Five bullet points (mostly) about recently consumed media
1. As I've written elsewhere, I've started listening to Welcome to Night Vale. (Only two years late! I'm improving!) Everyone who said it was up my alley, you can feel smug. If I doubted a little bit, it's because so often when people tell me something is Lovecraftian, they are... well, wrong. Adding a tentacled beastie does not supernatural horror make.
But Night Vale IS Lovecraftian--uncannily so, at times. The vast city beneath the pin retrieval area of the bowling alley, the Dream Emergency Broadcast System, "A Story About You," the messages from the pyramid, etc, are beautiful examples of cosmic horror, reading like something a modern-day Howie might have written himself. And not a tentacle in sight!
On the other hand, it's also funny--we laugh at the parallelism between examining yourself for skin cancer and examining yourself for 15-inch spiral horns. Humor isn't usually on offer in weird fiction, but here it seems like a natural extension of the morbid contemplations of cosmic horror.
I'm halfway through episode 13 right now. I would have gotten farther, but I decided to start over, listening to them with Matt on our occasionally-shared commute.
2. I have the B&N special edition hardcover of Ruin & Rising, the final book in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, in my hot little hands! Yes, this is the one with the special Darkling prequel story. I will resist the urge to skip directly to that.
3. I went to see Maleficent last night for date night. I was tentatively hopeful, after hearing good reviews from friends. But apparently it's hard to make a movie about a character's transformation into a villain and please Lise! Mostly I thought it was insipid and shallow, and no more than an excuse for Angelina Jolie to strut around in fabulous costumes with fabulous cheekbones. I may make a better post than this about it, but it may also not deserve that much attention.
4. I'm halfway through Republic of Thieves, and my subconscious is apparently capable of spontaneously generating Gentleman Bastards fanfic. Like, seriously. The first dream had to do with the uncomfortable Locke/Sabetha/Jean dynamic (and not in a sexy way); the second had something to do with the gang punishing someone who had abused a cat. (Let us hope not Regal).
Of course my subconscious also offered up a dream about meeting Dr. Oz, so you take the bad with the good.
5. I am going to do Camp NaNoWriMo this July and I am setting up a private cabin. Right now I am giving first dibs to VPeeps of my acquaintance (any year), although depending on how much interest I get I may expand that to other writers of my acquaintance. Are you interested? Let me know.
But Night Vale IS Lovecraftian--uncannily so, at times. The vast city beneath the pin retrieval area of the bowling alley, the Dream Emergency Broadcast System, "A Story About You," the messages from the pyramid, etc, are beautiful examples of cosmic horror, reading like something a modern-day Howie might have written himself. And not a tentacle in sight!
On the other hand, it's also funny--we laugh at the parallelism between examining yourself for skin cancer and examining yourself for 15-inch spiral horns. Humor isn't usually on offer in weird fiction, but here it seems like a natural extension of the morbid contemplations of cosmic horror.
I'm halfway through episode 13 right now. I would have gotten farther, but I decided to start over, listening to them with Matt on our occasionally-shared commute.
2. I have the B&N special edition hardcover of Ruin & Rising, the final book in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, in my hot little hands! Yes, this is the one with the special Darkling prequel story. I will resist the urge to skip directly to that.
3. I went to see Maleficent last night for date night. I was tentatively hopeful, after hearing good reviews from friends. But apparently it's hard to make a movie about a character's transformation into a villain and please Lise! Mostly I thought it was insipid and shallow, and no more than an excuse for Angelina Jolie to strut around in fabulous costumes with fabulous cheekbones. I may make a better post than this about it, but it may also not deserve that much attention.
4. I'm halfway through Republic of Thieves, and my subconscious is apparently capable of spontaneously generating Gentleman Bastards fanfic. Like, seriously. The first dream had to do with the uncomfortable Locke/Sabetha/Jean dynamic (and not in a sexy way); the second had something to do with the gang punishing someone who had abused a cat. (Let us hope not Regal).
Of course my subconscious also offered up a dream about meeting Dr. Oz, so you take the bad with the good.
5. I am going to do Camp NaNoWriMo this July and I am setting up a private cabin. Right now I am giving first dibs to VPeeps of my acquaintance (any year), although depending on how much interest I get I may expand that to other writers of my acquaintance. Are you interested? Let me know.