Leticia’s Creative Obsessions: Welcoming New Rhythms

In the quiet of winter, I am left with time to ponder, to reflect, to confront transition and change to come.

When I started thinking about my one-word theme for 2025, based on Gretchen Rubin’s “One-Word Theme” challenge, I wanted it to be in conversations with last year’s word, “Voice.” I still wanted to explore music’s role in my life and in my creative practice, as last year I started playing my ukulele more and even began working on a song, but I also wanted to acknowledge how the rhythms of the season influence what I read, what I feel inspired to cook, bake, create, and do, and what this will look like in a year of tumult and transition.

This year, my husband and I are selling our house and we will be taking our pups on the road to travel in an RV full time. This move won’t happen for another few months, but I am already filled with energy as we plan our route, loved ones who we want to visit and places to explore! It’s exciting, nerve-wracking, invigorating, bittersweet, and I can’t wait to write more about it later this year.

Which brings me back to my word: Rhythm. What new rhythms will we create for this life on the road? What will our mornings and evenings look like? What opportunities for my creative practices will open up with this new freedom? How will these opportunities make me more mindful about what I share with others? This is a fallow time of tending my creative soil, turning it to keep it healthy to prepare it for new seeds. There are many things I am planning, but it is also incredibly freeing to know that I don’t know the answers to these questions yet, and I may not know what new practices, routines, and adventures I find until we are in them. What a gift!

What I’m Reading

I have been reading more in the last couple of years than I have in the last decade, and my reading has expanded across genres I used to avoid (romance) and into areas I find challenging, interesting, comforting and so much more.

Inevitably, each year, despite how many books I read, I still feel the weight and pressure of a to-be-read list that keeps getting longer and longer as more amazing books are published! So this year I took inspiration from Gretchen Ruben’s challenge to #Read25in2025 and some inspiration from my writer friend Carie Juettner’s blog. For my bingo card, pictured above, I would like to read at least some books in this category each month of 2025, though I don’t expect to read one in all of them every month. Still, a girl can dream. It was a fun little craft project for me that focuses on some genres I want to explore further, like getting back into reading fantasy and science fiction or speculative fiction more consistently, as well as introducing whimsy and surprise into my life by allowing space for me to discover new reads at the library or in a bookstore; I started volunteering at the Pflugerville Library so this has already started happening, although I have to set a rule for myself not to bring too many more books home each week before I’ve finished the ones I brought home last week!

One of the categories on this list is vampire books. Let me explain.

When I was in my first year in college, I took a Gothic Literature class, and it was one of the most impactful courses on literature I took during my undergraduate career. We studied several seminal texts that shaped our cultural understanding of the Gothic that influences a variety of genres today, especially horror. Last year, I decided to re-read Frankenstein (see my last blog post for more details). This year, I decided to revisit Bram Stoker’s Dracula, another book I studied and wrote an entire research paper about. I also wanted to re-read this novel because of the release of Robert Egger’s Nosferatu and the ongoing exploration of vampires across cultural contexts.

I started listening to a Dracula audiobook, which is really engaging, and then going back into my physical copy and bookmarking or taking notes. One thing that is delighting me already about re-reading this book is that I had forgotten that the entire novel is told in epistolary form. All of the action and character development takes place via journal entries, letters, newspaper articles, and other official logs. It is a lot of fun to read slowly by studying a text, and I look forward to sharing later other vampire novels and media I will be engaging with or that are already at the top of my list. I am combining this genre with reading more werewolf books to compare two of my favorite creatures of folklore that I will discuss in my October post.

This month, my reading is engaging with this winter season of light and darkness. The sun had returned after the winter solstice, but we are reaching the coldest part of winter here in Texas, including possible sleet/snow tomorrow. For me, this is the time for baking, winter soups, thick socks, and staying home to read, watch movies, and being with the silence of the season.

