A Year of Books 2021: Unobjective Assessments

This next set of books is difficult for me to judge. See, I’ve got connections to them.

Sometimes the author is a friend. That means I want to support the book no matter what. The positive is, my friends are awesome writers! But it’s also hard to be objective.

Some of these I backed on Kickstarter. That means I’m susceptible to the sunk cost fallacy. In this case, basically, because I backed something, I want to like it, whether or not it’s actually any good.

And finally, my son forced me to read a book he loved. Like, seriously. He can be very forceful.

So what do I do?

Well, I lumped all the books together. I’m going to attempt to be objective in these mini-reviews, but I also want to be transparent!

Once again, these books come in no particular order!

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Year of Books 2021: The Best!

Time to clean off the shelf.

Every year, I set aside every book I read on a shelf near the bed. At the end of the year, I evaluate what I’ve read before shelving the books in our permanent collection (or donate or sell or…). My year runs from July 4 to July 3. So… it’s time!

In this post I’m going to write brief reviews of the top ten books or series I read this year. They won’t be in any order; they’re just the ten I enjoyed the most. I read quite a few comics, but I won’t be addressing those today.

I’d like to prevent this from turning into a food blog with endless preface, so… let’s get to it!

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Why You’re Having a Hard Time Writing

I’m a little sore. I’m working some muscles I’ve let get a little… soft. Wobbly. Gelatinous, even.

Today I sat down to outline a novella. In the course of an hour and a half, I only got 1100 words written. Simply put, that’s not enough.

Maybe you look at that number and you’re impressed. Well, cool! I guess I can be impressive. However, to reach my writing goals, I need to be writing far faster. We all have different goals. Know your skills and set your goals accordingly. For me, if I’m going to complete the novella in my projected timeline, I need to write more words per hour. I can only dedicate an hour on a typical day, which means I need to pack that hour with the most words possible.

So what happened? Why didn’t I write as much as I feel I should have? Did my laptop decide to update to Windows 3.1415? Did my children spontaneously combust again? Did I leave the Star Trek marathon on in the background?

None of the above.

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TWO New Stories Available Today!

Cowboys and carnosaurs. Stetsons and stegosaurs. Deputies and dinosaurs. That’s right, folks. What would make the wild west wilder? Dinosaurs. Follow the Sheriff of Golconda as he deals with raptor gangs, triceratops thieves, and a galloping gallimimus or two. Welcome to a Wilder Wild West. Co-created and co-written with Nathaniel J. Peters.

Read Dinos of the Old West on Vella today!

Doc’s experiment went wild and destroyed his orbiting space station… again. But when he and his assistant Brunt are rescued by a mysterious utopia floating on the edge of space, they know there’s something more going on! Join the adventure as the Doc, passionate for science, and Brunt, his long-suffering assistant, discover the terrible secret of the floating city and topple its nefarious master!

Read Doc Passion and the Floating City on Vella today!