Happy 2023!

💫🌟 Greetings Friends! 🌟💫

Here we are, in a new year, and I hope you’re all rushing into it with the same positivity and ambitions I am. The trend is to spend the end of every year in introspection and contemplation of what’s coming, but honestly, I do that all year long. (I’m a four-star general in the Army of Overthinking Everything.) So, as a storyteller, I thought it would be fun to share with you the stories and various other inspirations that hooked my attention and spurred my imagination through 2022, and some of the ones I’m eagerly awaiting in 2023. 

Here goes, starting with… 

Best Christmas Gift

As we all know, experiences are so much more valuable than things. One of my best this year was spending Christmas day snowshoeing and tobogganing with my favorite person, my hubster. These pictures are near Wrightwood, CA’s ski resort Mountain High. When you live in Southern California, any chance to experience snow is not to be missed.

Pacific Crest Trail near Hwy 2, California

Best Movie

Bullet Train – I’m a sucker for anything that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but more than that, I love a story filled to the brim with unique and kookie characters, and Bullet Train is definitely that.

Runners Up: Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – I’m a long-time Sam Raimi fan, what can I say? Everything Everywhere All at Once – this was easily the most refreshingly original story and visual experience I’ve seen in years. I’d consider it a must-see for everyone.

Best Book

Fiction: This year, I delightedly discovered the English horror novelist James Brogden and couldn’t put down his horrific two-timeline novel The Plague Stones. Creep-fest-O-rama!

Nonfiction: This is a toss-up between Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach and The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley.

Best TV Series

This is the hardest category to pick a winner in, but I’m going to go with Severance. I didn’t know what to expect when I started this series, but its cast, wild story, and heartfelt drama kept me hooked from episode one. 

Runners Up: Willow, Killing Eve, The Boys (Like I said, a hard category to pick a winner in.)

Best Character and Best Character’s Wardrobe

Cue SNL’s Stefon: I mean Fiona Shaw’s character in Killing Eve, Carolyn Martens, a sociopathic MI6 agent with a secret past, has IT ALL. She is both the most hardbitten and hardhearted woman you could ever meet, and her wardrobe, mein Gott!—what I’d give for the amazing selection of coats she wore throughout the series. Truly one of the finest all-around forces of nature an actor has ever brought to the screen.

Best Mustache

Speaking of forces of nature, Aaron Taylor-Thompson’s character in Bullet Train, Tangerine, gets top ranks for ’stache class.

Best Pet Moment

This isn’t really my pet moment, but my best pet-adjacent moment that actually belongs to my mom. She lives in a rural city in southern Oregon, which has a sadly large number of feral cats. She’s spent the last two years getting very skilled with trap-neuter-release, and nearly all nineteen of the feral cats she’s TNRed have stuck around her house. They now live lives of luxury, getting fed twice a day, and have both a barn and a yard to call their own. She’s even started letting the friendly ones come inside the house when they feel like it. My mom’s quite a gal. Here’s a few of the horde.

Thing I’m Most Grateful For

Aside from living a life that gives me space to sit quietly in contemplation and create the most ridiculous and entertaining (to me) stories I can come up with, I’m most grateful for you all and our heartfelt and meaningful exchanges of joy and fun—me in the stories I give you, you in the much-appreciated kindness and kudos you give me. 

That’s a pretty long list of stuff, but I just have to hit on a couple of things I’m looking forward to in 2023.

Books

Fiction: Essex Dogs by historian Dan Jones (who has a great Substack if you’re a history nerd) and the The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Nonfiction: Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World by Kate Mosse

Movies - These are going to be a ton of fun.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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And that’s a wrap on 2022! What did you agree or disagree with on my list, and better yet, what types of favorites and best-ofs are on your own? You may have noticed, but I moved my email newsletter over here to Substack, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments. And don’t forget, all my books are 40% off until Jan. 7 at my PayHip store. Don't forget to use coupon code BOOKLOVER on checkout. 

Cheers and as always, Happy Reading!

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