In that respect, a lot of my reading is seasonal. While I have a lot of books on my list to finish, I am also leaning into the cold and darkness for my reading inspiration. I don’t know who coined the term “Winterween,” but that’s the vibe right now and my reading list is reflecting it, though some are more folklore and dark fantasy. Here are some of the books I am excited to read this month (and let’s be honest, probably through February) and possibly into next winter if I don’t finish all of them, which is likely:

1. Winter Harvest by Ioanna Papadopoulou
   • I have read shorter works by this author and am excited to read Greek folklore reimaginings by a Greek author.
2. Moon Over Crusted Snow by  Waubgeshig Rice
   • This indigenous post-apocalyptic novel is part of a series, so I’m really excited to read this and the next book in the series!
3. Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Artic Horror Stories edited by Aviaq Johnston
   • From the publisher’s description: “‘Taaqtumi’ is an Inuktitut word that means “in the dark”—and these spine-tingling horror stories by Northern writers show just how dangerous darkness can be.” What’s not to love?
4. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
   • This one has been on my TBR for a while, along with other McMahon books, and I am pushing myself to get to it this year.
5. Frost Bite by Angela Sylvaine
   • I have followed Angela on Tik-Tok and am slowly reading her other book, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls, but Frost Bite just looks too fun and winter horror to pass up!
6. The Darkest Night: 22 Winter Horror Stories edited by Lindy Ryan
   • I love a horror anthology and I am listening to the audiobook for this one on Hoopla which is great and atmospheric because it utilizes different voice actors for each story.
7. North is the Night by Emily Rath
   • Another Hoopla discovery. I might be too ambitious and have to come back to this one later. It is a romantasy inspired by Finnish folklore and that’s all I needed to know!
8. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
   • The Southern Reach series has been on my list for a while, and something about the isolation and cold of winter made this speculative, creepy book about a group of scientists who go on an expedition to explore the confoundingly dangerous Area X, felt right. It’s also a book club read for January in one of my Discord groups, so even more motivation to finish this disorienting novel.
9. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
   • Space horror feels seasonal to me. I like to watch some of my creepy space horror favorites like Event Horizon around this time of year, so reading a novel about a caver on a foreign planet who must fight for her own survival sounded right up my alley.

Bonus cold weather reads:

My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place by Meik Wiking is a short, comforting and inspiring little book about using the Danish philosophy of hygge, or cherishing and appreciating the simple comforts of home, to curate and create living spaces that serve our souls. As we embark on the full-time RV, I am cherishing our home of 13 years (see more in my zine, Home Love) and thinking a lot about how the design and set up of our RV, which we are prepping for our trip, will serve as our new home for at least a year, if not more.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher is one I am excited to read since I have only read T Kingfisher’s horror books so far, but she is an auto-read author for me. Winter is a time when I find a lot of solace in cooking comforting foods and baking breads and other treats for Ramiro and my loved ones, so this whimsical fantasy novel attracted me instantly. The main character’s familiar is a sourdough starter!

What I’m Watching

This time of year, I oscillate between wanting to watch something warm and comforting or something dark and scary, just like in my reading interests. Here are some of my favorites to watch:

Scare Me, written and directed by Josh Ruben (2020)

You can find this one on Shudder. I have watched it at least five times and I will never not love this is a creepy writers stranded in a dark cabin tell each other ghost stories movie. I am a huge fan of Josh Ruben as both a comedian (see his work on Dropout TV) writer and director, and this one is the perfect blend of horror and comedy.

John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)

It’s a classic for a reason. At a US research station in Antarctica, crew are confronted by a seemingly harmless husky running away from a helicopter piloted by a group of Norwegian scientists who are trying to kill it. After the Norwegian helicopter crashes, the US crew take the dog in for safety and decide to go to the Norwegian base, only to discover that those scientists are all dead. They seem to have dug up an alien being that had been buried in the ice. The US crew takes part of the alien creature back to the base with them and, as you can imagine, all hell breaks loose. If you haven’t seen it, well, shame on you. But if you haven’t, now is the time to watch one of John Carpenter’s best films, filled with unsettling moments of paranoia, alien body horror and some of the best practical effects in cinema.

