Simple Superheroes Issue #0 by Compose Dream Games: An indie superhero game I picked up at a convention. Not to my taste to run as I feel like the powers and such are a little more freeform than I’d prefer, but I can see how it would suit other tables. I also like seeing how various supers games deconstruct the genre and build up their own mythologies, Simple Superheroes had some interesting things to say, and if you like superhero RPGs, maybe check it out and support indie game creators.

Marvel Voices Heritage by Jeffrey Veregge, Rebecca Roanhorse, Weshoyot Alvitre, Lee Loughridge, Darcie Little Badger, Kyle Charles, Felipe Sobreiro, Stephen Graham Jones, David Cutler, Roberto Poggi, Cris Peter, Taboo, B. Earl, Ariana Maher, Jim Terry, Brian Reber, Jim Terry, Brittany Peer, Shaun Beyale, Belardiono Brabo, Morry Hollowell, Steven Paul Judd, José Marzán Jr., Paris Alleyne, Nyla Innuksuk, Natasha Donovan, Rachelle Rosenberg, Jim Zub, Marcus To, Jordan Boyd, Clayton Cowles, Scot Eaton, Scott Hanna, Miroslav Mrva, Matt Milla, Luca Maresca, Carlos Lopez, Travis Lanham, Lee Francis IV, Karla Pacheco, Amanda R. Tachine: Marvel Comics celebrates Indigenous stories and characters. I’ve liked a lot of these characters over the years, even if I’ve rarely seen most of them in action in comics (most of them I read about for the first time in the old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series), and it’s great to seen them written and or illustrated by Indigenous creators. Lots of great stories in here, my favourites probably featured the characters American Eagle, Werewolf by Night, and Mirage, but I enjoyed the Snowguard story quite a bit also.

Birthright Volume One: Homecoming by Joshua Williamson, Andrei Bressan, Adriano Lucas, Pat Brosseau: An interesting portal fantasy comic. Definitely going to keep going with this one.

Catwoman Vol.1: Copycats by Joëlle Jones, Fernando Blanco, Laura Allred, John Kalisz, Josh Reed: Jones is the writer/artist on this leg of Selina Kyle’s adventures. I’m presuming in the continuity of the Batman universe that this takes place after Catwoman and Batman got engaged? I liked it. I’m not normally a big Catwoman reader, but this was a fun story, and a good place to jump on if you’re interested in the character.

Coven by Jennifer Dugan, Kit Seaton: A YA graphic novel with a witch theme. Sometimes a little too-YA for my tastes (which is not the creators’ problem, I knew what I was getting into as someone who doesn’t read a lot of YA), but the art and story were compelling enough for me to finish it. I’d read more by this team.

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones: The follow up to Jones’ fantastic My Heart is a Chainsaw. Absolutely amazing. Makes me want to rewatch every one of my favourite slasher flicks, and check out a bunch of new ones. I can’t believe I have to wait to finish the Indian Lake Trilogy. I may want to do a reread in the lead up to the finale. Just like I revisit the movies that inspired this series again and again, I think these books will become something I return to many times, especially when spooky season rolls around.

Dungeons & Dragons: Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons by Wizards of the Coast: I initially flipped through this book and gave it a pass as uninteresting. Finally, checked it out of the library to actually read. While I found there’s not a lot in the book that’s player-facing, there’s so many fun adventure hooks in here for the Dungeon Master, that I’ve totally rethought its value. I would use the hell out of this book at my table when planning adventures and campaigns.

Batgirls Vol. 1: One Way or Another by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jorge Corona, Sarah Stern: Not sure where this book falls in the DC continuity. One of the hazards of Big Two comics for me these days. I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I found the art a bit busy for me, as if the panels would’ve all benefited from the book being printed in a larger trim size, but I did like Corona’s character designs.

Shadowplay by Tad Williams: The second book in the Shadowmarch quartet. I’m halfway through the series now! I’m enjoying it even if I doubt I’ll revisit it the same number of times as I have Williams’ Sorrow, Memory, and Thorn series. Excited to see how this story continues to unfold.

Misery is Company Vol.1 by Bradly J. Wohlgemuth: I picked this up at a convention many moons ago. I love Wohlgemuth’s art, and own a lot of his prints. An interesting dark tale in a dystopian world.

Catwoman Vol.2: Far from Gotham by Joëlle Jones, Ram V, Fernando Blanco, Elena Casagrande, John Timms, Scott Godlewski, Hugo Petrus, Le Beau Underwood, John Kalisz, John Timms, Jordie Bellaire, Laura Allred, Saida Temofonte, Josh Reed: I think I preferred the art in this series when Jones was writing and drawing the book not that the art is bad, but Jones’ work felt more a signature style, rather than just DC house style. I’m enjoying the story, so I’ll probably finish Jones’ run on the book.

