january 2023

in which we were ready for vegetables to return to our diets in a meaningful way

At the start of the first Way Back Almanac, I make a case for January being potentially the worst possible time to start anew, especially in the kind of all-or-nothing way we’re encouraged to fling ourselves into as soon as the second-hand ticks past midnight on January 1st. Launch that glass of prosecco over your shoulder and grab a kale and sawdust smoothie; it’s time for New Year, New You! Lose weight! Get fit! Find a new hobby! Start journaling! Start meditating! Join some classes! Sacrifice your boyfriend to the Blood God for eternal youth! Be more productive! You gotta become something completely new, now, because the existing you Just! Isn’t! Good! Enough!

I find it all very dull (maybe not the sacrifice bit; Blood God, call me).

And I say this as someone who loves the redemption in a do-over. I live for the shiny potential of a new notebook, an early night in fresh sheets (especially on a Sunday), when a new month starts on a Monday (even more so if it’s also a new moon). I like a Big Clean, and the chance to inventory what I have, what I love, and what I no longer need.

Not in January, though.

In January, I like tea, blankets, apple crumble, and potatoes. I like to be a little potato seedling under the ground, safe in the dark, biding until it’s time to grow. I’m not interested in forcing myself up through the soil too soon; that’s not how you thrive.

So what I’m saying is, if you also feel like this, and the whole new-year-new-you thing is giving you palpitations, you have my permission to join me in not making any radical changes. Save it for when the sun comes back, if you even want to at all. I think you’re probably OK just as you are.

This is from The Way Back Almanac 2023, which has just started, so it’s not too late to join in!

Projects I’m working on: I’m still working on the YA folk horror. I did not get a solid draft done by the end of the year (I TRIED), but it was due to having to get some other work done first! I’m aiming for the end of January, which, now, sat here on the second of the month, feels doable (famous last words, Salisbury). Here is another quote for you, by way of an apology.

I mentioned last time that I was working on something incredibly dark - the first draft of that is now done, and I’ll send it to my agent soon to see what she thinks before it goes to its final home. Hopefully, she’ll be disgusted and horrified. Fingers crossed! I’m hoping it might be announced soon, too, so keep your eyes on my Twitter and Instagram, where it will most likely break first.

I’m also working on the copy edits for Her Dark Wings, which is coming out in the US later in the year; as soon as I have dates, I’ll let you know. I think the cover will stay the same, but given how perfect Leo’s cover design was, why would you mess with it?

And in addition to all that, I’m working on something completely new, for something completely new (to me, at least), AND my agent made very encouraging sounds about some chapters for another project I pitched to her, so I guess I'd better write that too. It’s going to be a very busy first quarter here at the Melseum.¹

As far as News goes, I am currently in Publishing News Limbo for three projects, (Publishing News Limbo is when something is happening, but you may not talk about it publicly until it becomes official), one of which was confirmed while I was waiting at the airport for my flight to Germany before Christmas. I’m very excited to announce this one, it’s been a Wish List item of mine for a while, so I’m delighted I’m going to get to do it.

Actually, let’s just do a little segue into how ridiculously perfect and then magical that whole day was. Not in huge ways, at first, but in the small, everyday ones that add up to general contentment and a feeling of satisfaction. I woke up before my alarm, had time for a bath and to read a little, finished the final packing, drank enough tea to get human, and did the last house admin - everything went to plan, and there was no rush. I’d had to order a cab to the airport because of the strikes (support the strikers, join a union) and it arrived on time, the driver was nice, we drove the scenic route through loads of snowy countryside, everything went to plan, and there was no rush.

Then at the airport, no queue at bag drop, swiftly through security, the flight was on time, everything went to plan, and there was no rush.

Then the real magic kicked in.

I open my email to kill time, to see the Wish List project I pitched at the end of October had been greenlit, IN FULL! Elated, I took myself to get a drink to celebrate but, somewhere in the process, lost my new sasquatch brooch!!! I searched the floor where I’d been sitting, and retraced my steps but couldn’t find it, and, despite being sad, I eventually decided the Universe had claimed it in return for me getting my project greenlit, so I gave up on it…

Until I put my hand in my pocket and found the brooch had fallen INSIDE IT. From my lapel, directly into my pocket. A real, true miracle.

