January 1, 2025, began with Hagalaz. It’s a rune that indicates hail, or “disruptive natural forces.” As a way to cope with the anxiety this induced, I got the idea to log the disruptions I witnessed over the 52 weeks of this past year.

What I wound up with is a rabble close to 2,600 words, too long to post here, as well as too encoded in my personal lingua to offer up untranslated.

Instead, herewith a few disruptions / observations grouped around writing, reading, and my life in general.

Writing:

• Started a substack, Anne McClane: Writer Reappearance.
• Got re-engaged with a dusty manuscript. It’s not so dusty anymore.
• Participated in my first NYC Midnight writing challenge. A scary story in 400 words or less.
• Made a great connection through A Writing Room, and also attended some of their really good workshops.
• Found out I’m a Class Member of the lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming they infringed protected copyrights. Via my first novel, The Incident Under the Overpass.

Reading:

• Read Brave New World for the first time. Trying not to regret that I didn’t read it earlier in my life, instead I’m just grateful that I have this reference for the rest of my life. (I posted on Substack about it).
• LOVED Amalie Howard’s Taming of the Dukes series. Devoured these and loved every regency-saucy bit. Ending the year and starting the new one with her earlier work, The Beast of Beswick.
• Rounding out my favorite reads of the year: Orbital (Samantha Harvey), Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (highly recommend the audiobook with its 166-person cast!), and The Day of the Jackal (Frederick Forsyth)
• Other notables: Aflame (Pico Iyer), The Beauty in Breaking (Michele Harper), All the Colors of the Dark (Chris Whitaker), The Perishing (Natasha Deón), Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller), Plum Island (Nelson DeMille), India Holton’s “Love’s Academic” series, The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy), Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
• And last but not least, titles in the public domain: Shakespeare’s King Lear and As You Like It, Home to Harlem by Claude McKay, St. Francis of Assisi (G.K. Chesterton), Bartleby, the Scrivener (Herman Melville), Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)

Life in General

• Witnessed a once-in-a-century snowstorm in New Orleans at the start of the year.
• Made remarkable trips to Paris, Chicago, Bermuda, New Mexico, and Amsterdam.
• Ran my first races outside the U.S.: the Paris marathon in April and the Damloop by Night in Zaandam, Netherlands.

So, turns out this post is heavily weighted toward my past year’s reading list. There were certainly other disruptions, but the ones shared here feel theme-appropriate for this space. And opening your mind to the power of a good book is one of the best kind of disruptions I can think of.

Happy New Year!