Birthright Vol.2: Call to Adventure by Joshua Williamson, Andrei Bressan, Adriano Lucas, Pat Brosseau: Still enjoying this series and seeing more of how it subverts typical portal fantasy tropes. Stoked to see where the creative team takes it next.

And since I finished my previous to-read stack, here’s what I’ll be reading in May! I love starting a new month with a fresh to-read stack!

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February.

Here’s what I read in March.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2022 reading here.

Are you reading anything fun? Let me know!

My story “Exit Greeting” will be published in the anthology What Draws Us Near! I wrote “Exit Greeting” or, “Exit Greeting, or How to Cultivate Your Big Book of Grudges,” if you want the complete title, as a part of my Uncanny Pembina Valley sequence of stories that received a creation grant from the Manitoba Arts Council. If you’re a long time reader, those stories grow out of my Sunburst long-listed story “Cheating the Devil at Solitaire” and I hope you’ll be seeing even more stories in this sequence soon.

That list of authors is absolutely STACKED! A Giller prize winner, World Fantasy Award winners, Nebula Award winners, Sunburst Award winners; there’s so many notable folks in the horror and SFF community in this book. I’m thrilled to be in this company of authors. And I love this cover! So moody! I cannot wait to read the whole book. Thank you, Manitoba Arts Council for supporting the writing of my story, editors Keith Cadieux and Adam Petrash for selecting it, and Little Ghosts for publishing it.

Toronto book store Little Ghosts will be publishing the book in Spring. In fact, I heard the books had just shipped, so you should be able to read What Draws Us Near soon, and I cannot wait for you folks to read this one. “Exit Greeting” is so different than anything I’ve published in the past. I’d call it my first horror story. When I finished writing it I felt, “If I never publish another story, I’m so glad I wrote this one.” I hope you’ll enjoy it, and that it’ll spook the hell out of you.

Write on!

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

I’m changing how I build my to-read stacks in 2023. I’m still aiming for at least half of my reads to be books by women but I’m not going to be as precisely tuned with my stacks of five books as I’ve been in previous years. I’ll still do my best for for each to-read pile to contain a book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally. I’m also hoping to work my way through some of those fantasy door stopper series I’ve collected over the years but not actually read. First on deck is Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch series.

I’ve been relying more and more on the library to fill out my reading. I see that only increasing going forward. The library is also my go-to for keeping up on what’s going in comics, so I’m sure there’ll be a number of graphic novels (and roleplaying games I backed on Kickstarter) that jump the queue and end up in the piles from time to time as well.

Ducks by Kate Beaton: A Canada Reads selection at the time of reading, and a Canada Reads winner shortly after. I really enjoyed this! I’ve admired Beaton’s Hark, A Vagrant! comics for a long time. This graphic memoir was a very powerful read.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson: A novella with fantasy trappings that also has some science fiction buried deeply within. Loved the characters and there was some amazing prose in this book. I’m looking forward to trying more of Wilson’s work.

Dungeon World by Sage LaTorra, Adam Koebel: A Powered by the Apocalypse version of Dungeons & Dragons. An interesting RPG. Typically Powered by the Apocalypse games don’t feel like my jam of game to run, but I could see myself giving this a spin, either as a player or gamemaster.

Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours) by Harold Johnson: All of Johnson’s work is so different from whatever he has published prior. Such a unique voice that is, sadly, gone too soon. In Firewater, Johnson lays out the case for why people shouldn’t drink alcohol, specifically through the lens of Indigenous people in Canada. Harold Johnson lived an amazing life, and he does make some pretty interesting arguments.

Wolfsong by Traci Briery: I didn’t finish this one. It was book two in a werewolf horror series I grabbed on a whim. Not terrible, but didn’t grab me after the first few chapters. Might’ve been a different story if I had been able to read the first book in the series.

Batman: One Dark Knight by Jock: I’ve loved Jock’s art for a long time, but I think this is the first time I’ve read something he’s also written. Really interesting out-of-continuity Batman tale featuring a high profile prisoner transfer amid a power failure and ticking clock.

Animosity Volume 1: The Wake by Marguerite Bennett, Rafael De Latorre, Rob Schwager, Marshall Dillon, Juan Doe: All the animals in the world gain sentience, and they are not happy with humanity. One little girl and her loyal dog have to navigate this world. I’ve read some of Bennett’s work in the past and enjoyed it. I also really liked De Latorre’s art. I’ll read more of this series.

