Happy Christmas Eve! As is now tradition here at Whatever, I have once again on this day gathered what I think are some of my strongest posts of the year into a handy list for you to peruse at your leisure — to experience again, or to read for the first time. 2020 has been, as the expression goes, twenty pounds of manure in a five pound sack; nevertheless I got some decent writing out of it here.
This year the list of “Best Of” entries I’m presenting comes with a necessary caveat: these are only culled from the pieces I wrote; Athena, who joined Whatever in August, who has written a number of really strong pieces, will have the option of presenting her own “best of” list before the end of the year if she wishes.
With that said, here are my favorite pieces of the year, presented in alphabetical rather than chronological order.
- 25 Years
- “Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You)” Out Now
- Becoming More Ourselves
- Being Politically Persuaded
- Generation X and Trans Lives
- Help, Help, I Can’t Be Published!
- In Which I Both Decry, and Defend, the Concept of Dad Rock
- The Last Best Time
- Nostalgia is a Luxury
- Oh, Christ, Not the Science Fiction Canon Again
- The Public Domain Will Not Make You Popular
- The Reagan Test and Donald Trump
- Reporting in From Trump Country, 2020
- The Scalzi Endorsement: Joe Biden
- The Sound of a Landslide Not Happening
- Thinking More on #PublishingPaidMe
- Twenty Years an Author
- What It Means to Be Dead
- What It’s Like to Be a Cis Straight Man
- Why I Like Photography
Not bad for a terrible year. Thanks for reading what I wrote this year. I do appreciate it.
— JS