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  "description": "This Month's reading report features craft articles from Ilona Andrews and C.L. Polk, a 2,000 year-old copper skeleton and 100 word memoirs.",
  "path": "/reading-report-october-2025/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-10-30T12:05:16.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.writingaboutwritingaboutwriting.com",
  "tags": [
    "Amazon Link",
    "Your Brain is a Story Machine",
    "On hitting the “I hate everything” stage",
    "How I Abandon Organization While Planning a Novel",
    "There is no Amazon Boycott",
    "Momento Mori",
    "Eat the jelly doughnut",
    "Teen Tiny Memoirs",
    "Testimony of Mute Things",
    "Blind Date with a Werewolf",
    "The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association",
    "available online as a podcast",
    "Academy of Outcasts",
    "Fledgling",
    "Saltation",
    "Ghost Ship",
    "Dragon Ship",
    "Ashenden or The British Agent",
    "Reading Report September 2025",
    "Reading Report November 2025",
    "All"
  ],
  "textContent": "I am writing this in the Denver airport, on my way to the Writer Unboxed Unconference in Santa Fe. By the time you read it I’ll be most of the way through a week of writing workshops. I plan to bring back a ton of new tidbits and tools and maybe a few more writing books.\n\nI love traveling, yes for the exciting new places, but I love the in-between times too. There’s nothing quite so liminal as an airport or train station. October is an especially liminal time, poised between seasons, and as All-Hallows Eve approaches, between worlds. This Month's reading report features craft articles from Ilona Andrews and C.L. Polk, a 2,000 year-old copper skeletong and 100 word memoirs. Happy Reading ~EM\n\n### Surprise Short Story Announcement!\n\n#### Scott's Planet is Now Available!\n\nMy short story \"Trade Value\" is in this amazing shared world anthology, telling the story of a colony abandoned on a world of two-meter-long bugs, giant fish, terror chickens, and the people who made it their home. Links to other retailers will be along in a few weeks.\n\nAmazon Link\n\n## Inspiration Station\n\n  * Writer Unboxed - Your Brain is a Story Machine - On keeping the human connection to story.\n  * Ilona Andrews - On hitting the “I hate everything” stage of learning to write - and why it's a good thing.\n  * C.L. Polk - How I Abandon Organization While Planning a Novel\n  * Industry info - There is no Amazon Boycott - on why indie authors are seeing a downtown, includes bookscan numbers for recent releases.\n\n\n\n## **Strange But True**\n\n  * Live Science - Momento Mori - a 2,000 year old copper skeleteon party-favor\n  * Bluesky - Eat the jelly doughnut \n\n\n\n  * New York Times - Teen Tiny Memoirs - winners of the NY Time's 100 word memoirs contest for teens. Brilliant, heartwrenching, inspiring.\n\n\n\n## October Reading List\n\n  * Testimony of Mute Things - Lois McMaster Bujold - A Surprise Penric and Desdimona novella when it seems like we just had The Adventure of the Demonic Ox a few months ago. Pen is younger here, but hot on the case of a murder threatening a peace treaty between neighboring princedoms.\n  * Blind Date with a Werewolf - Patricia Briggs - Lonely and Proud and Terrible, ancient werewolf Asil’s “friends” set him up on five blind dates over the Christmas Holidays. Hijinks ensue.\n  * The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association - Caitlin Rozakis - After a werewolf attack on their Kindergartener, two parents have to adapt to a new and dangerous environment, a new england private school’s parent teacher association. If you'd like a preview, Caitlin read a sample of this story at Fantastic Fiction a few months ago and it's available online as a podcast.\n  * Academy of Outcasts - Larry Correra - A fun new world playing on the magic school theme. What would you be like if you grew up on Lava World?\n  * Fledgling, Saltation, Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - A reread of one of my favorite series, and guess what? The first book, Fledgling, is free on Baen's website. A good entry point into Lee and Miller's Liaden Universe, that only gets deeper and richer the more books you've read.\n  * Ashenden or The British Agent - W. Somerset Maugham. Still working through this one. Excellent for time appropriate atmosphere. Not so excellent at keeping me awake.\n\n\n\n##  Want More Writing About Writing About Writing?\n\nSubscribe to get new book reviews and tools in your inbox\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe anytime.\n\n⬅️Reading Report September 2025 ➡️Reading Report November 2025 👉All",
  "title": "Reading Report: October 2025",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-03T15:47:08.079Z"
}