It was an unexpectedly bountiful month for reading. Here’s how it broke down: Read:The Trials of Apollo: The Dark Prophecy – Rick RiordanHoot – Carl HiaasenThe Trials of Apollo: The Burning Maze – Rick RiordanSandman Slim – Richard KadreyMucho Mojo – Joe R. Lansdale Started and stopped:Akata Witch – Nnedi OkoraforNoir – Christopher MooreFatemarked –…
This morning I read with some happiness that various film publications are refusing to review Disney’s ‘New Mutants’ until they can do so safely. It seems that Disney hasn’t sent out the common “screener” links for critics to watch the movie at home (a tactic sometimes used when production companies don’t anticipate great reviews), which…
I’ve been keeping you posted on the progress of entries for the NYC Midnight Microfiction contest, and the results for the final round came in today. Of the top 10 finalists and the top 10 honorable mentions, I… wasn’t listed. It wasn’t a particularly surprising outcome, given that my last entry felt like the weakest…
Hmm? What’s that you say?“Congratulations”? Oh… oh, I see… thanks, but no, this isn’t a good thing. I haven’t won the lottery, or any such happy event. No, I’ve breached (whale terminology not accidental) the limit I set for myself for weight gain. Like many of us in these Covid times, I’ve put on some…
Like everyone else, my family has been in isolation mode for (he cites off the top of his head because he just happens to be keeping track of it and just happened to see what today’s number was) 161 days. That’s a lot of time to be jammed right close together for anyone. To those…
My wife decided to try out her time lapse video option on a couple of monarch emergences today. It’s cool to watch it happen anyway, but in the time lapse you get a better view of watching the wings–super compressed and wrinkled at first–gradually straighten out to full size, pumped up (we think) from the…
I don’t often get photos of the sun(set) or moon that I’m ever happy with–they never look as gorgeous as what I’m seeing, and in the case of the moon usually just end up looking like bright blobs–but this one from yesterday worked out really well. I’ve added the full size of it to my…
Somewhere between about 8-15 days, the monarch chrysalis goes from green to blue to finally clear, like in the photo here. That stage means they’re going to emerge as full-on butterflies within a few hours. So cool.
More into the swing of things this month. While I tried a few things out that weren’t to my taste, I got through a fair bit: READThe Adventurers Guild: Twilight of the Elves – Zack Loran Clark and Nick EliopulosThe Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle – Rick RiordanThe Adventurers Guild: Night of Dangers –…
I’ve just been informed that I made it through the second round of the NYC Midnight Microfiction contest I updated you on recently and am on to the final round this weekend. As always, it feel good to get the approval of people who vet fiction professionally. Looking forward to the next challenge. Update you…