December's a bit of a weird month in terms of fun content I'm enjoying. The end of the year comes with a lot of rush to finish projects, which on an evening or weekend leaves me a little tired. So, instead, I turn to re-watching things and just kind of vibing on the couch.

But, I thought maybe I'd just be open about what it is I'm re-watching and stuff, because I think everyone's in this kind of mode.

What I'm Writing

Speaking of rushing to finish projects, I've been writing a lot of the blog posts and video essays which will be coming up. So its been a strange rush of a variety of differnt topics: the Wild Hunt, Christmas Ghosts, cosmic horror, the musical Hamilton... It's been a fun ride across all sorts of strange, fun and interesting places. Can't wait for you to read them all.

On the fiction side, I just finished writing my rough draft of my new quarter's short story. For 2025, I made it a goal to write one short story every quarter and I've now, officially, completed it! I now have four fresh short stories to figure out what on Earth I'm gonna do with them in the new year.

What I'm Reading

So, I finished Katabasis, which I mentiond in my previous recap. Welp, it's definitely a five star read for me. I really loved this one, and really appreciated the very real look at academia - I know the author R.F. Kuang as spent time in postgraduate education, so I'm glad to see it being so accurately represented. Loved it. Every bit of it.

What will probably be the last fiction read of the year is The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Its a short and quick read - already about half way through despite starting it last night. The writing is simple, but in a stylistic and beautiful way.

If you're wanting a nice cosy read about life, and acceptance, and want some nice cats thrown in the mix, too, then I highly recommend.

What I'm Enjoying

As I said in my little intro here, I've been spending my off time just kind of trying to rest the brain, which means a lot of re-watching comfort shows and movies, and - of course - reality television.

The television show me and my husband have been binging is New Girl, an American sitcom from about 2011-2018. Despite it being a nice bingy show, I'm not always able to fully turn my mind off, so I may or may not be crafting a video essay on the topic. We'll see.

Winter feels like a good time for rom coms and comfortable romance movies. My latest ones of choice was Crazy Stupid Love (2011) and, of course, the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I don't want to hear it from you lot who hate that version - maybe one day I'll write a lengthy essay about why its perfect.

Anyway, that's it for this fun little December catch up. I hope all of you have a wonderful end of the year, and a wonderful start to the new one. There's one last newsletter coming to your inboxes on New Year's Eve to wrap up December's content. But until then, have a lovely time and always be kind to one another.