Hey all, Sam here.
Well, I suppose I underestimated how much the schedule shift at work was going to throw my home life into chaos. I had fully expected to have this written and posted on the 2nd or 3rd, and obviously that did not happen. Those two days off were spent trying to readjust my sleep schedule, and it did not go well. But I think my sleep is almost back to normal, and I have a bunch of posts to finish up and post for you all, so hopefully I can transition into more regular content posting very soon.
Anyway, I guess it’s time to wrap up everything I read, blogged, and wrote in December. There’s not much in the travel section of this particular post because December is more of a planning for trips month than an actual do trips month.
I don’t have much else to say here in the intro section. It feels like the first couple days of the month/year were okay, and then everything descended into chaos and dread once more.
Okay, let’s just go ahead and dive on into the December wrap-up.
Reading
At first I was going to be upset with myself for only getting through nine books in December, especially since one is a book of poetry, one is a novella, and one is a quick writing guide. But then I realized that two of the other books were like 500-600ish pages, so that’s actually fairly impressive. And honestly, I really enjoyed the books I finished reading in December (and spoiler alert, January is off to a pretty good start already), so all in all it was a good reading month at the end of a pretty good reading year.
Let’s run down the reads really quick.
Kill the Beast by Serra Swift — 4.5 stars
Poyums Annaw by Len Pennie — 5 stars
The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty — 4.5 stars
That One Night by Emily Rath — 5 stars
The Quill and the Vial by Bree Moore — 4.5 stars
Pucking Around by Emily Rath — 4.5 stars
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger — 3.5 stars
Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes — 4 stars
An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole — 5 stars
I only have a review up for one of the books this month, but I have plans to review at least half of the other ones. I definitely plan to have a Weekend Writer post up for Romancing the Beat, and I should have reviews up for An Arcane Inheritance and The Quill and The Vial up fairly soon, but I’d like to review the rest as well. I’ll try and make a dent in my review backlog in the upcoming weeks and months, if I can.
Writing
So….I sadly have nothing to report here. I have basically failed at my writing goals all year, and that makes me feel even more terrible. I’m tired of the fact that I let the disaster that is the world around me extinguish most of my creative desire, and I need to figure out a way to combat those feelings. I miss being creative. I miss writing my stories. At this point, I don’t know if I would even try to publish (self-publish or a more traditional path), but that nebulous future idea shouldn’t be a factor in the actual creative process. I want to get back to writing for me…and then maybe share it with a few friends if they’re interested.
I’ll talk more about this in my 2026 Goals post, but for now all I can say in this wrap up is that the stories still remain rather locked up in my head.
Blogging
Technically I just fell shy of my blogging goal when it comes to posts in December, but work was extra stressful, so I’m just going to be proud of what I did write up and release. If you missed any of the posts, I have them all linked here, and I’ll probably talk more about my blogging plans in my 2026 Goals post (coming in the next couple of days, hopefully).
Can I Finish These Books in 2025?
Top Ten Reads of 2025 January-June Edition
NetGalley Review: The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty
NetGalley Review: A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons by J Penner
Trips/Conventions
I have nothing really to report here. David and I have been talking about trips we would like to take in 2026, like doing a repeat of our honeymoon in the fall for our 5 year anniversary, and our usual trip to Gen Con in August.
All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 