Happy New Year, Upstream followers! I have so many updates since the last time I posted any kind of update at all... which was last year in January. So... This becomes a new birthday post for you all!
Life Stuff
First off, health-wise, I've seen much improvement since my sleep apnea diagnosis last year. A year of getting deep sleep every night has made a huge difference in my energy levels, namely that as long as I get a decent amount of sleep, I'm no longer fighting fatigue every waking hour as I was before!
That being said, my summer wasn't nearly as productive as I wanted it to be, since I had some very strange muscle spasms on two separate occasions. In July it was my back that suddenly went out very randomly, rendering me nearly immobile for an entire weekend. I could lay down to sleep, but the transition between sitting and standing, and also moving around was very painful. In August--during the family reunion where I got to meet all my nephews at once--I ended up straining my bicep which almost completely immobilized my arm and gave me a great amount of pain for several days. That one lasted a week or so, in which I had to restrain my arm in a sling and thus I didn't really have the bandwidth to do a lot of writing.
Writing
Which brings me to the full disclosure: I'm still not finished with Fugitive of Crossway. It's still not where I want it to be, it's still rough in many places, and although I'm going to give it my best shot, there is a good chance it will still take me into winter to finish it.
However, all is not lost, as I've managed to release three short stories in limited-run anthologies this year. The first was Genie in A Bottle, which has recently been delisted as it has finished its run. For that one, I wrote a brand-new story titled "Gears, Guns, and Guttersnipes", a version of the Aladdin story based on the eventual Book 3 of the Undersea Saga. (*Note: This anthology has been discontinued at this time; the short story may appear in a future "Tales From The Undersea Saga" collection!) The second was Cracked Fairy Tales, a theme that aptly fit my short story "The Dragon's Mark", a retelling of Cinderella I'd done a few years back here on the blog. (*Note: This anthology has also completed its limited run, hence you can either read the serial as it is here on my blog, or look for it in an eventual short story collection!)
In conclusion, I haven't made as much progress on The Undersea Saga as I wanted, but the year hasn't been wholly devoid of writing!
Another change for me last year, which you may have noticed, is that for the first time since basically 2013, I chose not to participate in NaNoWriMo in the month of November. Honestly, it's been waning since before the pandemic, as the small band of local participants couldn't keep a regular "Municipal Liaison" for more than a few years, and nobody really seemed too keen to take up the role. Then when lockdowns happened, everything sort of unraveled and there wasn't any sort of structure to the community at all, so we sort of drifted apart.
This year, it seems the organization made the (in my opinion) rather unfortunate choice to associate with and subsequently double down to defend said association with a program that uses generative AI. I may not know much about such a concept--and I've used some image generators for cover mockups or character inspiration, but the aspect I disagree with is the notion of using AI programs to generate novels themselves, and the fact that such programs will often generate based on information gleaned from published works, often those independently published, without crediting or asking permission of the author. This is theft, and I don't approve. NaNoWriMo, in their response to objections to the association with the generative AI program, maintained that users of generative-AI writing software are doing so because they could not access the activity of writing without it, and those that object to using generative-AI to write whole novels are speaking from some kind of "privilege" that allows us to come up with our own original stories and plots and words, while generative-AI programs give "access" to those who somehow cannot do their own writing without it.
It's not privilege, it's skill. And injecting an AI generator into the process isn't going to develop the skill the same way writing organically does. What it may do is create an increased dependence on the program, while the fledgling writer's own ability to self-generate remains immature and undeveloped.
Therefore, I am convinced that NaNoWriMo is no longer a place for writers and story enthusiasts to band together and support each others' writing. An organization that defends the use of AI to generate whole plots and characters and writing in the name of "access" just feels like it's about padding the numbers and giving the appearance of popularity, of quantity over quality, and I don't agree with that.
Hence I'm just going to continue tracking my word counts and projects on WordKeeperAlpha, and not even bother with the NaNoWriMo site. I missed the heady rush of earning the fun badges, but at least I'll keep on writing my own words!
Anyway! Back to writing.
What's In Store for The Upstream Writer?
I want to be more active in blogging this year. I want to make a return to Serial Saturdays--or at least make an attempt to finish what I've already started, projects like Fairies Under Glass and A Writer's Tale, to name a few. I'm even toying with the idea of revisiting the ReBible series and maybe adding those to Wattpad, thus reinstating Wattpad Wednesdays. In between, I'm hoping that edits on Fugitive of Crossway won't take as long since I'm not completely rewriting the whole thing a third time! 2025 could very well be my year, folks! (I know I've said that every year for the past three years... but I have a few things going for me this year that I haven't had before!) Perhaps with the completion of this main project, it will open for me opportunities to return to abandoned projects (such as at least two people who still bring up a desire to see "The Last Inkweaver" in print! Even though I haven't even touched that project since 2018!)
