Onwards to the next milepost.

Tired author celebrating her birthday at the National Gallery of Scotland.

Writing-wise, the year was a bust. I published only one book, My Happy Time Loop Fail, a short, stand-alone isekai m/m romance that sort of came to me and which I wrote in three weeks. It hasn’t found its audience, but it was a fun book to write. My regular series all went to a hiatus. It wasn’t intentional. I simply couldn’t finish any of the books I began to write. Some of them, like the next House of Magic book, reached over a mid-point and then just died. I’ve spent the year allowing my mind to ponder them in peace, and I’m happy to tell you that the problems my subconscious detected in them seem to have found solutions. Hopefully next year will see all the books I failed to write this year.

My Happy Time Loop Fail by Susanna Shore

In happier news, I began a completely new series, the first volume of which is finished. It’s a different from my other series. It’s a modern, continuous story that follows the same people from start to finish, with an m/m love story or two that won’t find their HEAs until volume three, and an adventure mystery plot that’ll also continue throughout the series. It doesn’t have a name yet, let alone publication date, but I’ll get there later next year.

What I’ve mostly done this year, then, is reading. And I didn’t read all that many novels. I mostly read mangas (again) and webtoons. I’ll do a year end post on my reading blog, but in numbers, it’s about 200 books, two thirds of which are mangas. Much of the latter were review copies and not very memorable, but I found a couple of favourites from among them too.

I Ship My Rival x Me Vol. 1 by PEPA, a favourite review manhwa

My social media went through a change, as I left twitter/X at the end of the year. You can find me on Bluesky and Mastodon most of the time, although my FB and Instagram are sort of active too.

All in all, a good if unproductive year. I won’t make any promises for next year about this blog, because we all know I won’t keep those. I won’t completely abandon this place, but I’ll be more active on my reading blog. Look for me there.

Thank you for this year and happy 2025 to you all.