Happy birthday to me!

Hi friends! April is my birthday month, and by total coincidence, I also believe that it’s the best month. The days are getting longer and warmer, everything is in bloom, and the New York parks are at their prettiest. Plus it’s almost always host to the best Jewish holiday (Passover) and it’s Cadbury Egg season. What more could you want?

As I write this in the waning days of March, I’m wrapping up a revision on a YA that is unquestionably the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written. I’ve also been extremely busy with work, social obligations, various community-focused activities I’m involved in, and a minor repair in my apartment that I was approximately 3000% more stressed out about than I needed to be. I’m very much looking forward to spending my birth month kicking back, eating bonbons, and enjoying the flowers. I highly recommend you do the same, whether it’s your birthday or not.

What’s New?

Over on Book Riot, I wrote about The 10 Saddest Comics Deaths Ever. Obviously this is a very subjective topic, but also, I’m right. Go read the Farley story and I’m sorry in advance.

I have a bit more news, but…I can’t talk about it yet. Watch this space!

What I’m Reading

Books: I read a lot of good books this past month, but Heir by Sabaa Tahir really knocked my socks off. I somehow never got around to reading An Ember in the Ashes (though I will now!), but holy smokes, you guys. I’ve written about my frustrations with overly long YA novels that don’t earn their page count, but even though Heir is long enough to kill a man, every word is earned and purposeful. It’s definitely upper, upper YA—if this book had been published as adult fantasy, I wouldn’t have blinked—but as someone who has struggled to find books I’ve enjoyed in this space for a few years now, it was such a breath of fresh air to read one that reminded me of why I fell in love with YA fantasy to begin with.

Comics: I’m still on my X-Men kick, and I enjoyed the 2024 Exceptional X-Men series by Eve Ewing and Carmen Carnero so much. It focuses on Kitty Pryde as she adjusts to life post-Krakoa and ignores her own trauma, and the three mutant teens she reluctantly takes under her wing. Besides being funny and charming and firmly solidifying Kitty as a queer character where Krakoa had left some plausible deniability there, it’s also a great example of how to introduce new characters into a massive, long-running universe and make the reader care. I love Bronze, Melee, and Axo so much now and will follow them anywhere. I’m so sad this book was canceled so soon but also unsurprised because Marvel loooves to cancel a book before its time. Definitely pick up the trades if you can!

Happy birthday if it’s your birthday, and happy unbirthday if it’s not! Enjoy the spring, friends.

<3

Jessica