Some Highlights from 2020.
I have been consistently publishing this newsletter every month for three years. One of the things I’ve learned starting this newsletter and keeping up my website is just how much we forget. It’s been nice to look back each month and take stock of the things I’ve accomplished. It’s also created a sense of structure to my creative work and helped me manage and maintain goals.
My creative goals at the beginning of 2020 were to submit more work for publication and do more freelance work. I submitted more work than I have in previous years and got a few things published, A short story, an illustration, and a song. I had a few commissions and freelance illustration projects that you can see here, here, and here. My writing goals for 2021 are to continue to submit the stories I have already written and write at least five more short stories. I hope to get more illustration work as well.
I started messing around and composing music in 2019 and continued to do that in 2020. My goal for 2021 is to create short songs on a more regular basis.
Because of the pandemic, in-person art shows and zine fests were cancelled but the silver lining was I got to attend virtual shows all over the world that I would not have been able to participate in otherwise. I virtually tabled at Quaranzine Fest 2020, 2020 KC Virtual Zine Fest, and GhostCon 2020. I also participated in The Rubin Museum Lotus Effect project.
Books I Read in 2020
non fiction 5
Fiction 19
graphic novel 21
poetry 1
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Fiction-Writing Modes Mike Klaassen
Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One Alan Moore illustrated by Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch, Dan Day
The Book Of Hope Tommi Musturi
The Lagoon Lilli Carre
I Am Not Okay With This Charles Forsman
Monkeys with Typewriters Scarlett Thomas
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Life Finds A Way Various Authors
Winter Hours Mary Oliver
Nevertheless, She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project
Charlie Jane Anders, Brooke Bolander, Amal El-Mohtar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kameron Hurley, Seanan McGuire, Nisi Shawl, Catherynne M. Valente, Carrie Vaughn, Jo Walton, and Alyssa Wong
Tales of Men and Ghosts Edith Wharton
The Plague Albert Camus
Gast Carol Swain
Why Art? Eleanor Davis
The Possession of Natalie Glasgow Hailey Piper
Laid Waste Julia Gfrorer
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
read by Becket Royce
Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh
Petals on the Wind V.C. Andrews
Rogue Protocol Martha Wells
The Reader Bernhard Schlink
Florida Lauren Groff
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
read by Rebecca Gibel
House of Women by Sophie Goldstein
illustrated by Sophie Goldstein
Cult of the Ibis
by Daria Tessler
illustrated by Daria Tessler
The Complete Wimmen’s Comix by Various Authors
illustrated by Various Illustrators
Black Is The Color by Julia Gfrorer
illustrated by Julia Gfrorer
The Sea by Rikke Villadsen
illustrated by Rikke Villadsen
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
illustrated by Thi Bui
How to Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
illustrated by Eleanor Davis
A Journey Round My Room Xavier de Maistre
A Gift for a Ghost by Borja Gonzalez
illustrated by Borja Gonzalez
Super Tokyoland by Benjamin Reiss
illustrated by Benjamin Reiss
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
read by Mia Farrow
BTTM FDRS by Ezra Claytan Daniels
illustrated by Ben Passmore
Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia
illustrated by Liz Suburbia
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
read by Frazer Douglas
Unauthorized BreadCory Doctorow
Little Weirds Jenny Slate
The House on Mango Street sandra cisneros
The Terror by Dan Simmons
read by Dan Simmons
Catherine House Elisabeth Thomas
Le Petit Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Circe Madeline Miller Narrated by Perdita Weeks