Hi,📚 Lovers! Site Index of All I'm Reading & Writing
I'm J.W. Ellenhall: Novelist, serial writer, book reviewer, & friend of all story lovers 😊
🌍Welcome to my worlds. 🛸
Enter the SubStack Where Anything Fantastical Can Happen
The Substack Fiction Picks Collective Index page lists everything in my newest section, where you’ll find all my favorite series stories from many wonderful authors on this platform! (Updated monthly)
Index of All Your Fiction Series on Substack!
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Today I’m launching this special page that will serve as the main index…
📚Click here for the book reviews I’ve done in the 3-book battles. This was my first Substack section where I did analyses as part of studying writing craft.
In 📝 Novelist Uncensored, I post notes from my journey to authordom & myth-busting about the process and publishing.
In my Cozy 🛸Sci-Fi Comedy 😂 series, I finally released my short stories all woven together as a prequel to this other unhinged novel I’ve plotted out.
My Cozy Sci-Fi Comedy series: Intergalactizen’s Guide to Taming Earthlings
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List of episodes for I.G.T.T.E.
Plus, I have lots of 🖋️writing resources 🔍listed below.
Believe it or not, I really do value your opinions, and you can help steer the course of the types of posts I publish by sharing all your thoughts here:
I can’t wait to share my books with you! Until my novel’s revisions are complete, we have lots of other books out there to discuss, so…
Join in on my journey.
The series where you chose my next reads:
How does a writer read the books of others?
I love a great story just like you, but the difference is that I like to analyze what keeps readers turning the pages. My reviews are bullshit-free with bonus actionable writing tips at the end of each post. I read and review one book per month, and YOU get to vote on which one it is. I support local libraries, so all book nominations are completely random selections that support books written by humans, for humans.
📚Here’s a full list of my book reviews by genre:
😂 Comedy / Humor books (some with satire):
The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris is a satirical comedy that includes short stories of his best Christmas-themed tales, starting with real-life excerpts from the time when young David was an elf at Macy’s for the holidays.
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett was a fantasy comedy featuring golems coming alive.
Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams is everything I ever wanted in a sequel to one of my favorite comedies: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” This is Sci-Fi humor at its finest (if you’ve ever read another work that you think rivals this, then please let me know!)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Book 3: Review of Life, The Universe, & Everything by Douglas Adams (YES, it is even more wild than the second one).
The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell was a Contemporary Rom-Com with an American clothing designer who hooks up with an Irish actor.
Comedy-Related Roundups: Oct. 2024 Humor Books Recommended Reads that also honor the Halloween spirit 🎃.
🦄 Fantasy:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was a divinely gothic fantasy romance with the creepiest & most magical circus I could ever imagine. An incredible book!
Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a historical fantasy with pirates set around the 12th-century Arabian Sea.
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas was a Historical Gothic Romance/ Fantasy I adored.
The Binding by Bridget Collins was a Historical Literary Fantasy featuring a wonderful gay romance (m/m).
August roundup of summer Fantasy reads, + some nonfiction escapes into Paris & U.K. royalty
🏙️🪄 Urban fantasy:
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo was a terrifying Horror-Mystery set in the real-world Yale University with secret-society magic (a.k.a. dark academia).
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern is exceptional Literary Fantasy / magical realism with a gay romance! This book takes place around various real New York City locations and universities, featuring a hidden “second-world” of magic.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill was a magical-realism piece set around 1955 in an alternative history where thousands of women suddenly grew wings, talons, destroyed everything in their path, and took to the skies.
📸 Contemporary: (the snapshot-of-real-life books)
The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews was a moving Contemporary YA drama.
Rich & Pretty by Rumaan Alam was Literary Fiction satirizing young NYC women socialites.
Bobcat & Other Stories by Rebecca Lee was a Literary Fiction collection with lots of academia settings and slightly surrealist stories.
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams was an honest and moving look at the life of a Jamaican-British woman living in the UK and trying to overcome past traumas in her interracial relationships.
🪶 Historical Fiction:
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow was fan fiction done very well about the disregarded Mary’s side of the story in Pride & Prejudice, as well as adventures of her own afterward.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: This review was my hot take on how Lizzie was roasting everyone throughout the book in terms that would’ve been extremely scandalous in her time.
Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce was Historical Fiction based on the true story of serial killer Belle Gunness.
The Outsider by Howard Fast was Historical Fiction around the effects of Oppenheimer’s project and the nuclear spy trials on the U.S. Jewish community.
The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas was Historical Fiction set around the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The Story of Chicago May by Nuala O’Faolain was a biography of the most famous Irish female thief of the early 1900s.
