So this week I was reading Seven Surrenders, the second book in the “Terra Ignota” trilogy tetralogy, by Ada Palmer:
Teaser Tuesday: “Seven Surrenders”
Not A Review of “Dazed and Confused”
So recently we watched Dazed and Confused, the classic coming-of-age comedy from 1993 by Richard Linklater:
I don’t remember why I put this movie in the queue, except that we had never seen it, and I didn’t remember anything about it, except that it was set in the 1970s and that it was Matthew McConaughey’s first big role. These are the things I told my wife when, as usual, I put the movie on and she said:
Continue reading “Not A Review of “Dazed and Confused””Wife: “What are we watching?”
A Change Of Scenery
So for the last thirty years or so, whenever I’ve been working on a book or short story (which has been most of the time), I would do it in the mornings before going (or, since our office closed, “going”) to work. Also, for the past 15 years or so, when I’ve been working on the blog—mostly not this one, of course, but rather, the one with the animals on it—I’ve been doing that in the mornings befor work, too, or else on the weekends. But it’s only the last year or so that I’ve been trying to work on a book and do a daily post on the animals’ blog, and that, it turns out, is just a little too much to manage.
Continue reading “A Change Of Scenery”The Early Years: Syruptitious
So this week, having no new “Not A Review” to do, and having only just recently done a “Teaser Tuesday” and a “Random Rejection”, I decided to return once more to the giant stack of elementary school papers that my folks sent me some years back. This one is another example of “Jim Can’t Draw”*, and also an example of “But At Least Jim Knows What To Put On Pancakes”.
Continue reading “The Early Years: Syruptitious”Teaser Tuesday: “The Future is Blue”
So this week I was reading The Future is Blue, a story collection by one of my favorite writers, Catherynne M. Valente:
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday: “The Future is Blue””
Still Not A Review Of “Stranger Things 4”
So last week, I mentioned that I had finally started watching season four of Stranger Things, and I also made reference to its use of the Kate Bush song “Running up that Hill”, which, at the time, I knew had surged in popularity as a result of its appearance in the show. However, when I wrote that post, I was only on episode one of the new season, in which “Running up that Hill” was used briefly in a scene where one of the characters was walking through the halls of her new school. I was pretty sure that this scene could not possibly account for the sudden popularity of the song, so I expected it to make a repeat appearance; but I’ve been doing a pretty good job of avoiding spoilers for this season, and so I didn’t know exactly when that would happen, until I got to episode four, when some major plot developments occurred, which I am of course going to mention. So you know what that means …
Not A Review Of “Stranger Things 4”
So recently I finally got around to starting to watch the latest season of Stranger Things. (I have not, of course, finished it yet; in fact, at the time of this writing, I’ve only seen two episodes. I remain a Level 1 Binge Watcher.) Now, as per usual with Stranger Things, my wife is paying absolutely no attention to it, although she may glance at the screen from time to time when it plays a song she recognizes from the 1980s, such as:
Continue reading “Not A Review Of “Stranger Things 4””Teaser Tuesday: “The Poppy War”
So this week I was reading The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang, which I would characterize as Big Trouble in Little China meets Harry Potter meets Mulan, although insofar as I have never actually seen Mulan (any version) I’m kind of just guessing on that last one*.
A Thick Yellow Spray
So the other week I was noodling around the YouTube app on the Apple TV and came across a video entitled “Why Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan Has the Best Space Battle Ever!“; and so of course I had to watch it*. You, too, can watch it here:
Wrong Turn, Clyde
So as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t plan my books out in advance, except for that one time, and that one time the book didn’t come out anything like how I planned it. This tends to end up working out well for me, but it also means that, sometimes, I end up going in a direction that doesn’t work out. In the case of Dragon Stones, that entailed the wholesale excision of a character’s point of view scenes*; but in the case of the book I’m currently working on, Blue Roses, I’ve decided that the direction it was going with three of the main characters (four if you count the squirrel**) just wasn’t working out, and so I’ve axed the last 20,000 words or so, pruning the story back to where it branched in the direction that proved unproductive***. Because sometimes you’ve gotta be ruthless.
Viscosity 