Reading Report - October 2026

Hello friends, my writing retreat with all my friends from Writer Unboxed was such a blast I totally forgot to finish my reading report for you. So much good vibes and good writing though. I'm much further done with my revisions than when I started. Still not done. But getting there. Happy Writing. ~EM

Year of Joy

I've done more hiking in the past two months than I have in the last several years combined. And it only makes me want to do more. I've said elsewhere that writers need to move. And as Dorthea Brande points out, inspiration often comes from activities that combine movement, repetition, and silence. I'm really not a runner. But hiking I can do. Plus you get beautiful views and all the benefits of being outdoors.

Writing Advice that Might Actually Be Life Advice...

• Weird Medieval Guys - Even medieval masters got tired of drawing the faces. Not everything needs to be finished perfectly.
• The Novelry - How to make readers cry. Crying is good for you sometimes.
• Writer Unboxed - A big list of momentum recovery activities

"So here is a list of ways to get going again after failure (whether failure is due to your own determination or an exterior rejection of your work). There will be times you don’t need any of them, times you could practice a bunch of them, and there are some that will call to you, tug on you."

• Writer Unboxed - The transistion to the middle - If you are not changing you are in trouble.

"Change. Change it up, over and over, and there is never a downshift. Whether the action of the story is high or humdrum, explosively outward or inwardly whispering, doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are constantly connecting and at the same time kept off balance."

Books I'm Reading

• Title Redacted - rough draft of a novel for a friend
• Roverpowered 5 - Drew Hayes - These continue to be very soothing and good. Low stakes, cute world, cute characters.
• Exile - Glynn Stewart - Exiled across the galaxy, a colony and a few ships face the unknown together. Glynn Stewart at his best.
• The Fourth Consort - Edward Ashton - This was...something. Loved the setup but the main character was not to my liking. Supposed to be about figuring out weird alien relationships but C.J. Cherryh does that so much better.
• The Asterist - A.T. Sayer - This is a Hugo contender. Read it before your friends do.