Making Tough Decisions is Tough | The Wonderful World of Was
Something something making decisions
I’m not late with this newsletter, my lovely people.
Please indulge me while I celebrate the not insignificant fact that it hasn’t been six months since the last edition of this fair newsletter. Yes, this latest edition of my once monthly journal has only arrived about three and a half months after the last. It’s close enough to twice as fast as the last edition for me to take it as a victory.
I’d love to say that it's been a productive few months, where I’d not only finished that draft of Luminary I haven’t looked at since last year, but I’d also knocked out another draft of Till Death Do Us Party. But I haven’t. I haven’t even looked at them. It’s par for the course in a 2024 that hasn’t gone according to plan, and I’m going to call it now: with less than three months of this dear annum remaining, I’m not going to complete either before that artifice we call the new year.
In honour of 2024 being the year where I’ve done this whole writing a couple of books thing differently, I’m going to do today’s edition of the Wonderful World of Was a little differently, too. Let’s start with all those books I’ve reviewed over the last few months.
Book reviews
All those reviews, I tell you! All four of them.
If you recall my last newsletter—which you probably don’t because three and a half months is a long time (so you can click here if you feel so inclined)—among the targets I’ve been missing are my targets for timely book reviews. In my defence, I did publish these reviews within a decent amount of space from each other. Which, in turn, highlights how damn long it’s been since I’ve published a review. But enough about what I didn’t publish; this is about what I did publish.
All four of these books are from some of my favourite independent authors. Check out my thoughts about them, and if you like the look of them, why not take a punt on them? If they don’t appeal, that’s fine—rummage through the website and find something that does. People not backed by corporations are just as worthy of your money as those who are. Crazy, isn’t it?
The Cultist’s Wife by BJ Sikes
Darklands by Christa Wojciechowski
Vanity Affair by Keira Lane
Fury by Paityn E Parque
Making tough decisions is tough
The word “announcement” sounds nice and positive, doesn’t it? The proclamation of an announcement builds anticipation and excitement. You don’t generally think of them in the negative. Well, I’m sorry to say, some announcements just plain suck. This is one of those announcements.
After much rumination, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to stop writing book reviews. As much as I love reading the books these authors have been kind enough to send me, and as much as I love writing about them, my book reviews (and two editions of this here newsletter) are all I’ve managed to write this year.
In previous years, I could balance writing, editing and reviewing. This year, not only have I not been able to balance this, I haven’t been able to maintain a constant stream of book reviews. If you didn’t click the link to the last edition (shamelessly included again, right here), I titled it “Deadlines suck” for a reason. Deadlines are their own level of bullshit, particularly when you’re not making them.
With that said, I still have a whole chunk of reviews that I need to write. Some for books that I’ve read since posting the four above that I’m excited to tell you about, and some for books that I haven’t gotten to yet, but am excited to read. So I’m not done just yet. After making the decision, I accepted several (perhaps too many) review requests, so I’m drawing a line in the digital sand—and making you endure said line drawing—to keep myself honest. If I haven’t committed to a book review, I won’t be reviewing it. If I have committed to a review, I’ll write it, unless it’s something that I can’t be positive about (and I’ve already had a couple of those).
So, what will this look like? Fucked if I know. I know what I want it to look like, and that’s me blitzing through them, getting caught up with reviewing the books I’ve read, reading the books I haven’t, and having a steady stream of reviews for your reading pleasure. But I also planned on having my books closer to a publishable state this year, as well as publishing a minimum of a review a week, and we know how well that went for me. As much as I plan to avoid it, I could still be working through the backlog in the new year.
As for whether I’ll get back to reviewing books, I honestly have no clue. My plan was always to transition away from them, but that plan was always set for some nebulous point in the future. If I get back on track and find I have the space to start reviewing again, maybe. But maybe I’ll get to work on the fifteen dozen or so living rent free in my head instead.
What’s next?
Does this mean that I’ll finish the reviews and get to work on my books? Not immediately. I’ll get there, but not just yet. Back when the arbitrary clock moved from 2023 to 2024, I mentioned a ton of stuff I was planning on getting to. Maybe I should look at some of that.
But at least I recalibrated my writing space. And it’s pretty damn awesome, I have to say.
TTFN,
Was