Extra Witchy by Ann Aguirre: The third book in Aguirre’s witchy paranormal romance series. I loved this one! It’s hard to decide if book one or book two were my favourite in the series, but I’m leaning towards Extra Witchy. All three novels share an overlap in timeline and it’s interesting to see how the events of the other books are presented.

Batman/The Shadow: The Murder Geniuses by Scott Snyder, Steve Orlando, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia: Really enjoyed this one. The writers found an interesting way to integrate Batman and The Shadow into each other’s histories. The art really shone when it was centered on the superheroes and supervillains; Rossmo’s art can be pretty stylized and I wasn’t terribly fond of his take on Jim Gordon, Margot Lane and the other “regular” folks in the book. But his Batman and Shadow? Top notch.

Red Magic by Jean Rabe: Another book I didn’t finish. Red magic is the third book in the Harpers Forgotten Realms series. I don’t recall if I read this one–or tried to–back when it was originally published and I was reading pretty much all of the Forgotten Realms novels, but there weren’t any characters that really grabbed me.

Chainmail Bikini: The Anthology of Women Gamers edited by Hazel Newlevant: A black and white graphic anthology by women and non-binary gamers. Far too many contributors to name everyone, but my favourite pieces included: A Certain Kind of Story (by Molly Ostertag), Let Me Do It (by Sara Goetter), Battle for Amtgard (by Maggie Siegel-Berele), Three Weekends a Year (by Kate Craig), Memoir of a Part-Time Knight (by Yao Xiao), and Dream Suite (by Megan Brennan).

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: Lesbian necromancers in space! Gideon had lush prose that made me slow down my reading to try and catch every moment while simultaneously wanting to rush through the book to see how the story turned out. I’m not sure I’m in a hurry to finish the series, however, for spoilery reasons, but I’d definitely check out more of Tamsyn Muir’s writing.

Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures edited by S.M. Beiko: An anthology of sixteen sci-fi gothic graphic stories. I really enjoyed this collection. My favourite pieces were Ghost Planet (by Trina Robbins, Anne Timmons, Scott A. Ford, Lyndon Radchenka), In the Shadow of the Moon (by Luz Bianca, Kaylee Rowena), Under the Bed (by Cameron Lucente),The Lichtenberg Lady (by Cait Zellers), Ghosting (Sztehlo), Sunken Scream (by Leonie O’Moore, Skylar Patridge, Lyndon Radchenka), Until One Day (by Merissa Mayhew).

The Last Book You’ll Ever Read by Cullen Bunn, Leila Leiz, Vladimir Popov, Jim Campbell: A fun graphic novel. Sort of a folk horror book-as-virus end of the world tale. I think this is the first work I’ve ready by Cullen Bunn, though I’ve definitely seen the name around, and I’d read more.

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

I’m changing how I build my to-read stacks in 2023. I’m still aiming for at least half of my reads to be books by women but I’m not going to be as precisely tuned with my stacks of five books as I’ve been in previous years. I’ll still do my best for for each to-read pile to contain a book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally. I’m also hoping to work my way through some of those fantasy door stopper series I’ve collected over the years but not actually read. First on deck is Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch series.

I’ve been relying more and more on the library to fill out my reading. I see that only increasing going forward. The library is also my go-to for keeping up on what’s going in comics, so I’m sure there’ll be a number of graphic novels (and roleplaying games I backed on Kickstarter) that jump the queue and end up in the piles from time to time as well.

Once & Future Vol.4: Monarchies in the U.K. by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain: I continue to love this reimagining of the Arthur mythos.

The Stars of Mount Quixx by S.M. Beiko: A YA novel by my friend. Read as an ARC (advance reading copy). The Stars of Mount Quixx feels quite different than her other work, and yet still at home with it. I really enjoyed this. The book releases April 25, 2023.

Slayers by Spencer Campbell: A fun rules-light roleplaying game. I’d really like to get this one to the table. Elegent design, simple but interesting worldbuilding, and fun art.

Blackbirds RPG by Ryan Verniere: A powered by Zweihander RPG. I feel this is more game than I’d like to run, but I’d be interested in giving it a try on the player’s side some day. Gorgeous art and presentation on the book.

Up to No Gouda By Linda Reilly: A grilled cheese restaurant themed cozy mystery. Lots of fun! I’ll probably continue with this series.

Shadowmarch Volume One by Tad Williams: I’ve been squatting on this series forever, or at least since book one released in 2004. I decided to wait until the entire series released to read it. As I collected the books in hardcover, and looked at the stack, I wondered, when am I ever going to find the time to read all that? Well the time is now. The opening of the book was quite slow (which is not unusual for a Tad Williams series starter), but it did really pay off by the end. I’m glad I decided to finally give it a go. Looking forward to book two!

