Somehow, 2022 is already gone. After two years of being in lockdown, this was the first where I came out of my home incrementally. While I continue to mask up, it’s been such a joy to be able to do things again. To see my friends and spend time with the people I care about. I’m not entirely sure who really reads this—if anyone—so I’ll share a little bit of what brought me happiness last year.

It was my first full year of freelancing, and I survived! Not only survived, but thrived. It’s never not scary to be working on current projects while thinking about What’s Next constantly. But I was fortunate enough to find work as an editor and as a writer, working on my own projects as well as really fun IP. Finding a balance between my two career paths was a bit of a struggle though, and at the end of the year, I decided to pull back on my editing work. I want to prioritize my work as a writer in 2023 so that means saying no more often to editing and project management.

This year will hopefully continue to be a great year for me. I have a few things coming out this year…although nothing with solidified dates just yet! So TBA on a lot of things, including something that I signed a contract for just before the holidays kicked off.

I’m thinking it’s time to consolidate my TV and reading recaps into one post so I’m going to do that in my big monthly update going forward. I love tracking that sort of stuff…mostly just for me but hopefully you’re getting something out of it too. But seeing as it’s a lot of stuff to include, I’ll be minimizing the reviews a bit. If you’re interested in the movies I’ve been watching, you can continue to visit my Letterboxd page.

TV:

• 1899 S1 – If you liked the series Dark, then this show from the same showrunners will be right up your alley. Spooky boats, tense psychological thrills, and solid performances from the cast. I will say though, watching this with subtitles was the best; the person doing the captions was truly an Artiste, and I enjoyed all of their descriptions for the music (ie. [haunting but joyful jaunty song plays]).
• The Boys S3 – I enjoyed this season as the titular boys (and of course, Starlight), try to find a way to bring Homelander down once and for all. While it’s good though, I think I might be tapping out after this. It feels like it’s starting to drag a bit in terms of the overall storyline and when characters never really die (for long or at all), the stakes feel lower.
• Andor S1 – When I was talking about wanting a standalone show from the SWEU, this is what I meant. Although it is tied into Rogue One, this show still gets a bit of a pass since that is pretty standalone from the bigger universe. I don’t think you even have to have seen the film to enjoy it…in fact, it might add to your viewing experience if you haven’t seen it! But I stand by what I said before in that I’d still love to see something entirely standalone…although I think this is the closest I’ll get for a while.
• White Lotus S2 – I was wary of jumping into this, not knowing what to expect, but I enjoyed this season more than the first. I loved the change of scenery and the anthology style that they’re using to tell completely different stories. There’s a slight overlap in characters (Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya) but everyone is mostly new to us.
• The Resort S1 – At surface level, this seems similar to White Lotus. But upon closer inspection, this is a series about a couple vacationing and while they’re at it, they work on solving a cold case after stumbling across new evidence that could crack the case. It’s not just a citizen detective show though, things get a bit trippy later on…I don’t want to spoil anything though. I’d say that this is more akin to Search Party with a touch of White Lotus.

I otherwise continued to watch a lot of other reality TV stuff that I didn’t bother to include here (although Too Hot to Handle continues to be a ridiculous delight). Mostly though, it was a end-of-year scramble to finish a few shows that I’d been meaning to get to. What did you check out?

BOOKS:

• The Change by Kirsten Miller – I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Part small-town murder mystery, part exploration of feminism, and part magical revenge fantasy. A weird but powerful mix that got me good. It took me a while to get through but I savoured the story and the journey it took me on. Loved the interesting characters, and twist on the phases of a woman’s life.
• It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood – A refreshingly honest look at six months of Zoe Thorogood’s life as she tries to create comics and simply exist. Creative and insightful, and shows Thorogood’s inner most thoughts and feelings, along with her struggles with mental illness—and life in general—over the years. Very worth reading.
• Mamo Vol. 1 by Sas Milledge – ‪“Family isn’t about being the same. It’s about looking after one another.”‬ Beautiful and magical. A kind of mix of Bloom x Witchlight with a touch of Howl’s Moving Castle.

And then there’s a bunch of books that I read but didn’t have a chance to put together a review for. Like with my TV list, it was a last-minute scramble to finish up a few things before end-of-year…and I didn’t have a lot of thoughts outside of “Yes, good.” etc. for them. You can find those below and click on the title to visit Bookshop.org for more info.

• Sorceline by Sylvia Douyé, Paola Antista, Ivanka Hahnenberger
• Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, Kate Leth, Caitlin Quirk, Clayton Cowles
• M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton
• The Autumnal by Daniel Kraus, Chris Shehan, Jason Wordie, Jim Campbell
• A Cat’s Day by Genie Liang
• The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp
• Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulsen
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• Jetcat & Friends by Jay Stephens
• Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey
• Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
• Cryptid Club by Sarah Andersen
• Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey