fantasy – Erin of the Hills

“…I kept having those sudden, subtle, and possibly microchemical raptures – little lights flicking deep inside the brain tissue – that some people experience when they finally find words for a very simple and yet till then utterly unspeakable feeling. When someone else’s words enter your consciousness like that, they become small conceptual light-marks.”

-Valeria Luiselli, Lost Children Archive

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holiday season was as beautiful as it could be, whatever the circumstances in which you spent it.

Our little family, unfortunately, spent the two weeks battling various iterations of the flu (aside for my 6 year old who somehow managed to remain completely healthy) but we still found little moments to cherish each other and bathe in gratitude for all that we have. Thankfully we are all much healthier now!

In anticipation of, hopefully, a much more robust year of writing I wanted to start 2026 off right by celebrating an achievement from 2025 that I’m particularly proud of – I crushed my reading goal! I had set it at a modest 25 books (for 2025, obviously. I know, I know, how clever) and ended up finishing 52 instead. This meant that not only did I meet my declared goal but also my secret goal to read one book per week over the course of the year. Did I read one book per week? Maybe not. But…I read the equivalent! So I’m counting it.

I thought I would start this year off easy with a look at the top 5 books I read last year and why they were so impactful.

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This place has atmosphere, different from a bookshop with just new books. In here you sense the weight of time stretching way back to the past.

Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking For is in The Library

I’ve always found that for both writing and reading, atmosphere is important to me. Now, this is not to say that I can only read or write in a specific location. Only that to fully focus my creative mind, I need to feel comfortable in my surroundings.

When we first saw the house we now call home, back in January, it was not initially what I thought we had been looking for. Most of the houses we had looked at leading up to this one had been just out of town with at least an acre of land (one actually had 5!) They were my vision of an oasis of tranquility where we could escape just a little from the frantic pace of modern life.

Having looked at all these beautiful country homes, we decided to check this one out for a very specific reason. I had grown up only a 5-minute walk from my elementary school and I remember truly loving being so close…especially as someone who has never been a morning person and for whom mornings were less than tranquil. This house would give the girls the same experience growing up but it was far from the secluded country retreat I had been dreaming about. Regardless, it seemed to be perfectly situated for the kids on a quiet cul-de-sac close to not only their school but also the walking path, fair grounds and library. And that meant something.

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Tag: fantasy

Top Five Books of 2025

A Bookish Atmosphere