I also purpose to find a few more blog hops to do... I have one at least that I still need to fill out, but maybe I turn it into a blog series instead of trying to do it all at once? Still thinking about that one... Meanwhile, I had so much fun with the anthologies from this year that I'm considering finding other anthologies to participate with, while at the same time I don't want the new projects I might have to produce to interfere with progress on The Undersea Saga anymore! I'm done with distractions, it's time for FOCUS!
Reading
I managed to achieve 20 books read in 2024, which divides up to 6 indie reads and 14 "mainstream" books.
My Top 3 Reads for the indie books are as follows:
Number 3 is probably Alienation by S. E. Anderson. Not to say it's in any way bad at all, all 3 of my picks were the most stellar of all the books I read last year, but just compared to the other two, there was a lot more I liked, as you will soon see! You can read my whole review in the hyperlinked title, but let me just say that I very much enjoyed revisiting the universe Anderson has created, and everything about this sequel felt like it elevated all the elements I enjoyed about the first book! So I'm absolutely loving the Starstruck Saga!
Number 2 favorite indie read is You're Not Alone by Kelly Blanchard. I've almost reached the end of the Chronicles of Lorrek, and boy, what a ride it's been! This book also definitely wins the prize for "Most Direct Messages To The Author In All Caps Like I'm Screaming." Like, before I even finished the book, not even ten chapters in, and I had to set it aside and let her know directly what I thought about her plot! (But that's the best part about reading an indie book and following the author on social media, right?) Even now I'm remembering those extra-special twists that had me SCREAMING. If all eight books have been preparing me for the Big Payoff in Book 9, it's bound to be EXTRA big!
And finally, my favorite book out of all 6 indie reads for 2024 is: Time Tree: The Guardian by Lisa Rae Morris. I read the first book back in 2019 so it had been a while, but the moment I opened book 2 and started reading, the plot grabbed me by the scalp and absolutely didn't let up the whole time! I also ended up messaging the author with "screaming" texts, though probably not quite as severe as with the previous book. Again, follow the hyperlinked title for my full review, but this book hands-down was totally amazing and wonderful and I felt absolutely exhilarated when I finished it!
As for the "mainstream" books, I may have read a lot of Agatha Christie and whodunnit mysteries like Paula Hawkins, Alexander McCall Smith and Michael Crichton, but those aren't the ones that stood out to me.
Third place on this ranking goes to Amari and The Night Brothers by B. B. Alston. It's one of those Scholastic Book Fair purchases that came strongly recommended by a coworker, and I actually enjoyed it more than I expected to! It's a new magical world sort of a cross between Grimm and Harry Potter, a magical Divergent, if you will. The mystery centers around a girl named Amari searching for her missing brother and discovering her connection to the supernatural world of magical creatures, and a latent ability she didn't know she had, which she then needs to harness in order to defend the magical world and the non-magic world from being overtaken by chaos and destruction. Highly imaginative and very compelling!
Then in second place is Wild Robot by Peter Brown. I actually tracked it as I read it along with the third grade class at my job, so it definitely counted even if it wasn't on my TBR! I very much enjoyed the imagery, the perspective Brown uses in viewing the world through the eyes of a robot as well as an island full of wild animals. When the movie was announced I was super-excited... and then found it to be kind of a let-down with how far the adaptation strayed from the novel. Suffice to say, I genuinely think it was a very good book, and would recommend it to anyone!
My favorite read of all, though, comes from seeing promos of a serial adaptation (which has since been canceled and then eradicated from the streaming platform!) that intrigued me, and then learning from a friend who read the book and strongly recommended it to me: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It's one that has long intrigued me, especially after the promos and watching the pilot episode. The show was very quirky, and I wondered if the book was just as quirky. As a matter of fact, it was. But not as quirky as the show made it out to be! The show actually skips over quite a bit of what made the book very rational and practical in its own way, and veers off into a massive tangle of something wholly forgettable and off-putting! But if you're the sort who wants to see kids reading books that challenge their minds and a plot that almost calls out the culture that just accepts what we've been told at face value... Then let me tell you this book is worthwhile and it's one of those "unorthodox" styles that I found very intriguing and irresistible!
That will be all from me for now. If you haven't read the books I mention and you want to, I encourage you to seek them out and secure them as soon as possible! I think I've got a much more reasonable reading goal for myself. I might even succeed in it this time, and with my overall year goal of FOCUS, I think I might achieve all that I want to do!
Meanwhile, thanks for coming along with me, and, as ever...
Catch You Further Upstream!
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