After boarding the plane, we were delayed for forty-five minutes, and my friends, waiting for me in Germany, were increasingly stressed it might not take off. I found out why after I landed - because of the extremely snowy weather, the airport had canceled 150 incoming and outgoing flights that day. Not mine, though. The Universe smiled on me again, and I made it, so Weinachten 2022 began in earnest!

Three extraordinary pieces of luck. What a day.

One final piece of excellent news, and then I’m done, I promise (for now), is that I’ve taken over as the Group Mentor for YA, at Write Mentor! I’ve been working with Write Mentor for two years, as a Spark Mentor, and I love it so much, so I was thrilled to be offered the Group Mentor for YA spot! I love the support and advice, and expertise Write Mentor offers to writers, and how affordable and accessible it is, and I’m really proud to work with them to help mentor other writers. My cohort seems earnest, excited, and dedicated, so I think it will be great.

In personal news, I spent the holidays in Germany, which was exactly as perfect and joyful as you’d imagine. A lot of cakes and glühwein were consumed, and a lot of Christmas markets were visited. On New Year’s Eve, we went to a show at a planetarium, and then came home for raclette and Dinner for One (a European NYE staple. If you haven’t seen it, look it up!). I especially liked the show, which was called Die Nacht ist nicht allein zum Schlafen da (The Night is not just for Sleeping), because it didn’t just talk about the stars, but the night itself, and how darkness and light affect insects, and animals, and humans (there was even a section on ghosts!).

I have one event in the diary so far, to be announced, but I think this might be a quiet events year for me as I don’t have a book out in 2023, though I’m hopeful I’ll get out and about to a few things.

Reading-wise, I barely read at all over Christmas, but now life is returning to normal, my tastes are still horror-adjacent; I’ve got HAG, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK, SURVIVOR SONG, and MEXICAN GOTHIC ready to go this month, and I’ll be returning to the sea once more with Darcy Coate’s FROM BELOW, which I’m hoping will fill the hole left behind after finishing INTO THE DROWNING DEEP (again).

In TV, again, not much was watched during the holidays (though we did watch Glass Onion and LOVED it, but I have started watching DARK on Netflix, and I’m in love with it. It’s by the same team who did 1899 (raging it’s been canceled, RAGING), and it’s spooky and mysterious, and I have no idea what is happening (apparently my favorite kind of media). It’s also German, so it feels like I still have a little of the festivities and joy with me (along with all the lebkuchen I brought back).

The subheading for this post is “in which we were ready for vegetables to return to our diets in a meaningful way” and that’s partly a joke but mostly not. The holidays are (correctly) a time of indulgence and treats, and so while vegetables do happen, in my experience, they happen in a less-virtuous and less-frequent-than-usual kind of way, and I always find by January, I’m ready to put the cake down and eat something with actual vitamins in. Not too many. Just a few.

So the first thing I cooked when I got back to the UK was this soup, which felt like the perfect bridge between the end of the festive season and the beginning of something more normal and less cake-based. It was warm and nourishing and tasty and rich, and I fully recommend it.

And finally, the January magic.

After my incredibly lucky day in December, I was thinking about magic, luck, and how things often come in threes. Three is a notoriously magical number; folklore says you can be sure that if two alike things happen, a third will follow. Not just fortune, however, but misfortune too, which is a lot less fun, and I don’t know about you, but my preference is to break an unlucky streak as soon as possible. So here is a little bit of portable magic you can carry around with you in case you need it.

A match.

Keep an unlit match (or a few) in your bag/pocket, and when you notice you’ve had two bad things happen in a row, take out one of your matches, snap it cleanly in half, and say something like “Let the streak be broken” or “And the third bad thing happened,” or come up with something similar that feels right to you. Just make sure to snap, and acknowledge the end of the run. Throw the two halves away, and your streak of bad luck will be tossed out with it.

I took this on Christmas Day but never posted it anywhere because I was too busy having fun. This is the energy I want to bring into 2023.

Happy New Year! It’s going to be the best one yet; it will grow because we tend it. See you next month x

1. The Melseum is the nickname my best friend gives to my home because I like to have things arranged just so, out on display, where you may gaze freely upon their beauty, but YOU MUST NEVER, EVER TOUCH THEM. This is a fault going back to childhood. I like when things look beautiful, but only I know and understand the rules of how to make that happen for my own maximum satisfaction. We all have our little foibles.