Merivel by Rose Tremain was Literary Historical Fiction in the reign of King Charles during the 1600s, filled with sex and scandals around Versailles as well.
Novel adventures & resources
📝My progress in revisions (updated monthly)
“Uncensored/ what it’s actually like turning original universes in your head into books people want to read.”
In Fall 2020, I started drafting my current project, a Gothic-Romance Thriller/Fantasy set in 1938 Paris. I worked on other projects in between drafts for a few months here and there until I finally finished it.
In 2023, I had 3 generous alpha readers give me feedback on the whole piece! Since then, I’ve been submerged in developmental revisions.
March 2024: I put in 80 total hours in solving world-building plot holes to connect all the remaining dots together in my revision-organization notes!
April 2024 goal: To top 80 hours this month and work on this full-time 😊 …& (May update:) I did work >80 hours! 🎉
May 2024 goal: To finishing the backbone of filling in my core conflicts for every scene in the book. (Complete!)
June 2024 goal: To not abandon my novel revisions completely despite life’s curveballs & “shiny new project syndrome.” (I am still onboard!)
July 2024: Launched Sci-Fi comedy series here on Substack! 🎊
August 2024: Rough month and big slow down in terms of revisions. Fighting off burnout.
September 2024: Even bigger slowdown, fighting off work-related stress, but still revising in my spreadsheet time & posting!
October 2024: Season 2 of Sci-Fi comedy series on Substack is set to launch!
(MANY ups and downs) …March 2025…still revising the gothic novel.
April and May were a blur. My full-time job job is insane, and I fought heavily against burn out by sleeping through weekends whenever I could.
June 2025: Feeling better and now revising 2 novels since my Sci-Fi Comedy is complete!
🧰A developmental editing tool for your book:
I began building this course because I was extremely frustrated by a simple question:
How do you know when a novel is ready for line edits?
I have friends who are editors, and they often comment that people ask for a line edit when they have much bigger problems in their manuscript than checking for typos, formatting, and cleaning up the prose.
I resolved that I’d solve this problem by making a tool and methodology that can systematically show you when a structural revision (the biggest and hardest type of all) is complete:
Track your progress and know when you’ve:
Set up your scenes so that each act accomplishes your story’s big change
Removed any unnecessary scenes
Added any missing scenes you needed
Patched up all the plot holes
Put your timeline into a realistic order
Lined up all your characters so that you really know where everyone is, when, and why to satisfy your readers
Integrated all beta reader feedback successfully
Plus, my system allows you to work on:
any part of the revision you want,
in any order,
without ever getting lost about what you’ve done,
or what you still need to do!
The problem with a lot of developmental revising courses is that they have forgotten what it’s like to be a real beginner. They don’t address the brain overwhelm moments, organizing all the ideas, or when to tell if a book is done (I have a formula for this now). How do you know you’ve really nailed down all the plot holes, characters changes & choices, the timeline, and created good pacing? How do you know the story is really doing what you want it to do? I have a visual breakdown of all this in one tool, & it works to stop you from losing track of everything by keeping all your book’s major changes in one place. It’s adaptable to any genre and any style. Expand it as much as you want.
Step 1: Revise Your Novel with Me! ➡️ Monthly Guide to Developmental Edits for Neurodivergents
Remember when I said this on my site index page…
For all the posts in this series, go to my new Substack section tab “Novelist Uncensored” that includes this course + all my writing tips.
🔎My book coaches & favorite writer resources:
I joined in on a lifetime membership plan to the Tenacious Writers community, led by book coaches
and . These two started GoldenMay Editing, which I first noticed when they helped the now multiple-time NYT bestselling author J. Elle with her debut novel Wings of Ebony. (This book is amazing; go read it!)You can find out all about their Tenacious Writing program novel-writing mentorship courses and live-coaching sessions (worth every penny) at this link.
They offer discounts to their program periodically, so you can use the SubStack Notes app to message me if you want more info on this.
🤩Other links to writers who inspire me:
has an exceptional SubStack series on writing and revising tips.📝Blogs: I made a huge collection of useful links to curated blogs on writing and editing tips on my Novel Writing Secrets Pinterest board here.
📕Courses: I loved the Masterclass by Shonda Rhimes that taught me so much about story structures and pacing.
🎥Videos: My collection of Writing Resources on YouTube has 60+ videos I curated with everything from the writing mindset to powerful revision tools and software.
❓What else would you like to see in this SubStack?
Please tell me any of your special requests.
And, if you’re looking for a writer to collaborate with on book-related topics, then please reply to this post or message me to let me know!
Cheers, Joy