Murder in the First Edition by Lauren Elliott: A Beyond the Page cozy mystery with Addie Greyborne. This one was a Christmas-themed mystery centering on a missing first edition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Enjoying the series well enough after three that I’ll probably continue reading.

A new library stack:

Saga Volume 10 by Fiona Staples, Brian K. Vaughan: Finally new Saga! I love Saga! It’s been a long time since the series hiatus began. I’m so glad it’s back. Fiona Staples’ art and character design is just amazing. Reading volume 10 made me want to go back and reread the entire series.

And … finishing a to-read stack means I get to make a new one! And here it is:

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: A fun cozy fantasy. I adored this book. Orc barbarian Viv has retired from the adventuring life to open a coffee shop, hijinks ensue. The tag line is a novel of high fantasy and low stakes, and it delivers on the premise perfectly.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: The big questions of American history framed as a letter from father to son. This was a tough read, but I’m glad I put the effort into it.

A new collection of gaming books have also joined the night stand. (Getting crowded there.)

Here’s what I read in January.

Check out my roundup of my 2022 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

I’m changing how I build my to-read stacks in 2023. I’m still aiming for at least half of my reads to be books by women but I’m not going to be as precisely tuned with my stacks of five books as I’ve been in previous years. I’ll still do my best for for each to-read pile to contain a book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally. I’m also hoping to work my way through some of those fantasy door stopper series I’ve collected over the years but not actually read. First on deck is Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch series.

I’ve been relying more and more on the library to fill out my reading. I see that only increasing going forward. The library is also my go-to for keeping up on what’s going in comics, so I’m sure there’ll be a number of graphic novels (and roleplaying games I backed on Kickstarter) that jump the queue and end up in the piles from time to time as well.

Prologue to Murder by Lauren Elliott: The second Beyond the Page bookstore mystery. Really enjoying this series, I’ll keep moving forward with it.

The Eye Collector Vol. 1 by Jonathan Ball, GMB Chomichuk, Lyndon Radchenka: Read as single issues (1-5, and special collector’s edition #1). A great creepy horror comic by some local (to me, at least) creators.

The Cure for What Ales You by Ellie Alexander: The fifth Sloane Krause mystery. We learn a lot more about Sloan’s mysterious past in this one. Remains one of my favourite cozy mystery series.

Pathfinder Volume 3: City of Secrets by Jim Zub, Leandro Oliveira, Sean Izaakse, Ross Campell: Zub’s final turn on the Pathfinder comic. A fun fantasy that suffers a bit to me by having multiple artists over the arc. I would’ve preferred to say any of the artists work on the story as a whole, as individually I enjoyed their work.

Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza: It took me a long time to get around to reading this after I first heard about it, mostly because Nicieza was one of my favourite comic book writers of the 90s (I adored his run on The New Warriors, and still reread it frequently) and I was afraid his prose work wouldn’t hold up for me. I was so wrong. This book is so goddamn funny, and just a great mystery. There’s at least one more book with these characters, and I doubt it’ll take me as long to read that one.

Lore Olympus Vol. 3 by Rachel Smythe: I’m still really enjoying this graphic retelling of the Persephone/Hades love story. The colours are so vibrant, and I love the character designs.

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity by Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan, Jason Badower, Mike Mayhew: A black label imprint serial killer story in Gotham. Dr. Harley Quinn works as a consultant with the GCPD trying to solve the Joker murders. A really cool take on the characters with barely a glimpse of the Bat. The present day portions of the story are told in black and white, and the flashbacks in colour, which I thought was a neat touch. The art style was a little too photo realistic for my comic reading sensibilities, but still beautiful.

The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield: I was asked to blurb this, so I have an early copy. The book releases March 30th. I loved it!

Still Life by Louise Penny: Reading this series mostly because of watching the Three Pines TV show. The book feels like a mixture of cozy mystery and police procedural. I think my preference is to watch the show, but the book is very good. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d read it before the show aired, but for now, the television cast is intruding on the text versions.

Chronicles of Eberron by Keith Baker: Another collection of lore about one of my favourite D&D settings, written by the setting’s creator. Lots of great setting lore in this book. I hope Baker keeps adding to the untouched corners of Eberron.

The Night Eaters Vol.1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu & Sana Takeda: A new graphic novel from the team beyond Monstress. Really enjoyed this. Liu and Takeda are a great team. I’m glad to see it’s not a stand alone.

