Brian B Baker, Writer

Fun title, eh?

Since the middle of December my wife and I have been fighting off colds of one form or another. Luckily none of them have turned out to be Covid. This is by sheer luck.

My wife broke her ankle just before Thanksgiving, she got sick around then but fought it off. My sister stayed with us and none of us were sick at the time.

It’s been snotball rolling down a greasy hill since. She got sick with what we think was bronchitis, but the doctor said it was just a cold. I’m calling bullshit on that.

I got bronchitis after my wife recovered. She got sick, then after my recovery from bronchitis, I got sick again. We’ve passed this back and forth a few times.

We were almost out of the woods, then last week, I had a cough. Possible bronchitis. Doctor gave me prednisone and an inhaler for asthma, which I don’t have. Th inhaler had steroids in it already. This exasperated everything. I got sicker and started coughing up rainbow colored crap. Ya know, if rainbows were all green, yellow, and red. I may have whooping cough. Which is apparently going around.

I have read a lot this year, and recently finished Red Lagoe’s book, “In Excess Of Dark”, which I’ll be writing a review of in the next week.

I’m also moving along with a mentorship I’m a part of. It’s been amazing to have someone go over my writing like this. I’ve never had someone who truly knew how to edit go over my work. It’s been an incredible process.

I’m going to rest now. I’m on powerful cough medicine that makes my head swim and it’s taking effect.

I did a few things in the last year I wasn’t expecting.

I got books from NetGalley to review, I published a novella, and I put myself out there for something that I can’t talk about.

All of this scared me, but especially that last one. It’s something I wanted to do the last few years and finally did it. My wife said I should, and that’s all I needed.

The NetGalley reviews came about because I like doing reviews. I like to read, always have. I’d rather sit with a book for hours than do anything else. This has not always made married life serene. My wife reads, but for me it’s always been a way to escape my life.

My childhood had issues, as does everyone’s. I always dove into books when I had them.

I did not use a discerning view while selecting my books from NetGalley. I should have selected my reads more carefully. I did not and by doing this I had to return more books to NetGalley than I like.

I reviewed some great books this year. Some of which have yet to be released. One of them, This Wretched Valley, gave me a book hangover for a few weeks. I preordered it so I could read it again, and so my wife could read it. It’s a fabulous book that I hope everyone will be talking about. There are other books that I did not like. You can search through my reviews and find them. I’m not the kind of person to mention them here.

For the novella, which has gained more readers overseas than stateside, I wanted to publish it but felt it needed work. I spent most of the year getting it ready for that. I selected the publishing date in June. I hoped for more readers as it’s a personal book. Dealing with mental issues is always one of those things that I tend to write about. It’s a thing for me.

I feel this is enough for today. I’ll post something later.

I did a few things in the last year I wasn’t expecting.

I got books from NetGalley to review, published a novella, and put myself out there for something I can’t talk about.

All of this scared me, but especially that last one. It’s something I wanted to do for the last few years, and I finally did it. My wife said I should, and that’s all I needed.

The NetGalley reviews came about because I like doing reviews. I like to read and always have. I’d rather sit with a book for hours than do anything else. This has not always made married life serene. My wife reads, but for me, it’s always been a way to escape my life.

My childhood had issues, as does everyone’s. I always dove into books when I had them.

I did not use discernment while selecting my books from NetGalley. I should have selected my reads more carefully. I did not; by doing this, I had to return more books to NetGalley than I liked.

I reviewed some great books this year. Some of which have yet to be released. One of them, This Wretched Valley, gave me a book hangover for a few weeks. I preordered it to reread it so my wife could read it. It’s a fabulous book that I hope everyone will be talking about. There are other books that I did not like. You can search through my reviews and find them. I’m not the kind of person to mention them here.

For the novella, which has gained more readers overseas than stateside, I wanted to publish it but felt it needed work. I spent most of the year getting it ready for that. I selected the publishing date in June. I hoped for more readers as it’s a personal book. Dealing with mental issues is always one of those things that I tend to write about. It’s a thing for me.

I feel this is enough for today. I’ll post something later.