It's the final countdown

I finished a novel revision in November.

It was a pretty fast revision—and fast drafting, too. Looking at my writing tracker, it took me two months and three weeks to draft what eventually wound up being 96k of what I’m calling the dragon book; the revision was just under two months. I’m going to send it to some trusted beta readers and take one more pass before sending it to my agent, hopefully no later than February.

I have lots of thoughts about this—about my goals for 2025 and what my new ones are going to be for 2026, about how much moving into an apartment with a lot of sunlight has affected my productivity, about how to deal with feeling at loose ends when a draft is done—but the cold I’ve been keeping at bay for a week has finally caught up with me, and I’m going to retire to my sickbed with tissues and the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry. Let’s reconvene in January, shall we?

But first…

What’s New?

Over at Book Riot, I wrote about Diamond Comics’s bankruptcy and what it means for the comic book industry. And stay tuned for a couple of days from now when I’ll have another article up bidding farewell to my two favorite books from DC. (Sigh.)

What I’m Reading

Books: I have been longing for a Jaime Reyes graphic novel from DC’s YA line…basically since they announced the line in 2017. This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story, by Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo, was worth the wait: it’s smart, timely, and absolutely beautiful to look at. Anta and Salcedo got Jaime and his supporting cast exactly right while streamlining and updating them for a new audience and a book that isn’t mired in DC’s larger continuity. Jaime is one of my very favorite superheroes, and his themes of community, optimism, turning enemies into friends, antiracism and immigrant rights*, and staying true to your values in the face of violence and hatred are more relevant than ever. I’m so happy this book exists.

*As the book points out, “immigrant” isn’t really the right word since most of the characters’ ancestors were in El Paso before the current U.S. borders existed, but it’s commenting on the larger cultural and political conversation.

What I’m Watching

Yes, I saw Wicked: For Good, and yes, I cried, but my favorite theatrical release this month was actually (and unsurprisingly) Wake Up Dead Man. I love a classic fair play mystery and the Benoit Blanc films are pitch perfect examples of the genre. I hope they make a hundred of them.

I hope your December is lovely, whether you celebrate something (or multiple somethings) or not. We’ve got three more Queer Superhero History articles to go this month, but otherwise: see you all in 2026!

<3

Jessica