Hadeer Elsbai's Blog, page 2

the great LOST rewatch is complete

my memory is notoriously poor, but i have a vivid recollection of watching the LOST series finale. i recall precisely nothing else about that day, but i can clearly recall myself sitting at the kitchen table after school watching on my laptop. more than anything i remember how i felt: emotionally drained, sad to say goodbye to characters i’d been following for years.

over the years i’d forgotten whether the show as as confusing and nonsensical as the zeitgeist sometimes makes it out to be, but re...

10 favorite first lines

1. “it's a weirdly subtle conversation. i almost don't notice i'm being blackmailed.”

— simon vs the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli

2. “by the time alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it.”

— ninth house by leigh bardugo

3. “watch your step. keep your wits about you; you will need them. this city i am bringing you to is vast and intricate, and you have not been here before.”

— the crimson petal and the white by michel faber

4. “i didn't mean to ...

february 2025 updates

tabby is doing much better after his surgery!

this month was all about digging into revisions with my agent, and we have a path forward. initially, i’d thought that i would be done with revisions by the end of february, but that was wildly optimistic of me, lol. i always forget that a) i like to do a lot of other things beside write, and b) i’m a very slow writer. i think i had also underestimated the scope of the revisions. i’ll let you in on some details, but first, some basic info: the book is...

january 2025 updates

january was a slow month, marked by a single exciting event: i have a new agent! i am now represented by laura crockett of triadia us!

after five years with my previous agent, we decided it was time to part ways. it had been a long time coming for various reasons, but i am averse to change, and kept delaying the inevitable. i also didn’t really want to face the hurdle of querying again, but the good news is, as a published author, the querying experience is quite different!

as it was, i ended u...

2024 retrospective & 2025 goals

the retrospective;

so what happened in 2024?

published the weavers of alamaxa in march

did my first in-person event with fellow author chelsea abdullah at the world’s fair bookshop in queens, my hometown

saw a production of natasha pierre and the great comet of 1812 in new hampshire

went to scotland (!!!) and saw the highlands and the isle of skye

saw the hadestown tour twice, both times locally

started a part-time job in addition to my full-time one

moderated a release event for p. djeli clark’s the ...

best books of 2024

i meant to send this out much earlier this month, but the start of my 2025 has been rather languorous thus far, and everything i wanted to do has been delayed because my brain has simply been refusing to work with me. i love random prolonged storms of brain fog. :)

anyway, i abandoned my reading spreadsheet a few months into the year, as i almost always do, so i don’t have any specific stats, and all i can tell you is that i read 58 books. before i get into the top five, a moment for the honorab...

best film and tv of 2024

one of my goals for 2025 (i’ll have a dedicated goals post later this month) is to watch more film and television, because i miss the feeling of watching really good visual media. i’ve been focusing so much on reading goals that i forgot television and film, but particularly television, used to be my Thing.

top 7 tv shows (in no particular order);

attack on titan: this has become one of my favorite anime of all time, thanks to its astonishingly complex plot, political machinations, and character...

december 2024 updates

before discussing anything end-of-year related i must first wrap up december, which began with a trip to jacksonville, florida. florida is…not my favorite place, shall we say, even though i was visiting some of my favorite people. i had a very nice time with said people, despite the locale.

otherwise, much of my attention this month has been dedicated to a kitchen renovation, which i won’t discuss much here because i’m dedicating a whole post to it when it’s finally done. it is much needed and mu...

november 2024 updates

i started november by heading out to portland, oregon (on the day of the cursed election no less), partly for a conference, partly to see portland and the oregon coast. portland’s one of those cities that’s always existed in my imagination in a very particular way, and seeing it in the flesh really shattered those imaginings, lol. isn’t that always the way?

i can’t exactly give voice to what i didn’t like about portland, but some cities, you just don’t vibe with. i did adore the coffee scene, th...

10 favorite first lines

"our dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley."

— uprooted by naomi novik

“in the myriad year of our lord – the ten thousandth year of the king undying, the kindly prince of death! – gideon nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the house of the ninth.”

— gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

"on the second sabbat of twelfthmoon, in the city of weep, a girl fell from the sky."

— strange the dreamer by laini taylor

"it ...