Working Stiff by Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell: Years in the life of a working medical examiner in New York. A fascinating, sometimes grisly read.

Pirate Borg by Limithron: A gorgeous game. The art of this Dark Caribbean roleplaying game is fantastic. Like all of the Borg games, it’s almost more art object than designed to be easily read, but I’d still like to play it some day.

Feelings: A Story in Seasons by Manjit Thapp: A graphic novel on seasons and anxiety that I found very moving.

Check out my roundup of my 2022 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.

Here were my writing goals for last year:

• Finish my grant project (this is the big one. I made some progress in the back half of 2021, but this will have my focus for much of the first half of 2022. I have a significant number of short stories to finish drafting for this to be done, but work is ongoing, if slowed by the pandemic.
• Finish another secret project which I can’t talk about yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as the contract is signed. It’s damn near there! One story left to draft and then some revisions down the pipeline. Hope to be able to announce it soon.
• Draft and submit a novella, either the one I outlined in 2021, or another piece.
• Keep my reading momentum. Since I’m hoping to get a lot of writing done, I’m setting a realistic goal of 50 books and 50 short stories read in 2022.

I finished my grant project (and on deadline!) as well as my final report. Twelve short stories drafted in twelve months, three of which have been revised and submitted, one of which has sold (I’ll talk more about that one when I’m able)!

That secret project is done and launched. You probably know by now that project was my Thunder Road short story collection, When the Sky Comes Looking for You: Short Trips Down the Thunder Road. When the Sky Comes Looking for You made the Winnipeg Free Press bestseller list and the Hamilton Review of Books bestseller list for October, which is super cool, especially considering the fine works I shared the honour with.

Maybe I should’ve set a more ambitious reading goal … I blew past my book and story goals (I almost read 50 short stories in May alone) before June. I’d almost doubled my reading goals halfway through the year. I won’t get into all the details here, you can read the breakdown in my annual reading round up here, but some excellent stories and books have been read.

I really want to get back to writing novels, y’all, but for now, 2022 looks like a year of short fiction. If I hit my goals early, I hope to reward myself with starting a new novel, or returning to an old draft as a stretch goal.

That all said, here’s my goals for 2023:

• Change up my reading goals. I’m still going with 50 books and 50 stories, but I’m making a point of finishing some of the giant doorstopper series I’ve collected but not started yet (first on deck is Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch books).
• Revise and submit my WIP novella
• Be more proactive about submitting my short fiction again.
• Submit at least four new stories.

I think that’s it for now. Happy reading, happy writing, and have a great 2023!

Since I had success with my 2020 reading plan, I made a spreadsheet to track my reading more in depth, and here’s how my 2022 in reading went:

Holy shit (again).

I cracked open 176 books, and finished 173 of them. Down from 2021’s ridiculous (and unlikely for me to ever top) total of 216, but still, I’m pretty pleased with the total. Of those 176 books, 13 were rereads (about a third as many as last year), and 70 were graphic novels (roughly the same as last year), which inflates the number a bit, but books are books, and I’m counting them.

I read 30 books by BIPOC authors (the same as 2021) and 30 by authors I know to be LGBTQ2S+ (weirdly also the same as 2021). I was hoping to improve both of those numbers in 2022, and so am mildly disappointed, but they also represented a larger percentage of my reading in 2022 than 2021, so that’s not nothing.

92 of my books read were by women (up from 83 last year), and I exceeded my goal of 50% of my reads being books by women! After two years of getting close to this mark, I was glad to finally get there.

I caught up on 17 books written by friends (a bit down from last year, sorry friends). Sorry it took me so long! I also read 56 books by authors who were new to me (meaning I’ve never read their work before, not that I’ve never heard of them), weirdly, again the same number as last year.

Non-fiction was a bit of a disappointment again. I read 10 non-fiction books in 2022, down from 2021 and still a slim percentage of my total reads. I tend to read non-fiction much more slowly than fiction, as I often make notes to myself of things I’d like to remember, or things that give me story ideas, this hasn’t changed, I don’t expect it to change. Short of completely revising my to-read stacks to include more non-fiction, I won’t see significant gains here. Still, I’m reading more non-fiction in general than I have in years.

I read a whopping 28 roleplaying game handbooks in 2022, almost twice as many as last year, which means once again I read more RPGs than I played in game sessions. Another bad year for gaming for me, sadly. What games I played were fun, but pandemic brain definitely caused me to step back from actual game sessions (and as good as Roll20 is at what it does, I vastly prefer to have my gaming take place in person). I only played three different roleplaying games in 2022, and none of them new to me. Still, I was able to be a mostly-regular player in my two ongoing campaigns, and had a fucking phenomenal final game of the year with some friends from my old university group. Looking forward to revisiting that new campaign.

