It’s been a busy month: I finished my first ever hard science fiction short story (my brain still hurts), I went to watch a true music icon, and I formed a book club! Oh, and our Christmas decorations are up 🎅🎄(though I can only claim credit for the labour of carrying the boxes down from the attic).

I’ve been an avid reader for longer than I can remember, but I’ve never been a member of a book club. That changed this month! Me and a few other dads from my village founded a book club as a space to get together in our local pub and chat about books. None of us had been members of a book club, which is perhaps surprising because the other members include an English teacher, a former English teacher and lecturer in American Literature who is now a librarian, and another former teacher who has just read 35 Discworld novels on the bounce. So, fair to say we’re all readers, but for whatever reason, traditional book clubs haven’t felt like a space for us to attend. Until now. Read on to find out what book we chose for our first read and what distracted us from our book chat.

We even have our own logo! Illustrated by the very talented T.S. Wolfe, one of the founding members of our book club.

The noble art of analysing a rejection and deciphering how close you were to (or not) to an acceptance.

This month, I submitted 1 story and received 1 rejection.

It’s been a quieter month on the submission front because I have been focussing on finishing a hard science fiction story, which has taken some time, and turning my hand to (finally) getting started on a novel. I was expecting to hit 50 submissions this year but I don’t think that’ll happen and I’m mulling over my writing goals and what I want to achieve for 2026, which will probably result in a different approach next year.

This month, I’m recommending one of the classic works on finding a spiritual guru: “A Search in Secret India”, written by Paul Brunton, generally considered as the person who introduced yoga and meditation to the West. It’s a captivating book, describing Brunton’s travels across early twentieth century India as he lives among mystics, yogis and various other gurus as he seeks inner peace and tranquility. Brunton was a journalist, not a doe-eyed believer wanting to be convinced, so he approaches each guru with a critical eye. I loved it, but then I often find myself drawn to books about spirituality and how this manifests in different traditions and cultures. If that’s your bag too, or you have any yearning to visit India like me, then I’m confident you’ll love it too.

And the story of how I came into possession of this book taught me about the wonderful potential to learn and grow when we strike up meaningful conversations with new people.

Disclosure: To cover some of my running costs, I have incorporated affiliate links from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops. If you buy books linked to my site or newsletter, I may earn a commission.

What I’m reading: I read The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola, which was a wild and unusual story. It was written in the early 1950s and championed in the UK by Dylan Thomas, probably Swansea’s best known son. It’s about a guy, who may be a god (he certainly calls himself ‘Father of gods, who can do anything’ and does do some amazing things) who loves drinking palm-wine (and lots of it). His palm-wine tapster dies and ‘Father of gods’ (we never find out his name) travels across the bush in Nigeria to find him in Dead’s Town so he can carrying on tapping palm-wine for him. Along the way he has a pretty crazy adventure, meeting spirits and vicious creatures (and people), including a very handsome and complete gentleman that is actually not complete, just a skull (his ‘handsome parts were all borrowed from people each market day) and so on. It’s magical realism and unlike anything I’ve read before, in both style and content. The closest comparison from my experience is probably saying it is like Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ meets Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’. I read it across two evenings and quite enjoyed it.

What I’m watching: It’s all about the return of those programmes that begin the countdown to Christmas: The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing (cue the music, da da-da-da da-da-da! da da-da-da-da! Ey!). My wife likes to bake a complimentary treat to watch the Bake Off, so it’s always a great time of the year for me (not my waistline). And you can’t beat the show biz and glam of Strictly; who doesn’t love a bit of sequins and fake tan on a Saturday night?

What I listened to: I went to see Bob Dylan on his Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour at the Swansea Arena this month. He’s still going strong well into his 80s, which is truly inspiring. I hope to have that much passion for writing when (if) I reach that age. He played mostly his newer stuff, which I am less familiar with, but it was great to see him live again (the last time was back in 2009). It was also a ‘phone free event’, meaning each of us had to put our phones in these locked pouches. To be honest, I thought it was a great approach. I was certainly less distracted by trying to capture a video or photo and was more present. I wonder if ‘phone free events’ will take off (I hope so). And, it seemed fitting that Bob Dylan finally played a gig in the birthplace of Dylan Thomas, who inspired his stage name. That makes it two Dylan Thomas references this month!

Halloween is over! And that means it’s (perhaps) now socially acceptable to countdown to Christmas.

Though, as I said last month, I’ve been listening to the radio station “Magic: Christmas” since October. One day, I’ll have a room in my house where I’ll permanently have a Christmas tree and decorations and Christmas music playing all year round 🎅🎄

Until next time, keep dreaming.

Joel