Hindsight is 2022

How’s this for a drinking game: for every blog post you find with this title, take a drink. “But Bob,” you ask, “why not just use your brain and come up with something original?” The answer, my dear reader, is simple. It’s been a hell of a year and I’m so tired. I promise the rest of this will be stuff that came from the less bad parts of my brain. These parts are, at the very least, mid-good. So what changed this year? Let’s see... new job, new friends, new apartment, and that’s just scratching the surface. As far as my personal life, this year went from rock-bottom shitty to one of the best I’ve ever had. Keeping that forward momentum going is one of my goals for the next year. 

Speaking of forward momentum, that is what I most certainly did not have when it came to writing this year. As a creature of routine and habit, the chaos was the worst thing for my writing. The last thing I posted on this blog was my goal for NaNoWriMo where I deliberately gave myself a smaller target word count to make up for how busy my life was getting, and I barely managed to do half of that. 

Ah, well. That’s life. 

Rather than let it get me down, I’m trying to keep things constructive and focusing on how to work more efficiently going forward. Not that this year was especially unproductive, mind you. After a rough beginning, I started putting together a new novel and I’m still chugging along, slowly but surely. Hopefully I’ll have some more to share next year. The highlight of my writing, though, was definitely this website. Putting my work out there for people to read has been hugely gratifying, and that’s not even getting into the fact that a couple people have actually told me they like some of the things I’ve written! That’s just mind-boggling. I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough. Thank you so much for reading. It truly means the world to me. Without you, I’d just be some weird guy typing up the weird things in his head. With you, I’m some weird guy typing up the things in his head, but now it’s art. 

Now in the spirit of New Years Eve blog posts, I want to share a few of the things I read this year that stuck with me. This is only going to be a positives list. I’d rather spend my time and humble opinions lifting up things I liked rather than wasting time on the negatives. So, in no particular order: 

The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yoshomizo 

It’s wild to think that we’ve only just gotten some of the best classic Japanese mystery novels translated into English this year. Four of Seishi Yoshomizo’s Kosuke Kindaichi mysteries have been translated so far and each one has blown me away. Each one is imbued with wit and heart and approaches the genre with an experimental and self-aware voice which helped hammer home that “classic” doesn’t mean “old-fashioned”. I gave special mention to The Village of Eight Graves for being an excellent detective novel that barely even features the detective. Here’s hoping that the four will be joined by the rest in the coming years. 

The Poppy War Series by R.F. Kuang

This is a three-for-one! I’d seen these books on the shelves for the past year or two and I finally picked the first one up in August. I devoured it, read the second, and then finished the final one just today. I don’t think I’ve read another fantasy series as committed to the horrors and ambiguities of war. The first book deceptively feels like a YA fantasy novel drawing from Chinese history and culture, but it isn’t long before the weight of that history begins to fall on the story and the reader. An excellent series of novels, though I would advise looking up its trigger warnings before reading it. I’ve got R.F. Kuang’s next book on my nightstand and I can’t wait to see what she does next!

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books. This guy is a writing machine. You know how many books we’re getting from him next year? FOUR. That’s right, four. Considering his output, you’d think the quality is going to have to dip sooner or later, but it certainly did not dip here. The Lost Metal is the end of Era Two of Sanderson’s Mistborn series and man does it go out with a bang. Several, in fact. There are a lot of bangs in this book. Not only does he manage to give this Era’s cast a fond farewell, but he also manages to deftly weave the larger meta-narrative of the Cosmere into the story without undercutting any of the characters. I don’t know what metal he’s burning to pull this off (it’s definitely pewter), but I want some. It made my laugh, made me cry, and even made me consider buying a hat. It’s the stuff of miracles, folks. 

The Truth by Terry Pratchett

So, I have a confession to make. I have called myself a fantasy fan for the majority of these past twenty-eight years and to my great shame, I’ve never read a Terry Pratchett book. Thankfully, I finally corrected that mistake this year with The Truth, a standalone novel in the Discworld series. And, um, yeah. What can I say? It was awesome. He’s awesome. I’m gonna go out and buy every other Discworld novel and read them over and over for the rest of my life. 

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

This collection of short stories is like a good bartender. Whenever I’m feeling down, I run to this book and it manages to serve me just what I need to pick myself up and get back to my life. Much like Pratchett, there’s not much I can say. It’s a wonderful book. 

Blue Giant by Shinichi Ishizuka

I haven’t been reading as much manga these days, but I managed to get my hands on the first Blue Giant omnibus and I got the other four shortly after. This series about an aspiring saxophone player as he sets off in pursuit of his dream hit me in a real personal place. This series just oozes jazz. You hear it in every line drawn and it burns. I loved this series and can’t recommend it enough. With any luck, the two sequel series will be getting English translations soon. 

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

Sort of a combination of the last two, Nocturnes is a short story collection inspired by music. It burns a bit cooler and covers a wider range of musical genres, but each story evokes feelings of nighttime, longing, and loneliness. 

Batman/Detective Comics by Chip Zdarksy, Jorge Jimenez, Ram V, and Rafael Albuquerque 

I’m lumping two different series together because Batman. Both series started at the same time but have almost polar opposite tones. Batman by Zdarsky and Jimenez is telling a story of Bruce Wayne fighting the perfect enemy, one designed to unmake him on every level. Detective Comics by V and Albuquerque is channeling opera for a story in which Gotham is haunted by mysterious music and demons that may no longer be figurative. Both stories are continuing the reimagining of Batman for the modern age, stripped of his wealth but not of his family nor his will, he is forced to rebuild his war on crime. They are representative of the ways in which different authors voices can result in wildly different interpretations of the same concept, proving again that Batman will never die. 

Mighty Morphin by Mat Groom 

So Power Rangers is cool now. I mean, I’ve always thought it was cool, but it’s indisputably cool now. Boom Studios have been releasing comics for the last few years under the premise of “what if Power Rangers was as good as you remember it being as a kid?” The results have been epic storytelling and wonderful characterization of the original show’s cast in grand narratives spanning years of storytelling. However, Mat Groom’s mere six issue run has to be my favorite. It follows one of those big sagas and gives the Rangers some much needed cooldown time. It’s still got plenty of action, but the crux of the run is the character-work being done. There’s special attention given to one of the more underwritten characters in the original series and he might actually be one of my favorites now. Mat Groom is an up-and-coming name in comics and he’s been doing some stellar work on Ultraman with Marvel and his creator-owned book Inferno Girl Red whose Kickstarter I backed earlier this year. I got my copy in November and it absolutely owns. Luckily, Image Comics will be publishing it for the rest of the world starting in January, so everyone else will be able to read it too! If you love transforming superheroes or well-written characters, his books have both in spades. 

Man, I meant to write a blurb for each one. That got away from me real fast, but I can’t help rambling on about the books I love. I’ll be thinking about each of them as we step into the new year. So one last time before the new year, I want to thank everyone who has given this website a glance. I’ll be doing everything I can to keep creating fun things for everyone to read!

Have a Happy New Year!

And Remember, 

Always Make Sure You Have the Write of Way.