2024 In Review!
With accomplishments in publishing, reading, music, art and games!
Whoa, it’s Thursday already! It feels very much like a Monday, and not just because I got to watch Arsenal start the year right yesterday by beating a solid team by a convincing score (1-3, away against Brentford, after conceding the first goal) while surrounded by my beloved Arsenal family.
As this is the first newsletter of the year, it’s a good time to both look back at 2024 and look ahead at what I’m hoping for in 2025. This past year was another eventful one, after the disaster of 2023, that saw me slowly reestablish who I am and who I want to be going forward. On a personal level, I’m deeply grateful to my families, found or otherwise, who made it possible for me to survive both physically and emotionally. That includes you, readers! I’m constantly awed that people care enough to read what I write and perhaps even connect with it. Thank you for being a part of my life.
Beyond basic survival, I’m most proud of the fact that I finally got Camp Elementa out this year. It took so much out of me but I’m so pleased with the result. I also learned how to make proper one-sheet zines, and was so chuffed when my little zine about meeting the fabulous Vera Brosgol at my favorite bookstore was subsequently carried on their shelves.
Work-wise, I read and reviewed too many books. According to Goodreads, I read 336 books this year, for a total count of 86,600 pages (which averages to 257 pages per book: expected given how I try to spotlight graphic novels and children’s literature in addition to the weighty tomes everyone else reads.) I complain at length about my workload over at TheFrumiousConsortium.net while also highlighting my eleven favorite reads of 2024.
Beyond reading, I joined a string quartet this year, in addition to playing in my chamber orchestra. We had one well-received performance in May, tho have struggled ever since to find time to practice all the fun things we’d like to perform. Mostly, I’m just really pleased that I’ve gotten better as a cellist, even if tenor clef is still a huge challenge for me.
I feel like I also made great strides with my visual art this past year, helped by wonderful friends and the ability to use better materials than I ever have before. I learned so much from the free Sennelier Monday Lives and the bargain-priced Plaza Art Workshops, most of which are available online both live and on-demand. Please do join us if you have the time and inclination: they’re genuinely so much fun, and totally judgment-free zones!
Games-wise, I didn’t play as much as I wanted to this year, tho I did take on the task of running Ghosts Of Saltmarsh for my local Dungeons & Dragons group. I have actually really enjoyed it, helped along by the fact that this group is really great. I’m also pretty proud of our group’s demographics: at present, we have three Black women, two white men and, including myself, two Asian people, all with varying levels of familiarity with RPGs when we first started playing at this table. I’m a big fan of keeping games accessible, and am glad I can implement that in my actual life.
I also encouraged my eldest kid to write his first RPG, tho I haven’t done any games-writing myself beyond notes for the GoS campaign. Said eldest was more than thrilled to help me get back into Magic: The Gathering with Bloomburrow’s recent adorable expansion, too, especially after I gave him a bounty: beat me and I’ll give him ten robux. He then repaid the favor by telling me that he finally wanted to learn how to play the Pokemon TCG. I’m such a proud mom, lol.
This year, I caved in and joined the very competitive online Learned League trivia league, and made it all the way to Rundle A in my second full season. That was a mistake, and I’m super looking forward to sinking back into B now that it’s 2025. I also made it through all the Jeopardy! audition rounds and am enjoying lolling in the contestant pool. I’ve been meaning to study more on the off-chance that I do get selected for the show but have been Too Busy. Perhaps that will be something to prioritize in 2025.
Finally, I’m quietly pleased at how useful Tarot cards have proven to be in helping me think about my life and how best to navigate its challenges. I’ve done weekly readings for myself every Sunday this past year — usually preceded by single-card pulls for my beloved Space Gnomes at the beginning of each month as I switch between decks — and have found them to be a very useful tool in maintaining my emotional health. Here’s the reading I did for the upcoming year, using Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine and 12-Month Spread:
It’s quite different from the one I pulled last year, that I’m still reflecting on. It definitely signifies a shift in priorities, some of which I’ve been bracing myself for for a while.
I thought I’d be chatting further about my plans for 2025 in this newsletter, but I’ve already run on here far longer than expected! Let me just talk about two books I read this week that I adored. The first (with review coming tomorrow at TheFrumiousConsortium.net) is of Jordan Ifueko’s The Maid And The Crocodile. I bounced off of this third book in the Raybearer universe back in August but finally had a chance to dive back in this past week, what with the publishing industry going on hiatus for the last fortnight of the year. And I’m so glad I came back to it! It’s a convincing romantasy that turns the entire concept of fairy tales on its head, as it emphasizes how the work of happily ever after is never done if we’re looking to build a just world for everyone, not just The Chosen One.
I also really enjoyed Kotaro Isaka’s Hotel Lucky Seven, translated from the original Japanese by Brian Bergstrom. The two books I’ve read in the Assassins universe since Bullet Train were somber affairs. While HLS is certainly still as vicious, with philosophical depth, it’s also filled with more humor, as the hapless one-time assassin Nanao attempts to escape a hotel that just won’t let him leave.
Alright, will chat about future plans when I see you in seven, friends!
Currently Playing (Music): Mozart’s Prague Symphony; my Declan Rice and RHJ playlists; Chappell Roan’s Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess; Angele’s Nonante-Cinq La Suite.
Currently Playing (Games): The Light In The Mist puzzletale, The Wild Beyond The Witchlight, Metazooa by Trainwreck Labs, Learned League trivia, NYT Connections, Pokemon TCG, Your Friend In Witchcraft by Kay Marlow Allen.
Currently Reading/Writing (Games): Ghosts Of Saltmarsh.
Currently Reading or Just Read (Books): Hotel Lucky Seven by Kotaro Isaka; Fairy House Disaster by Tina Connolly & Norm Grock; The Maid And The Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko; Trouble Island by Sharon Short; Beneath The Moon by Yoshi Yoshitani.