2023 Year-End…Review?

Shellooooo, Bookwyrms! Yes, it has been a while, hasn’t it? Your friendly neighborhood NeriSiren’s been recharging her hydro-batteries and focusing on other projects (like that neverending WIP middle-grade/YA queer, neurodivergent mermaid novel…more on that in a bit). You may have also noticed I allowed my domain to expire, so the url is back to postcardsfromlalaland.wordpress.com.

I do have a few updates to share, including a new issue of Siren Says!

I’ve called it the Hot Takes Issue because the first Feature is a list of counter-points to the messages I’ve been seeing in recent issues of a nostalgic-fave magazine. I still really love the mag in question (not naming names bc I genuinely don’t want to sound cancel-y about this) and check out every new issue from my local library.

It’s just that some of their recurring messages to teen and especially preteen readers have felt out-of-touch with neurodivergent experiences, and even their queer representation has felt pretty hit or miss. Hopefully my list of counter-advice can start a conversation rather than a flame war (#90sKid4eva). If that sounds fun, check out the Siren Says page!

Anyhoo, here’s a quick run-down of my 2023 sidhe-nanigans.

The biggest project this year has been my aforementioned WIP: a roughly upper-middle-grade/early YA (I’m still debating how to self-market this to agents. I feel like my story fits somewhere in that liminal space, but I’ve been told the traditional publishing industry tends to prefer clearer, easier-to-age-target books).

I sent my first draft to an editor in late ’22, and she gave me a boat-load of helpful advice on differentiating my narrators’ voices more clearly, as well as clarifying the overall magic system (i.e. when actual magic is happening vs. what’s inside my characters’ heads).

Side note/plug: I highly recommend the Reedsy program — they have a very clear and user-friendly system for matching writers with editors, and some of those editors have worked with my top favorite authors!

So! For the past year, I’ve been working on my second draft and trying to reach the new event horizon that is The End, so I can start officially searching for agents. I initially set a low-key goal of mid-December for that Epic Finish (to coincide with one narrator’s plot-relevant birthday), but it looks like that’s not going to happen. #WriterStruggles, amirite?

My other big project has been gathering all of my Secret Paths mock-playthroughs from TikTok and Instagram into a series of YouTube videos on my new channel. A series of video garlands, if you will (#iykyk).

You’ll find a few new “paths” there as well, through my own “Summerlands” and “SummerFall” worlds, and I’m working on a new one (possibly a Rockett/Secret Paths crossover!) as we speak.

Oh, and I did sneak in a short Summerween vlog back in July.

And, finally, while I don’t have my usual epic Naughty/Nice reading review this time (I did read and DNF some worthy tomes, I just don’t have the energy to blog about it at this time), you can find my #currentlyreading list in the new issue of Siren Says.

And yes, one of them is the fae-king amazing-so-far Part One of the two-book Toby Daye release from a few months ago. And yes, I do realize I haven’t reviewed last year’s release, Be The Serpent, yet but in my defense: