My annual Book List

 Once again, my list of books read this past year ...

 

1. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

2. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton*

3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt*

4. The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

5. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes*

6. The Book of Sand by Mo Hayder

7. The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman

8. Tidepool by Nicole Wilson

9. How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu

10. Something Bad Wrong by Eryk Pruitt

11. I Know Where You Live by Greg Olsen

12. Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes*

13. The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb

14. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

15. Verity by Colleen Hoover

16. Lone Women by Victor Lavalle*

17. Babel by R.F. Kuang

18. The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly*

19. The Light on Farallon Island by Jen Wheeler

20. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane*

21. The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes*

22. An unwanted Inheritance by Imogen Clark

23. Dead Space by Kali Wallace

24. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

25. Broken Harbor by Tana French

26. Rose House by Arkady Martine

27. Black River by Matthew Spencer

28. The Trespasser by Tana French

29. The Shallows by Holly Craig

30. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Wood

31. The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry

32. Hail Mary by Andy Weir*

33. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

34. Starter Villain by John Scalzi

35. The Abominable by Dan Simmons

36. Dawn by Octavia Butler

37. The Far End of Happy by Katherine Craft

38. All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

 

The starred books were among my faves, and if I had to pick one book everyone should read, it would be Remarkably Bright Creatures. Dead Silence was also a super fun scifi read, as was Project Hail Mary and Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane was, no surprise, amazing. I'll never forget Mary Pat, a tough as nails mom from Southie who will literally do anything to find her daughter.

In other news (as in mine), I attended the Writer Unboxed Conference in Salem, Mass. this fall and it was AMAZING. I left so inspired and cannot wait til the next conference in 2025. I'd never attended a writer's conference before and I'm glad this was my first. Also, one of the presenters was the awesome Donald Maass who always inspires me by his posts on the Writer Unboxed website. If you're a writer, I highly recommend.

Happy New Year all. I'll leave you with some joy pics.

 

And a very Happy Ghoulidays to you, too

 As promised, Shannon Lawrence is here today to talk about her new book, Happy Ghoulidays II...

Releasing March 17, Happy Ghoulidays II brings horror to the holidays in a follow up to Happy Ghoulidays. In the first one, Shannon Lawrence covered Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day (and Lupercalia). With Happy Ghoulidays II, she creepifies St. Patrick's Day through Halloween, with pit stops on April Fool's Day, Mother's Day, Election Day, the 4th of July, Easter, and Beltane.

 

Title: Happy Ghoulidays II

Release Date: March 17, 2023

The holidays elicit a mixture of emotions, from joy and revelry to despair and rage. In these stories, we examine the dark side of the holidays with a twisted Easter egg hunt, a desperate St. Patrick's Day curse, a monster that's only visible in the light of fireworks, a mother's guilt on Halloween, and more in this follow up to Happy Ghoulidays that embraces the underlying shadows of our favorite holidays.

 

Available for e-book pre-order on Kindle, Nook, Apple, Scribd, and Smashwords. Universal link

 

Available for paperback pre-order from Barnes & Noble: B&N paperback 

 

Amazon paperback pre-order coming soon at this link: Amazon e-book and paperback 

 

 

 

A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in over forty anthologies and magazines, and her three solo horror short story collections and her nonfiction title are available now, with her fourth collection releasing March 2023. You can also find her as a co-host of the podcast Mysteries, Monsters, & Mayhem. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings, where, coincidentally, there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. Find her at www.thewarriormuse.com.