Of the 173 books I finished in 2022, I liked 104 of them enough to recommend to others, and there were no real stinkers. Even the books I set down had some pretty admirable qualities, they just weren’t for me.

Here’s the books and stories I enjoyed the most in 2022 (not necessarily published in 2021, obviously).

Favourite Fiction Reads

• Once Removed by Andrew Unger
• In the Dark We Forget by Sandra SG Wong
• When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
• Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
• The City of Brass by S.A.Chakraborty
• Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
• Red X by David Demchuk
• Flight Risk by Cherie Priest
• Spear by Nicola Griffith
• My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
• Steeped to Death by Gretchen Rue

Favourite Non-Fiction Reads:

• Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
• The Secret Life of Fungi by Aliya Whiteley
• Yours Cruelly, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson

Favourite Graphic Novel Reads:

• Bitch Planet Book One: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick
• Lore Olympus Volume One by Rachel Smythe
• A Blanket of Butterflies by Richard Van Camp, Scott B. Henderson
• Die Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen
• Four Faces of the Moon by Amanda Strong
• Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto
• Fangs by Sarah Anderson
• The Autumnal by Daniel Kraus
• Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin
• Cold Bodies by Magdalene Visaggio

Favourite RPG Reads:

• The Black Hack by Gold Piece Publications
• 9 Lives to Valhalla by Gem Room Games
• Pathfinder 2nd Edition Absalom City of Lost Omens by Paizo
• Exploring Eberron by Keith Baker
• Savage Worlds Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide by Pinnacle Entertainment

As for short fiction, one of my 2022 reading goals was to read at least 50 short stories. I blew that goal out of the water. In 2022 I started reading a total of 211 stories and finished 203! Of these stories, 34 were by BIPOC authors, 28 by authors I know to be LGBTQ2S+, 43 by friends, and 100 by women (again, just short of that 50-50 parity I wanted). I liked 115 of those stories enough to recommend them, and only 8 were pieces I chose not to finish. The majority of the stories, 85 of them, came from anthologies (one of my 2022 reading goals was for each of my to-read stacks for the year to contain an anthology). Otherwise, my top venues were Lightspeed (14), Nightmare Magazine (13), and Beneath Ceaseless Skies (11).

Favourite Short Fiction Reads:

• Le Cygne Baiseur by Molly Tanzer, Lightspeed Magazine
• The Ones Who Got Away by Stephen Graham Jones, Nightmare Magazine
• The Good Girls by S.M. Beiko, Alternate Plains
• Bloodbath (VHS, 1987, DIRECTOR UNKNOWN) by David Demchuk, Alternate Plains
• Of Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Stephen Graham Jones, Tor.com
• That Story Isn’t the Story by John Wiswell, Uncanny Magazine
• How to Become a Witch-Queen by Theodora Goss, Lightspeed
• The Eternal Cocktail Party of the Damned by Fonda Lee, Uncanny Magazine
• 10 Steps to a Whole New You by Tonya Liburd, Fantasy Magazine
• The Root Cellar by Maria Haskins, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Give Me Cornbread, or Give Me Death by N.K. Jemisin, Lightspeed
• Every Tiny Tooth and Claw (Or: Letters From the First Month of the New Directorate) by Marissa Lingen, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Guidelines for Appeasing Kim of the Hundred Hands by John Wiswell, Fireside
• Research Log ~~33 by Rowena McGowan, Air: Sylphs, Spirits, & Swan Maidens
• The Sea Half-Held by Night by E. Catherine Tobler, Dead North

Everything I read in 2022:

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February.

Here’s what I read in March.

Here’s what I read in April.

Here’s what I read in May.

Here’s what I read in June.

Here’s what I read in July.

Here’s what I read in August.

Here’s what I read in September.

Here’s what I read in October.

Here’s what I read in November.

Here’s what I read in December.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

I changed how I built my to-read stacks in 2022. This year, each stack of five I built from the home shelves had to include at least two books by women, one non-fiction book, one book by an author I know personally, and one anthology (I made a conscious effort to read more short stories this year). Previously my goal was for each to-read pile to contain at least one book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one book by a woman, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally. Creating these piles from my own shelves was getting tricky after the last few years, and I still plan on trying to read through books I’ve already purchased as much as possible. I added at least one book from the library by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author for every stack I built to continue trying to diversify my reading.

The library has become my go-to for keeping up on what’s going in comics, so I’m sure there’ll be a number of graphic novels (and roleplaying games I backed on Kickstarter) that jump the queue and end up in the piles from time to time as well.

