So that gods awful Velma show is getting a second season, and I tweeted this in response to a "no hate watching" tweet

AND THEN THE AUTHOR HIMSELF RETWEETED ME.

So me freaking the fuck out aside, go read Meddling Kids!!

At Publishing Company, we care about representation. This book is about a gay person (like you!) who falls in love, comes of age, learns to be more compassionate, and has adventures in a setting that--sorry, I was getting off track. Where was I? Oh yeah, the main character has ADHD! The love interest is autistic and maybe has OCD. There are several characters in here who might not be white. Is that exciting to you? A side character is openly nonbinary. The antagonist uses mobility aids. Everyone introduces themselves with pronouns in this groundbreaking queernormative novel written by a Turkish-American trans person who takes Zoloft. Interested? Anyway, the novel itself is about

I've had a couple of messages over the last few days from folks saying things like, "Sorry, I can only afford to get your book through the library," and I need you to know I am gripping you by the shoulders, I am shaking you gently, and I am begging you stop apologizing for using library services.

After Amazon and Payhip, the quarterly checks I get from Overdrive/Libby are my biggest and most reliable source of income.

My readers have been nothing but feral in their quest to get Hunger Pangs into as many libraries as possible, and while library lending pays an exceptionally modest amount, if enough people do it (which many of you evidently are), those pennies add up.

I am guaranteed at least $20 a month in library lending royalties. That might not sound like much to some folks, but to me, that's my b12 supplements covered for the month. That's the thing I need to keep me alive paid for.

I will never resent anyone who uses libraries instead of buying books.

I'm a disabled author who lives month to month at the mercy of my medical expenses. Even though I have incredibly generous patrons and supporters, I know what it's like to not be able to afford things.

Use the library. Please.

Use it guilt-free. You're helping the library and the authors, probably more than you realize.

And if you're in the US and haven't signed up for a @queerliblib free library card yet, you should! it doesn't matter what state you're in, the Queer Liberation Library offers free access to their catalogue of queer media across the US.

And if you've got the means, maybe help them out with a little donation. They're only able to expand their collection via the support of their patrons, and the work they're doing is hugely important.

...I accidentally deleted the mega Bionicle BBR. I'm gonna cry, I worked so hard on it. TT∆TT

I guess I should post my reading goals here, ay.

So, in 2022 I read like 7 books. 2023 I read 16 books, which was a little over double the previous year's. My goal for 2024 is to either meet last year's number or surpass it. I have a lot of books I need to get through, and hopefully the rest of the Bionicle eBooks too, so I can drop the mega review I have in my drafts. And, hopefully, I won't buy more books than I already have this year- the current count is five new books. Sigh. Anyways.

Let's get to work.

TBR Wrap-up 2023

Total books read: 16

So I met my resolution of reading more, which is great, though I can't say I met my goal of taking an hour out of my day to read. I have a BBR of the Bionicle books that's still in progress, it's been fun reading through that, and I'm trying to get through the second Locked Tomb book, too. A lot of IRL stuff happened in 2023, but hey, here's hoping I can get through at least a decent fraction of my TBR before this year is out.

Brief Book Reviews #9

#1 Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me (Shatter Me, Book 1)

OH MY GOD, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE LET JULIETTE HAVE A FUCKING BREAK FOR ONCE. This poor girl's been through the ringer, she's kinda like Rogue from X-Men. I'm surprised her parents didn't think of giving her gloves, but nope, they decided to be awful. Adam's a sweetheart, the romance is so cute and innocent despite the post apocalyptic setting being like something out of V for Vendetta, and oh my god I wish Warner was dead already. Fuck that dude, seriously, I hope he gets what he's owed by the end of all this, the bastard.

...also Kenji is bae, he makes me laugh. If anything happens to him I swear to god--

#2 Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us

...Yeah, this was difficult to read. Like, the red flags about Ryle are there from the moment he walks into the narrative- he kicks a deck chair around violently, and he begs Lily on hands and knees for sex. I was hoping she'd leave him before things got too serious and Ryle (who the fuck calls their kid Ryle) had the chance to put his hands on her. Nope. She stays with this guy. I get that it's hard for DV victims to leave their abusive spouses, but the fact that she wises up and leaves his ass for Atlas was a relief.

#3 Colleen Hoover, It Starts With Us

I was honestly hoping Ryle would just die already. Look, I'm over his childish ass, and maybe that was the author's intention, but this shit was just turning into a soap opera at this point. I was enjoying reading about Atlas's life, though, I'd rather have read about that instead. But whatever. Not buying any more Colleen Hoover books, no matter what Tiktok says.

I'm going back to reading Bionicle books now.

The sticker took some of the laminate off the book.

Please don't put these stickers on books.

EVER.

Current WIP!

Channeling my obsession with The Locked Tomb series into some new songs. How's it coming along?

ME 😭

okay but where the palamedes bitches at

Palamedes: I don't have a seat.

Cam: You can sit on my lap.

Gideon: I also don't have a seat.

Harrow: Stand, then.

just a little sketch cause I missed them from the first book

Brief Book Reviews #8

It's been a hot minute and I'm sorry. IRL stuff happened for most of the year and I've only just gotten back to reading again- I'm glad I have, though.

#1: Laura Thalassa, Pestilence (The Four Horsemen, Book 1)

Dark romance with a Horseman of the Apocalypse. It's about as fucked up as it sounds, and I love it.