30 Days of Night (2007)

This is on my vampire recommendation list too, but I love this movie for many reasons, one of them being that after the era of the Twilight series, this movie based on the graphic novel brings the horror back to vampires. In the small town of Barrow, Alaska, the townspeople are preparing for the season of the year when there will be 30 consecutive days without sunlight. That is when strange incidents of destruction and disappearances begin to happen and Sherriff Eban (Josh Hartnett) has to work with his estranged wife to keep a small band of survivors alive as a band of merciless vampires attack. In my opinion, I want to see Josh Hartnett in all the horror movies (see The Faculty, Penny Dreadful, The Trap, etc) just like Justin Long. I was also today years old when I realized that the director of this film, David Slade, also directed Twilight: Eclipse, which Ramiro and I agree is the best of the Twilight saga in terms of action, so full circle I guess?

Blood Quantum (2019)

This is on my to watch list (might just watch it this week!) but has been on my list for a while. During a zombie virus outbreak, the members of an isolated Mi’kmaq reserve find that because of their indigenous blood, they are immune to the virus and must keep each other safe. As other survivors flee to their community seeking refuge, the community must decide whether to risk their own safety and the safety of the world itself. I’ve heard good things about this movie and I know that several actors from other shows I love like Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds, so that’s a yes from me!

True Detective: Night Country (2024)

We watched this series, in my opinion my favorite season of True Detective, when it came out last year, and it is a perfect thriller for the winter time. Here is the synopsis from MAX: “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.” It’s tense, mysterious and also full of heart, touching on the epidemic of missing indigenous women in North America and the neocolonialism of environmental destruction. If you can access HBO Max I highly recommend it.

Creative Prompts

To honor the dualities of this season, both the warmth and comforts we seek in the winter and the darkness of this time, I am offering two journaling prompts. Take what you will from them, and hopefully they speak to you in some way.

1. What activity fills you with warmth and comfort when you need it most? How do you make that activity fulfilling or special? Who do you share it with? Journal about this activity, including what it feels like using sensory descriptions, even including plans you are making to do it or a memory you associate with this activity.
2. It’s a cold, windy night. You hear a strange sound outside. You go outside and shine a flashlight on the ground on. A flash of eyes stare back at you. What do you see? What do you do next?

Opportunities for Solidarity and Care

This is a new section of the newsletter I wanted to add because, as I discussed in my newsletter in November of last year, We are Interconnected. As I’m writing this, Donald Trump’s administration promises immediate violence against immigrant communities across the US, Los Angeles is struggling to cope with uncontained wildfires and entire neighborhoods destroyed, and Palestinians in Gaza are celebrating a tentative ceasefire agreement and returning to their homes that have been flattened and utterly destroyed.

It’s a tumultous time and so much is uncertain. What is certain is that relying on our government or the wealthy “elite” who control them will not save us. These are the people most committed to the status quo, to institutional violence and capitalist extraction that promises more intense climate disasters, unmitigated pandemics and fascist escalation.

But with this comes the knowledge that solidarity and communal care is the only way to work against this violence and to protect everyone, fighting for safety and justice in a deeply unjust world. Here are some actions of care you can take right now:

1. Mask Bloc LA has been working tirelessly to provide thousands of N95 masks to LA residents to protect them from wildfire smoke and particulates in the air. You can donate masks if you are in the area or pay to send them more as needed.
2. While there are tentative celebrations at the reprieve of a temporary ceasefire for Palestinians in Gaza, aid is slow to get in and so many families have overwhelming care needs. The Sameer Project, a grassroots aid initiave, always needs financial support and boosting to get tents, supplies and needed aid to refugees in Gaza.

What’s Happening with Leticia?

I’m lining up my events for 2025, but if you would like for me to participate in a reading, event or would like for me to lead a workshop for your community, comment or reach out on my website!

In my next post, I will preview some of my Spring workshops and events, as well as more announcements about my work!