Pathfinder Vol. 2: Of Tooth and Claw by Jim Zub, Jake Bilbao, Ivan Anaya, Sean Izaakse, Kevin Stokes: Another fun graphic novel set in Pathfinder’s world of Golarian. In general I liked the art in this volume better than volume one. I do wish that either Izaakse, or Anaya had been responsible for the art in the entire book, as their styles suited my sensibilities more.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones: A love letter to the slasher genre. I haven’t read a bad book by Jones yet, can’t wait to see what he does next.

The Grande Odalisque by Bastien Vivès, Florent Ruppert, Jerome Mulot: A French graphic novel translated into English. Two art thieves take on a third partner to pull off the biggest job of their careers, robbing The Louvre. Loved it. Lots of fun, and just plain funny. A caper with lots of heart underneath. Apparently the characters will return, so I’m excited to read more about them.

Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell: A Green Lantern story introducing a rookie Lantern, Sojourner “Jo” Mullein from Earth who’s been sent to a city where emotions have been left behind as dangerous. Jemisin really nailed this on every level. One of my new favourite Green Lantern stories. Loved Campbell’s art too, stellar character designs and just frame by frame glorious. Will be looking forward to reading more comics work from these two as a team or individually.

Boss Witch by Ann Aguirre: The second book in Aguirre’s paranormal romance series. I enjoyed the narrator pairing more than I expected to, as I really liked the couple from the first book and normally I’m not a fan of rotating the established narrator in a series, but it makes sense here. Danica and Titus already had their happily ever after in Witch, Please. Really enjoyed seeing the worldbuilding for the series grow and getting to see other sides of characters I already met in the previous book.

SFSX Vol. 2: Terms of Service by Tina Horn, G. Romero Johnson: Second volume in this sex workers versus dystopian puritan future series. I think I preferred the art in volume 1, but Johnson’s work grew on me as I read the book. Looking forward to continuing the series.

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly: First in a new Irish-themed cozy series. I might pick up more in the series if I come across them.

Steeped to Death by Gretchen Rue: A bit of a new direction for fantasy and romance author friend, Sierra Dean. I think this might be my new favourite work by her. Can’t wait to read more in the series.

Pirating Pups edited by Rhonda Parrish: Another anthology that contains a story of mine: “The Empress of Marshmallow” in this case (about an obstinate chow chow in the world of my Thunder Road novels). After the success of Swashbuckling Cats a lot of the contributors to that anthology were looking to Rhonda to keep the puns flowing with a dog-themed anthology. My favourite stories included: “What Frisky Wrought When the Wheels Fell Off the World” by E.C. Bell, “Let the Water Drink First” by V.F. LeSann, and “Artistic Appropriation” by George Jacobs.

What’s a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie: A “ghostbuster” distantly related to gunfighter Doc Holliday. Sadly, my third and final “did not finish” of the year. Just not to my taste.

Exploring Eberron by Keith Baker: New Eberron (well, new to me, at least) from the setting’s creator! Fantastic addition to the setting!

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty: Enjoyable almost travel memoir of Doughty examining death customs around the world. I think I preferred her first book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, but this was still a very interesting read.

And that’s another year of reading! I was thrilled to finish that final to-read stack on New Year’s Eve so I could start 2023 off with a fresh pile of books and new reading goals. Happy reading, folks!

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February.

Here’s what I read in March.

Here’s what I read in April.

Here’s what I read in May.

Here’s what I read in June.

Here’s what I read in July.

Here’s what I read in August.

Here’s what I read in September.

Here’s what I read in October.

Here’s what I read in November.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.

In all of the hubbub of launching When the Sky Comes Looking for You, I forgot to add some new excerpts to the site. So, here’s four new Thunder Road snippets for you to taste!

“The Empress of Marshmallow” from Pirating Pups. Read an excerpt here.

“Ballroom Blitz” from When the Sky Comes Looking for You. Read an excerpt here.

“Far Gone and Out” from When the Sky Comes Looking for You.  Read an excerpt here

“No Sunshine in Hel” from When the Sky Comes Looking for You.  Read an excerpt here.

Thanks for reading!

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

I’m changing how I build my to-read stacks in 2022. This year, each stack of five will have to include at least two books by women, one non-fiction book, one book by an author I know personally, and one anthology (I’m making a conscious effort to read more short stories this year). Previously my goal was for each to-read pile to contain at least one book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one book by a woman, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally. Creating those piles from my own shelves was starting to get tricky after two years, and I still plan on trying to read through books I’ve already purchased as much as possible. I’m going to add at least one book from the library by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author for every stack I build to continue trying to diversify my reading.