The story sets the scene for post-apocalyptic Earth: the Horsemen rode out in all four directions some years before the story begins, and with their arrival, all electronics stopped working, save for the lucky few who had backup generators I guess. Then, five years after they vanish, Pestilence shows up, riding across North America to spread a plague. Our protagonist and narrator, Sara Burns, is the unlucky firefighter who tries to shoot him off his horse- she succeeded, for a bit, but sadly this Horseman is immortal and she becomes his prisoner. It's a slow burn, Stockholm syndrome, enemies-to-lovers kind of deal, and god dammit, I love it. There's a few sex scenes and graphic depictions of the dying (including children), so, heads up if you're thinking of getting this book.

...and I might want to play Darksiders again because of this lol.

#2, S.A. Chakraborty, City of Brass

...Well that was a rollercoaster from start to fucking finish. And there's two more books in this series. Holy shit.

I love the world building and political intrigue, and above all, I love how down to earth Nahri is. The bond between her and Dara is believable (and heartbreaking, in later chapters). Ali, though- poor kid can't catch a break. I kinda wish he'd grow a spine, but I don't blame him- his father's a right bastard, honestly. I hope the Qahtanis get found out before the series is over, and that they get what they deserve. I honestly can't say too much without spoiling anything, but as awful as Nahri's situation is, I am left hiking up my standards again after Dara being very ready to kill anything and everything for her. *sigh.*

#3: Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb trilogy, Book 1)

This book was a fucken trip- and I had a couple of friends get very excited over me reading it. I can understand why, this was a fun read. Like a mix of dark fantasy meets Dead Space. Muir's done a good job of it. Sure, "Lesbian Necromancers IN SPAAAAAAAACE" is a good way to market it, but damn. The murder mystery was a nice touch. Gideon being a disaster lesbian is funny, and I kept hearing Taliesin Jaffe as Percy de Rolo whenever Palamedes showed up. Palamedes my beloved. Dulcinea didn't deserve you. ;_;

Tiktok was enlightening when it came to this series, too- apparently the author pulled the whole thing from their own Homestuck fanfic, and the parallels are very obvious. Then again, I'm still Homestuck'd after all these years, I don't have a leg to stand on here. Gideon is quite obviously Dave, Harrow is obviously supposed to be Karkat, and you can tell if you've been in sharpie bath hell for several years. It's done quite well, though. Can't wait to read the next one. Not sure what I'm gonna read in the meantime, though...

HOW TO BEAT THE TBR PILE: 

be the alpha

direct eye contact helps 

read books without adding more the pile

what do you mean you bought more books

stop it 

put those down

Brief Book Reviews #7

(I thought I posted this months ago wtf)

#1 Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian (Book 5)

IT'S QUIET UPTOWNNNN *ugly sobbing*

If you know, you know. Suffer.

So we jump straight into the action with this one. There's not a lot I can talk about without spoiling the whole thing for anyone who hasn't read it, but my heart is in pieces, I love Clarisse, and now Lin being cast as Hermes in the Disney+ series hurts. A lot. Now on to Heroes of Olympus, when I can get my paws on the box set.

...also Hades brainrot doesn't help, because now I'm thinking of Zagreus trying to help Nico, or at least make life suck less while he's in the House of Hades. Time to trawl AO3.

#2 Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes

Why more fantasy worlds have coffee shops, I will never know. This was a fun, easy read I was able to polish off in a day, very cute, as we follow an Orcish woman, Viv, as she sets up a coffee shop, burying a shiny stone she ripped out of a giant bug under one of the flagstones of the place as some kind of luck magnet. I loved all of the characters and worldbuilding that's gone into this, especially Thimble, the rattkin that Viv and her coworker Tandri hire as a baker (there's even one of his recipes in the back of the book that I need to make sometime), and Hemington, a thaumaturgy student and awkward nerd who sounds like Percy from Vox Machina in my head and loves iced coffee. Would have liked it to be longer with a little more intrigue though, but all in all, a very good read. Now to steal ideas for my own D&D campaign. If I ever get to run it.

#3 Cavan Scott, Warhammer Adventures #6: Tomb of the Necron

I hope audiobooks count lol. Ah well, my blog my rules.

The adventures of Zelia, Mekki, Talen, and Fleagan Palla come to an end with one last stand-off with the Necrons. Honestly, the reason I put off listening to this audiobook so long was because I didn't want the adventure to end, I've grown so attached to these kids.

Well, they found Zelia's mum. And more Necrons. And yeah the hunter from the first book made it back to his mates, so Fleagan's dubstep cannon didn't work. Greeeeeaaaaat. Fuck, Necrons are terrifying (I say with The Infinite and the Divine on my TBR). Talen calls for help, and the Ultramarines show up, and he gets to be badass by using the servo sprites to free a trapped Astartes from the wreck of a Stormtalon gunship. Amity gets to be a badass by rocking some Crypt Lord's shit for touching her kids, and honestly I love that for her. I'm still sad that the kids don't stay together in the end, but god damn Black Library, you didn't have to make a book intended for 8-10 year olds so terrifying. A good ending to the series, and I will personally fight anyone who says that these books were "dumbed down" for younger audiences. These are just as good as any other Black Library book I've read. Seriously, do yourself a favour and listen to the audiobooks, David Tennant was a great choice for this.

Physical books are my preference since I already have the voices figured out in my head, and sometimes audiobook narrators are disappointingly dull with their voices. Ebooks are helpful when I can't find a physical copy, but I hardly read them as much. The only audiobook I've enjoyed is the ones Black Library did for the Warhammer Adventures: Galaxy of Terror series, where they got David Tennant to narrate it, good stuff right there, but otherwise it's hit or miss for me.

So I'm redoing more polls again! More book polls >:)

I'm curious to know! And if you do a mix, do you just switch off doing one form to the other? Is there one you do more than the other? Do you do blended reading where you read the physical/e-book while listening to the audio?