Well 2023 has been a year, again…

The first half of the year was mainly taken up with choosing and moving house, and we all know how that can make you feel, nothing much got done there.

Then it was that time of moving in and settling down and finding how to work/live in a new space.

Then in September not only did I go full-time as a bookseller I moved branch. Now there’s three hours travel every day.

Of course I thought I could do things in that time; read, write blog posts, watch shows on my iPad, but of course I tend to listen to music and drop off most trips (thankfully my stop is the end stop of the journey!)

Before that all happened I had a plan to change the style of this blog and relaunch the Indie Bookshops and Indie Publishers websites and this has taken longer than I thought it would due to these changes but this site’s design is now reformatted and up and running properly once more.

This also means that the interview series (authors, illustrators, and bloggers) will start up again in the new year, with the interviews being shared on my Substack and a dedicated Tumblr to collect them all.

So far on the interview series there are 76 author interviews, 11 illustrator interviews, and 1 blogger interview on the blog and gradually being added to Substack and Tumblr. I’ve got about another 24 lined up to get on the blog but I’m always on the look out for more people who would like to be involved.

This year (as of writing) I’ve read 66 books and reviewed 58, so I’ve enjoyed the vast majority of the books I’ve read! Next year I’m going to stop using Goodreads and just use the spreadsheet I’ve got to log my reading with a post on Twitter when I pick up a new book.

The Indie Bookshops and Indie Publishers sites are back up and running again. There is some information on whilst I fine tune the design and the way I want each post to look. Both of these sites are linked from the top right of this blog.

Each of these sites should get at least one stub page for a bookshop or publisher added each week, with more specific lists being developed. For example a list for children’s bookshops, or dark fantasy publishers so that it will be easier to find what you’re looking for.

I’ll also be expanding the Indie Publishers lists beyond just the UK and Ireland and adding publishers from around the world to the website.