#theclockistickingwrite

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

i read several books that came out last year but only one that released this year: a gentleman’s gentleman by tj alexander. i did enjoy it! explaining the main reason why would technically be a spoiler (although the progression of the plot is all quite guessable). but i also liked that it made some gestures toward discussing why someone of decent moral character might not want to be part of the english gentry of 1819 beyond “because it gets in the way of my True Love”

12. Any books that disappointed you?

another: the illness narratives by arthur kleinman fulfilled its purpose as part of my endless wandering through the world of narrative medicine scholarship, but i did expect it to be a bit more interesting given it’s kind of the root of the whole thing. more case study and less analysis than anticipated (although that fits with kleinman’s background). i also read the repackaged version that came out in 2020, and the lack of substantive change made total sense from a business perspective and was also underwhelming

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

never + because there’s something wrong with me <3

i will be doing all of these >:)

4. Movie of the year?

i do not watch a lot of movies so i am going to go with the obvious pick: sinners for sure

5. TV show of the year?

wot tv season 3 😭🫠😤🙃

9. Best month for you this year?

october! idk how i’m ever going to do better than the week where i went to the cr liveshow, traveled down the east coast by train, and spent 48 hours running around in an insane storm living my nerd dreams in charleston/at the robert jordan archive. and then i got to hang out with many friends and everyone was nice to me because it was my birth month

12. Talk about a new friend you made this year

i don’t think i actually started any new friendships this year, but i got much closer to my ttrpg group as people i share a real-life emotional connection with beyond meeting up every week to play pretend. there was a particular night this summer where we were hanging out and trying to bake brownies but it accidentally took like 3 hours because of oven temperature problems so we just sat around gossiping the whole time and i was like oh wait… friends!

14. Favorite book you read this year?

11, 12, 13, 50

11. Are you partial to a certain character/pairing or are you more equal-opportunity? If you are partial to any character/pairing, why do you think that is?

i tend to pick one character and latch on, limpetlike. big picture, character is the thing that draws me into stories most strongly, whether i’m writing or reading. more narrowly, when i get into a fandom, i zero in on a character who allows me to think about the themes i’m most interested in, and then i just look at them through a bunch of different lenses until it’s out of my system. preferred pairings come down to pickiness (i’m uninterested in many ships, so i often end up with just one or two that i care about) and the ever-nebulous “what i think is hot” (for a broad definition of the word).

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

another answer for this one: becoming less of a weenie about horror overall has opened up a wonderful world of whump fic. yes, there truly was a version of me in the past who mostly wanted to make nice things happen to characters instead of beating hell out of them.

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

the fandoms i was in when i first started reading/writing fic very much lent themselves to… episodic monster-of-the-week type stories? i think this could fall under the umbrella of “case fic”? when i’m reading something short nowadays i tend to prefer mood over plot, though.

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about!

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

Idk if you’re still doing this, feel free to ignore if not!