December 2017

December was an uneventful month. Some busyness at work before the holidays, then the holidays themselves. I had some back pain and a short story rejection on Christmas itself, but the holiday season was quite lovely and relaxing.

And I had two stories publish in December, so there’s always that. My flash story “Terrible Lizards” appeared in Everyday Fiction, while a longer story I sold a little over a year ago, “The Northern Recess,” appeared in Stupefying Stories. I’m really happy with both sales and hope people enjoy the stories.

Other than that, it was mostly just the usual assortment of books, short stories, movies, and music.

The books

I finished one book in December: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson:

“Metaphors are dangerous. Calling something by a false name changes it, and metaphor is just a fancy way of calling something by a false name.”

I read it for my book club, and I mostly liked it.

The stories

I’m not exactly sure how many stories I read in December. Something like 24, maybe? I missed a few days, but I think I also read a few less memorable ones that I neglected to keep track of. Anyway, of the ones that I definitely remember, these were my favorites:

  • “The First Stop Is Always the Last” by John Wiswell (Flash Fiction Online)
  • “The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant” by Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed)
  • “Which Super Little Dead Girlâ„¢ Are You? Take Our Quiz and Find Out!” by Nino Cipri (Nightmare)
  • “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian (The New Yorker)
  • “You Will Never Know What Opens” by Mair Ness (Lightspeed)
  • “All the Songs the Little Birds Sing” by T.D. Walker (Luna Station Quarterly))
  • “The House at the End of the Lane Is Dreaming” by A. Merc Rustad (Lightspeed)
  • “The Birding: A Fairy Tale” by Natalia Theodoridou (Strange Horizons)
  • “Will You Meet Me There, Out Beyond the Bend?” by Matthew Kressel (Nightmare)
  • “An Equal Share of the Bone” by Karen Osborne (Escape Pod)
  • “Given Sufficient Desperation” by Bogi Takács (Escape Pod, reprint))
  • “Straight Lines” by Naru Dames Sundar (Escape Pod, reprint)

The movies

I watched 29 movies in December. What can I say? I had some free time around the holidays.

  • Local Hero:

  • The Bad Batch:

  • Logan Lucky:

  • 1922:

  • Split:

  • Gone Girl:

  • The Autopsy of Jane Doe:

  • Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi:

  • Working Girl:

  • 9 to 5:

  • Tucker & Dale vs Evil:

  • Daughters of Darkness:

  • Stronger:

  • Hellbound: Hellraiser II:

  • The X-Files: I Want to Believe:

  • Bright:

  • The Defiant Ones:

  • Her:

  • Pottersville:

  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer:

  • mother!:

  • Lake Mungo:

  • Nightbreed:

  • Eagle vs Shark:

  • A Ghost Story:

  • 20th Century Women:

  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword:

  • Marjorie Prime:

  • Barry Lyndon:

    • The music

    I listened to some in December: