Hello friends,
Welcome to 2025! I hope this post finds you well and ready to take on a new year. I have a few fun tidbits to share with you below, so let’s dive on in. I’ll begin with my annual reading list:
Like last year’s post, I won’t go into detail on all the books; instead, in no particular order, I’ll address a few of the more notable or impactful titles in my opinion…
First, a handful of writing-related books made my list, as I’m always striving to improve my craft; these include Mastering Plot Twists, The Emotional Craft of Fiction, How to Create History, and Structuring Your Novel. As with some of the writing-related books mentioned in my New Year’s 2024 post, these books were great reads that provided further insight into the craft of writing, and I certainly feel more in tune with the inner workings of storytelling and writing. I’m excited to apply these nuggets of wisdom to future writing projects (more on that below).
Next, a few books on instructional design and learning science also proved helpful; these include Co-Intelligence, Learning Science for Instructional Designers, and The Accidental Instructional Designer. These were actually part of my reading list from 2023 but I didn’t finish them before the end of the year, so they got shifted onto my 2024 list. While there’s a lot of literature out there on AI, learning science/theory, and the like, there isn’t enough time to get through it all; that said, I feel like I’ve come to better understand and appreciate various theoretical frameworks and principles behind my job as an ID in higher education. I’ve got a few similar books on my to-be-read list, so I’m sure these will be just a small portion of a longer, overarching attempt at reading deeper into the subject over time.
Lastly, a handful of books on history, politics, international relations, and society/culture made the list this year; these include Age of Revolutions, Nineteenth-Century Europe, The Virtue of Nationalism, The Birth of Politics, After the Fall, The End of the World is Just the Beginning, The Habsburgs, Phantom Terror, and Why Nations Fail. For anyone who wants to understand our current world from a larger picture perspective, Age of Revolutions by Fareed Zakaria provides a cogent and readable look into this topic. I’m aiming to use this book for a Western Civ II course I’ll be teaching in the next year or so, which leads me to The Birth of Politics by Melissa Lane. This is another book I’ve used for my Western Civ I course, and it’s proven popular with students so far; it addresses how key Greek and Roman political ideas began and have developed over time, which is a perfect way to contextualize content for a history course. The other books in this group are pertinent and applicable in their own right, and I encourage anyone interested in them to check ’em out.
Here are the books listed out for those interested:
The Accidental Instructional Designer
After the Fall
Age of Revolutions
The Birth of Politics
The Complete Husband
Co-Intelligence
The Emotional Craft of Fiction
The End of the World is Just the Beginning
German Catholicism at War, 1939-1945
The Habsburgs
How Does Sanctification Work?
How to Create History
It’s Good to Be a Man
Learning Science for Instructional Designers
Mastering Plot Twists
Nineteenth-Century Europe
Phantom Terror
Robbo: Now You’re Gonna Believe Us. Our Year, My Story.
Structuring Your Novel
The Virtue of Nationalism
Why Nations Fail
Professional News
It’s been just over a year since I transitioned from teaching to working as an instructional designer, and it’s definitely been a whirlwind year! I’ve settled into my new team and the various processes and systems that we use to complete our course designs, and I’ve contributed to a number of proposed changes (documentation, processes, etc.) and other projects. I am so grateful for this new(ish) occupation change, as it’s been a blessing to my family and me. I’ve worked on courses in fields including technology, psychology and counseling, business, communications, and leadership. I’m also excited to say that I’ll get back into my content wheelhouse through designing some history courses sometime this calendar year; there’s an on-campus professor who will be traveling for field research over the next year or so, and he’s going to be teaching his courses online — this presents a somewhat unique opportunity for me in my position, so I’m thrilled to get to help design and develop those courses.
The Ivory Obelisk and Future Projects
If you’ve been following me for the last couple of years, and especially this past year, you’re aware that my newest book has recently launched. The Ivory Obelisk is a story that’s been in the works for the past seven years, the final form of which really took shape in the last two years or so. It’s been such a fun experience writing this story, particularly because some of it “wrote itself” in the sense that the story unfolded organically outside the general plan I laid out at the start. I also applied some of what I’d read in the various writing craft books of the past two years, which has helped make the story feel more cohesive, coherent, and engaging. Another aspect of this project that makes me proud of my growth as a writer is the fact that the book received an award from a writing contest. I am extremely honored to have my story be the recipient of the Gold Book Award from Literary Titan, and I look forward to hearing back from a couple other contests I submitted the book to (but won’t hear word until later this year). If you’re interested in seeing the author interview and 5-star review for my book from Literary Titan, or to purchase my book, click here.
Now that the Obelisk project is wrapped up, my mind has shifted to my next project. In the same vein as Obelisk, what I’m planning to write next has been a project years in the making (an idea I originally created and started developing in high school)…but it’s still very early on, so I’m not going to share any details just yet. But I will say that my next project will be different from my WWII-based “Faces of the War” stories as well as The Ivory Obelisk, and you could even say it’s more audacious in scope and vision. I will share what I can in the coming months, so stay tuned.
That’s it for now. Thank you all for reading and following along with me on my journey as a writer, as an educator, and as a person. I hope your 2025 gets off to a great start and that things go your way in life, work, and play!
Until next time,
Mike/”Eli”
Eli Kale 