The library has become my go-to for keeping up on what’s going in comics, so I’m sure there’ll be a number of graphic novels (and roleplaying games I backed on Kickstarter) that jump the queue and end up in the piles from time to time as well.

Transformers the Roleplaying Game by Renegade Studios: The Transformers RPG uses a similar rules set to the G.I. Joe RPG (I have clearly failed another saving throw against nostalgia). My biggest complaint about this one (and G. I. Joe the Roleplaying Game as well), other than both seeming a little fiddly for my gaming tastes, is that I can’t imagine wanting to play a Level One Transformer. Still, the book is very well put together, has great art, and the intro adventure looks fun.

The Autumnal by Daniel Kraus, Chris Sheehan, Jason Wordie, Jim Campbell: Fun spooky season graphic novel found at the library. Excellent folk horror tale with a very cinematic feel. Fantastic and creepy art.

Miskatonic by Mark Sable, Giorgio Pontrelli, Pippa Bowland, Thomas Mauer: An H.P. Lovecraft-inspired police procedural set during the early days of the Bureau of Investigation under Hoover. Plays with Lovecraft stories “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Terror at Red Hook,” and “The Thing on the Doorstep.” I enjoyed the way it blended the three stories into one narrative.

Dead North edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: An anthology of Canadian zombie fiction. This book contains probably my favourite zombie story of all time, Richard Van Camp’s “On the Wings of This Prayer.” Other favourites from this anthology were: “The Herd” by Tyler Keevil, “The Sea Half-Held by Night” by E. Catherine Tobler, “Kissing Carrion” by Gemma Files, and “Rat Patrol” by Kevin Cockle.

SFSX Vol.1 Protection by Tina Horn, Michael Dowling, Alejandra Gutiérrez: I grabbed this one from the library without knowing anything about it. A near future puritanical dystopia being resisted by sex workers. I enjoyed the story, though it was a tough read at times, and really enjoyed the art.

Pathfinder Vol.1: Dark Waters Rising by Jim Zub, Andrew Huerta: Been reading a lot of Pathfinder setting material lately, so I decided to revisit this book. It was still a fun read. I like Jim Zub’s fantasy aesthetic, but Huerta’s art wasn’t to my personal taste.

Dracula by Bram Stoker, Illustrated by Jae Lee: I’ve wanted to reread Dracula for ages. It’s probably been over twenty years since I’ve read it. Really enjoyed revisiting it after all that time. I’m not used to reading works of this era anymore, so it definitely slowed down my reading. Reminds me that I want to write an epistolary story of my own some day.

Cold Bodies by Magdalene Visaggio, Andrea Mutti, Nate Piekos: A fun winter slasher comic. Really enjoyed this. It felt cinematic. Had it been an actual slasher movie, I’d have watched the hell out of it. As it is, I’ll probably want to revisit this read in the future.

A Girl Called Echo Vol.1: Pemmican Wars by Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson, Donovan Yaciuk:

A Girl Called Echo Vol.2: Red River Resistance by Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson, Donovan Yaciuk:

A Girl Called Echo Vol.3: Northwest Resistance by Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson, Donovan Yaciuk:

A Girl Called Echo Vol.4: Road Allowance Era by Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson, Donovan Yaciuk: I read the complete series in one go. Echo Desjardins slips from her present into the past learning about her Metis history. Includes reproductions of historical documents and a time line of events. Excellent introduction to some history on the prairies that I wasn’t taught in school, and just a good read with great art and beautiful colours.

Castaways by Laura Pérez, Pablo Monforte, translated by Silvia Pérez Labayen: Set in Madrid in the 80s and then Barcelona ten years later. Each location and time receives its own colour palette browns for the 80s and blues for the 90s. I don’t read a lot of European comics. Very different pacing and structure than I’m used to, but it held my interest despite lacking any speculative elements.

Pathfinder 2nd Edition Absalom City of Lost Omens by Paizo: A fantastic bit of setting lore that opens up campaigns worth of adventure. I think even if you didn’t want to use the city of Absalom as it exists in Pathfinder’s Golarion setting, you could mine this text for ideas for any major fantasy city in gaming. Really impressed with this supplement.

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February.

Here’s what I read in March.

Here’s what I read in April.

Here’s what I read in May.

Here’s what I read in June.

Here’s what I read in July.

Here’s what I read in August.

Here’s what I read in September.

Here’s what I read in October.

Check out my roundup of my 2021 reading here.

Check out my roundup of my 2020 reading here.