first look

I want to say that I’ve been kicking off 2023 with a brand-new writing project, but truth is that the past few weeks have been mostly catch-up and adjusting to the new year’s routines.

Not to say these first days of the year have been without any creative joy! I did a beta read for my friend and fellow Writing Wrecking Crew member Ben Van Dongen. I finished reading Voice of the Banished by Shelly Campbell, which I’m going to review on my brand-new StoryGraph page. And I made some collage art on the weekends!

Writing-wise, I have a few things I want to work on in the next month:

• Finish up revisions on my speculative fiction novella (fondly called the body parts book) and send it out to a few submission calls
• Write the last half of the short story for Adventure Worlds Press’s tenth anniversary collection
• Sign up for a writing workshop with the NS Writer’s Federation

I have a lot of half-finished projects in my brain and on my desk. I’d love to finish some of them and start thinking about a completely new story.

Finally got a bit of snow here! One of the first outdoor adventures of the year with bird tracks! [Image description: Top-down view of snowy grass crossed over with bird tracks and brown boots.]

In the meantime, I’m going to keep track of what I’m reading on my StoryGraph page (@brittni_in_ink). If you’re not familiar with the platform, it’s an alternative to Goodreads that isn’t connected to Amazon, and has a bunch of ways to track what you’re reading and review books! Next on my list is Gideon the Ninth, which I’m really excited for!

Also, I’ll be most likely posting about World Running Down by Al Hess as part of the release tour in February! This cozy post-apocalyptic novel follows the trans protagonist Valentine as he takes on salvaging jobs in the wasteland outside of Salt Lake City. His goal is to make enough money to get a visa into the city which will give him access to transition surgery and the chance to live the life he’s always dreamed of. What follows is a queer road trip involving androids, A.I. in love, and the importance of kindness and connection in a bleak world. I’m so thankful to Angry Robot Books for the chance to read an ARC, I really enjoyed it! You can find my full review here.

I also wanted to welcome any new followers and thank everyone who’s been here for a while! Is there anything you’d like to see from this blog in 2023? Any topics or themes you’d be interested in reading more about? Let me know in the comments!

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