Welcome to Carol's Curiosities!

Carol's Curiosities is a paid-subscription newsletter offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of my continuous learning and creativity journeys.

It operates on a patronage model, and in return for supporting me to do my work, I highlight discoveries and experiences that I hope you will enjoy reading about.

Books, Books, and More Books

You can absolutely expect to hear about books. My first choice medium for both information and entertainment is the book. Physical, electronic, print, audio – they're all fabulous.

My interests are diverse, and I read across all age groups. Many more books catch my attention than I will manage to read in my lifetime. To track everything, I maintain a hand-built "books database" that's closing in on 40,000 entries (as of August 2025). Some of those I've read, more of them I haven't gotten to yet.

One of the things I track are upcoming releases that snagged my attention, and I will regularly share those with you.

I will also occasionally highlight a gem reading experience I've had, whether the book is old or new.

Fiction

Fiction is only slightly less essential to me than oxygen. Whether I'm reading new stories, revisiting familiar ones, or imagining my own, I need at least a little daily for health and happiness.

I bubble over about fiction I've enjoyed or been very impressed by. I will not comment on others in any identifiable way. But these gem reading experiences don't arrive on a tidy schedule, and trying to ensure I have something worthwhile to report on tends to warp my reading away from books I need to finish in order to make forward progress on creative projects. So when and how much bubbling happens will vary.

Mostly I read fantasy and science fiction, followed closely by mysteries and thrillers/adventures. I don't like being scared (ever), but I enjoy a high-stakes adrenaline rush (in fiction).

I read some romance, but I prefer restrained spice. A little goes a long way, and "too much" detracts from my enjoyment of the characters and the story.

Historical and contemporary fiction catch my attention more than they used to, and I deliberately explore other genres.

My professional interests mean I sometimes read horror for breadth and field awareness, but I do not choose it for recreation. However, occasionally a horror work seriously impresses me – leaves me feeling like what I got out of reading it was more than worth the discomforts of getting there – and I will draw your attention to those.

Writing Craft

For more than forty years, I've read writing craft books for pleasure as well as education. I take classes, attend conferences, listen to podcasts, watch videos – if it's about how writing fiction works, I give that source a chance.

Every tidbit about writing craft connects into a web of broader context built up from more than a thousand other sources. I tolerate weeding through duds to find insightful treasures. At this point, I only bother to draw attention to sources I find to be exceptional.

You may or may not agree with all my judgements. Fiction craft is general, but also personal. Some of the advice I've found most helpful in getting good words on the page only tangles others in sludge – and vice versa. Each writer has to find their own way, and sometimes a particular story will demand variations.

How do you tell the difference? If specific advice empowers you and results in making productive, quality progress writing your story, it's good for you. If specific advice locks you up, demoralizes you, or makes storytelling fraught with failure, let it go and look for something else.

You can also expect glimpses into my original research about how fiction works. Although informed by my writing practice, my research reflects analysis, not extensive publications. I apply the skills I honed obtaining a PhD in an unrelated subject to my other fascinations, chiefly the craft of fiction. I am, slowly, developing courses and articles that I think will add constructively to that broader web of professional discourse; my particular interest is how bits of fiction work and how to replicate those effects.

Writing is a set of skills atop a body of knowledge. They speak to each other, but knowledge and skill grow independently, through different mechanisms. My knowledge base is sufficiently professional, for all that I will be refining it forever. My execution skills are patchier, and I sometimes take ludicrous detours on the way to telling a story sufficiently well. But those detours can be educational, teaching me something new or hammering home a familiar point in a new way. Sometimes I'll share glimpses of those with you.

General Research

Writing fiction leads me to learn about a dizzying number of topics and details. Some writers claim to get away with very little research, but I don't seem to be that kind of writer.

Trying to describe what you might expect to hear about is a bit like trying to write a short paragraph summarizing the universe and the workings of everything in it. Across all time.

Instead, let me suggest the possibilities by giving you a glimpse into how I organize my "books database". If I was setting up one today, I would begin with:

• Fiction and Narratives (genres but also memoir, essays, poetry, etc.)
• Writing - Creativity - Publishing
• Literature Studies (anything else related to books and reading)
• Science - Engineering - Technology
• Medicine and Health (including Forensics and Genetics)
• Nature (including Weather and Animals)
• Self Studies (things to improve oneself, either in understanding or practice)
• People Studies (things to improve understanding of or interacting with others)
• Society/Culture Studies (varied present-day societies and cultures)
• Political Science - Economics - Governance (focused on general patterns)
• History (worldwide)
• Business - Finance - Entrepreneurship
• Information Studies (organization, propagation, effects of, etc)
• Education - Teaching - Learning
• Language Fun
• Arts - Home Comforts - Crafts
• Food Studies - Gardening
• Cookbooks

Once established, I subdivide categories that grow too large, to keep it easy to find related things. If needed, I'll add another high-level category. I freely alter the system whenever a change seems helpful.

Any of those topics (and more) might lead me to a gem research experience worth sharing with you. Or I might compile a list of resources I've found particularly helpful in gaining a basic understanding of something complicated or very niche. It's hard to predict.

That's the thing about research: You never know exactly what's around the next corner.

Artistic Pursuits

As a child, I misunderstood the term "artist". I thought it meant only that one was naturally gifted at drawing or painting. If one did anything else, one was something else: a writer, a sculptor, a jeweller, etc. As an adult, I understand that these (and many more) are all arts, that an artist can do any (or many) of them, and – most importantly – that the fundamental skills of all arts can be taught and learned.

Now I collect arts and explore the surprisingly many facets of my artist self. It's a continuing source of wonder.

I practice (and sometimes design in) several fiber arts, notably knitting and quilting. I have started learning drawing and watercolor painting, with the goal of doing both well enough for my own purposes. And I read about so many more arts, for the sheer delight and wonder they inspire. Some of them I'll even dabble in!

So you can expect to hear occasionally about such things.

You can also expect to hear occasionally about food arts. I am not a chef; I am not even a proper foodie. But I actually read cookbooks, not just reference them, and I enjoy tasty meals and pretty treats. I also value the skills to produce those foods as well as the linked skills of meal and menu planning and the core knowledge that allows cooks to improvise successfully. So I'm learning. And sometimes I come across a recipe or a resource or a tidbit that I bubble about.

Signing Up

If you're still reading, chances are that you might enjoy my newsletter. The major publication date is the 15th of each month (Pacific timezone), when I post my eclectic curation of recent and upcoming books that caught my attention, across all genres and age groups.

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Thank you!

I hope you'll join Carol's Curiosities and share in pieces of my adventures!

-Carol

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