It’s January and time for my annual storytelling retrospective. Use the comments to talk about your favorite reads and other stories for the past year, or friend me on Goodreads so we can really discuss best books! I’m also on Storygraph.

I like to keep records, and I list all books and audiobooks I consume on Goodreads as part of the yearly reading challenge. This year I started listening to a wonderful story via podcast (I’ve gotten through the first season) and want to include it in my best of list for the year.

My Goodreads record shows that I read or listened to thirty-six published books or audiobooks. Because I provide beta feedback to writers via Independent Book Reviews, I read many unpublished or pre-published books; in 2023, an additional six fiction books. I semi-regularly listened to three podcasts. So, a total of 45 story experiences.

Ten of my total books consumed and one of the podcasts were non-fiction.

What 2023 Media are Eligible for My Best Stories?

• For this retrospective, I’m going with narratives I experienced in 2023, regardless of when they were published.
• The books’ format could be e-book, print, or audiobook/podcast. For ease of sentence structure, I declare the word “read” to mean “consumed the media.”
• The work was available to the public in 2023.
• While I love all story forms, by “book” I mean a length of at least 7500 words (novelette length).

How The Books Found Me

I’m aware a book’s provenance might affect my expectations: Do I prejudge a book published by the author versus one from a publishing company? A related question is how I learned of the book’s existence in the first place. Publishing companies, especially large ones, spend money on ads, book reviews, feature articles, and interviews, all of which catch readers’ attention. Promotional messages impact the book’s impression on a reader before they encounter the words on the page. And, of course, I learn about many books for my job, either as a book reviewer, beta reader, or part of the Montag Press community.

Of the thirty-nine published books I experienced last year:

• Eight were from large, medium, or university publishers. This includes DC Comics and Tordotcom.
• Thirty-one were from small press/author’s own imprint or “small press” podcasts.

I consumed three of the stories via audiobooks. These were all checked out of the library’s random array of whatever was available when I needed an audiobook, and all were “Big Five” publications.

In 2023, I Need Books More Than Ever

Beyond the obvious need for books to entertain, distract, and inform me, I have several goals for my reading list.

• Learn The Writing Craft and Business—While a writer learns something from everything they read, this year I read one book about writing. Wonderworks: Literary Invention and the Science of Stories.
• Widen My Horizons—I’m finding creative nourishment in visual arts these days and read seven books about making comic art.
• Lift Up Other Storytellers—I received an advanced review copy (ARC) or purchased twenty-one books published independently by their author or by a micro/small press. I also make a point to review the indie books I liked for my website and/or Goodreads. I buy a paperback copy if I loved the e-book.
• Promote My Own Writing Business—I write for Independent Book Reviews, which gets my byline and website address before a new audience.These titles are all micro/small press or author published.  Fifteen of these reviewed books were published in 2023. (I read some of them in 2022, and they were published in early 2023.)

Top Five Stories of 2023

Deep Roots

Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys. Tordotcom (McMillan)

Set in Cold-War—era America, Deep Roots continues the story begun in Winter Tide. Aphra Marsh, one of the few survivors of an amphibious fish-frog-human society that once resided off the New England Coast, is looking for any remnant of her people after the government-sponsored genocide of 1928 (described in The Shadow Over Innsmouth). But she and her friends are pulled, once again, into espionage and danger by federal agents.

In this imaginative series, the mysterious, hostile villains of The Shadow Over Innsmouth  become the misunderstood, persecuted protagonists. If you’ve found the Cthulhu mythos intriguing but…not so accessible (there; I’ve said it), check out this tale. Such modern takes on Lovecraft, like Lovecraft Country and The Ballad of Black Tom, are a welcomed trend.

Swedish Cults

Swedish Cults by Anders Fager, translated by Ian Lemke and Henning Koch. Valencourt Books

Eldritch horror meets the long Scandinavian winter. Anders Fager’s short story collection, recently translated into English, is bleak, engrossing, and darkly funny in a creepy way. From small-town teenagers to an impossibly chic city performance artist, the age-old question, “Who is the real monster?” is all too appropriate. Fager is a well-regarded roleplaying game designer, and that sensibility gives these stories an immersive edge.

Heliophobia

Heliophobia by Christopher X. Ryan. Montag Press

Heliophobia recounts the misadventures of a young man, Murray, investigating a missing pricing gun (aka, labeler). But that’s just the plot. The book is actually about fears: fear of the sun, obviously, which brings Murray’s support group together each week in a repurposed school building, but also all the fearful demons of childhood, shifting family and friend roles, and romantic relationships. As Murray visits each of his associates to collect “evidence,” other issues demand his attention, culminating as Murray faces his greatest trauma to find a redemptive resolution. (Disclosure: I have a financial arraignment with the publisher, Montag Press.) I reviewed it, here.

Wonderworks: Literary Invention and the Science of Stories

 Wonderworks: Literary Invention and the Science of Stories by Angus Fletcher. Simon & Schuster

This fascinating book explores both the history of literature’s development, forms, devices, etc., and the neuroscience of how various storytelling tips and tricks affect the audience emotionally. In essence, the “why” of all that conventional wisdom we learn in writers’ workshops and classes.

Old Gods of Appalachia

Old Gods of Appalachia (podcast) by Steve Shell and Cam Collins

The eldritch horror anthology Old Gods of Appalachia is in its fourth season. Not being much of a podcast aficionado, I was unaware of its existence until last August, when I encountered the newly released tabletop roleplaying game based on the stories at Gen Con. The Old Gods story world ticks a lot of boxes for me: spooky stuff, historical references, environmental awareness, and an exploration of my own roots. From the website:

Our world is an alternate Appalachia, where these mountains were never meant to be inhabited. Long before anyone lived in these hills, beings of immeasurable darkness and incomprehensible madness were entombed here…[the mountains were] the final prison for those dark forces…until…  

Old Gods of Appalachia

Check out my best reads of 2020, here. For 2021, here. You’ll find 2022, here.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

Check out my novel from Montag Press, The Big Cinch, a supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Order today. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . .

Reviews, even a line or two, put the books you enjoyed in a more prominent position on Amazon and are vital for independent and small-press books to find their audience. Remember your most recent read? Leave a review for it on Amazon or Goodreads today. The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here , and Water of Life, here, or visit my Shop off the landing page menu to review at Barnes and Noble. Thanks in advance. Reviews put the book in a more prominent position on Amazon.

Like the blog? Subscribe (form at the bottom of my website) to never miss an issue. Subscribe to the newsletter for announcements. And, of course, I’m selling books. St. Louis Writers Guild published Love Letters to St. Louis. This adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations included my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” A perfect gift and profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program.

Check out all my stories at Amazon.com. Order my novella, Wolfhearted, or from Barnes and Noble if you prefer, here. It is also available as an audiobook, here.