Hermit Rites 003

Life, Writing, and Reading: 2024 Wrap Up!

Happy New Year!(?) Hermit Rites is three months old! I am still learning how to use Substack, and I probably will always be learning how to use Substack. It’s giving me old school MySpace vibes at times. We, the users, are seemingly not getting used. Our data is being harvested, yes, but it so far seems like it’s actually for us to connect to each other, not to disconnect us into a frothing rage.

Last year was a benchmark year for me in fuck near all aspects of my life. I opened 2024 with heartache and honest to fuck misery. I am closing 2024 with residual bruising and a lot of hope. For the first time in a long time I am in a wonderful relationship with someone who makes me feel loved and respected. I have a great home life with my cat Oscar and our roommate. I am improving my five pin bowling average slowly. I have a job that doesn’t completely drain me, and another one that does.

Since November of 2023 I have added nine more piercings to my body for a total of twelve, and a few more tattoo sessions to bring my tattoo total up to thirteen. I am finally looking closer to the person I wanted to look like as a kid.

My extreme horror story “The Nightmare”, my poems “Queen Goddess” and “Mapwork”, a drabble, and my interview with professional wrestling sensation Mother Endless were all published via Death Wish Poetry in 2024. In December of 2023 I started writing a novella and now it is mostly finished. It’s currently with beta readers, with a release date of April 18, 2025. I will be doing a cover and title reveal in the next issue of Hermit Rites, so that has been keeping me excited.

And finally, over 2023 I read 45 books. My goal was twelve, one per month. Anything else was extra. I think I did okay with my goal. The books are listed below; bold text is a goal book, and the photo at the top is also the goal books. Books listed with a star (*) beside them are books I do not own physically.

1. The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker

2. Everville - Clive Barker

3. Beast of Burden - Judith Sonnet

4. Looking for Alaska - John Green

5. The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Straub

6. Umbra: Sentient Stars - Amber Toro

7. Fragments of Perfection: Ballads of Bemond Book 1 - Amber Toro

8. Black House - Stephen King & Peter Straub

9. Madness in Tandem - RJ Powell

10. Home Before Dark - Riley Sager

11. The Unloved - John Saul

12. Some Kind of Monster - Tim Waggoner*

13. The Witch’s Boy - Kelly Barnhill

14. Fieres - Jendra Berri

15. In the Land of the Pigs: A Western Horror Novella - Caesar Ruell

16. The Scampering - Alana K Drex & A.W. Mason

17. Vanilla - Mona Kabbani

18. The Window in the Ground - Steve Stred

19. The Stone Door - Steve Stred

20. Eight Cases of Jane - RJ Powell

21. Ghost Story - Peter Straub

22. No Gods for Drowning - Hailey Piper

23. My Heart is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones

24. Incarnate - Steve Stred

25. Dollface - RJ Powell

26. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer

27. Authority - Jeff VanderMeer

28. Acceptance - Jeff VanderMeer

29. Fiend - Dr. F.

30. Psychopath - Dr. F.

31. Ritual - Steve Stred

32. Communion - Steve Stred

33. Sacrament - Steve Stred

34. Fan Fiction - Brent Spiner

35. When I Look At The Sky All I See Are Stars - Steve Stred

36. Scratches - Joshua Marsella

37. Severed - Joshua Marsella

38. We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror

39. Miumi-U Teaches Japanese Shibari - Miumi-U

40. In Darkness, Delight Volume Two: Creatures of the Night

41. The Silent Patient - Alexander Michelides

42. The Demonologist - Andrew Pyper

43. Mine - Robert. R McCammon

44. A Demon’s Book of Shadows - Amanda Casey*

45. The Voyage of the Space Beagle - A.E. Van Vogt

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