This will be my final blog post for the year 2025.
I've finished my Aussie Reading Challenge. This was my personal prod to read more homegrown Australian fiction. I selected categories randomly, but the framework took me through a lengthy time span from the colonial era, through the second world war, and the colorful 1960s to the most recent twenty-first century. My two modern picks include a rural abbey during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, and an awesome Pride & Prejudice retelling. Others wove in supernatural aspects, namely time travel and some unexpected ghostly activity in the Blue Mountains. Whew, this challenge stretched me at times but I'm glad I've done it. If I've whetted your curiosity, do check them out.
Talking of maximizing our own local goodness, I managed some short travel holidays through my own state. I visited Mt. Gambier with my husband in our extremely hot and steamy January, paid a quick trip to the Flinders Ranges with my daughter just before Easter, when it was still dry as powder, and made a lovely winter stop across on the Yorke Peninsula in the winter. I also paid a quick trip to the Riverland where my saxophonist husband had a music gig.
I won the Omega Writers' Encouragement Award in October, which was totally unexpected, and soon hope to have some news about publishing a new book after more than a decade. Look out for the news in early January.
As I often do at the end of a year, I've opened a new page on this blog. Over in the right hand margin, you'll see the link to Middle Grade & Young Adult Book Series. I've already reviewed so many of these, it dawned on me what a handy resource it would be all in one spot. I would've loved something like this to refer to while I was growing up, so I'm providing one myself. I hope you have a great time exploring it. (To kick off 2026, I'm going to review another series that crossed my radar; The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. I've heard these likened to modern classics, so watch out for them.)
I'm going into January with the intent to knock off a few completionist goals. For the first part of 2026, I intend to finish all of the Miss Marple novels for my Agatha Christie page. Currently I have eight down and just four to go. Since I have so few left until I've read all twelve, Poirot can take a backseat for now. I'm also just one major novel short of finishing my What the Dickens page. Although I can't say I'm looking forward to it, I'll soon have The Old Curiosity Shop under my belt, so do look out for it.
I've stepped back from Bookstagram for most of this year and don't feel ready to take it up again yet, if ever. In all honesty, I haven't missed the pressure to create continual content, the anxious watching of stats, or the increasing ingress of reels and blatant advertising pitches over simple still shots by amateurs like myself. I've appreciated the double benefit of having that time back and no longer feeling like a duck out of water.
May your new year be prosperous and happy. I can offer some advice for weathering sad moods from two young men who were confined in very small spaces. Oliver North, recovering from a devastating war injury from his bed, and Piscene Molitor Patel, floating in a lifeboat accompanied by a Bengal tiger, both made the same discovery. Just like the clouds, bad moods always drift away in their own time. Adding personal resistance while they hover over our heads is an angsty, futile gesture that might simply prolong our suffering.
So hang in there. Looking forward to being back in 2026.
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