Just Me

    This month’s list is a little different: I am combining the books I finished reading with the books I have read. The count of books read so far this year is accurate, as the books I finished reading this month are ones I started reading in January.   This month, I finished reading 2 books (11 and 13) and read 6 books.   Some of the books I read this month are ones I started reading last year, but because of things going on, I forgot about those books. So I started over with them this month and finished reading them. Yay!   I once again did not meet my goal to read 10 books in one month, but I will keep trying!   Here are the books:   9. The Wipe Revenge: A Roll to Die For by C.A. Baynam 10. Eaden by Megan Guilliams 11. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry 12. Of Teeth and Pine by Desiree Horton 13. The Boneman by Mark James Montgomery 14. Not the Worst Monster in Town by Chisto Healy and C.A...

Jane Friedman posted in her "Electric Speed" newsletter on 2/1/25 about how she will normally ignore a message that just says "hello" or "hello Jane." She linked to a post someone made about this very thing, and why it can be so frustrating to those of us who are very busy and must be selective with how we spend our time online. But she is not the only one who has expressed this concern. I have seen many posts on social media from other very busy writers or editors who feel the same way! It is quite validating, actually. And it reminded me of a blog post I wrote about this nearly three ago. I never put it up on the blog, though, because I thought it was rude and off-putting. But, well, times being what they are, I think it should see the light of day. Here it is!   "When 'hello' means 'goodbye'"   Being on the Internet means that I get a lot of emails, DMs and messages from people I don’t know online. Most of the time, the pers...