what it says on the tin. :) check out appropriately tagged reviews, recommendations, and essays about various stories, podcasts, and other creative content below.
he’s an angry bird: “the mad eyes of the heron king,” and other things
words writtenthing(s) enjoyedstuff accomplishedTODAY: 91/277This incredible blackwater aquascape!Mostly managing my mental health!TOTAL: 19,437/100,000PseudoPod 717: “The Mad Eyes of the Heron King,” Richard E. DanskyPacking. Lots, and lots, and lots of packing.Fell just short of my NaNoWriMo goal last month, but that’s all right. Keep trucking along, as someone somewhere probably said at some point. Right?…
recommendation: “new model astronauts,” by alasdair stuart
This piece originally appeared as part of my weekly newsletter, The Full Lid . If you liked it, and want a weekly down of pop culture enthusiasm, occasional ketchup recipes and me enjoying things, then check out the archive and sign up here. Five years ago, I wrote a piece about Interstellar and the death…
just my two cents: “vincent’s penny,” by chris barnham
(see what I did there? /finger guns) The car gathers speed. The sirens fall away and another sound comes; a strengthening growl high above. I can picture the swollen metal bellies of the Heinkel bombers, stuffed with high explosives. With the motion of the car, I feel the ancient metal disc move on its chain…
along came a literary device: ‘a guest for mr. spider’ and the magnus archives, part 1
To borrow a quote from William Friedkin, “True horror is seeing something approach.” In “A Guest for Mr. Spider,” true horror is seeing a lonely child approach something unspeakably horrible, and being unable to stop it, or look away.
recommendation: robin husen’s “half-men of the night marie”
Three half-men in a lifeboat drifted on the methane sea. Her ship’s name, Night Marie, was written on the stern like a tombstone. The ship, along with the rest of her crew, had sunk thirty hours before sunset. Sparks, the ship’s half-boy, crouched in the bows, his ears still ringing with the sound of screams, though…
quick pick: “hello, ello,” by seanan mcguire, _huntsvillain_, by john o’brien
Truthfully I don’t have the time or the bandwidth to write in-depth commentary on all the stuff that has snagged my interest, and I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that my tiny cohort of readers also don’t have the time or bandwidth to devote to one blogger’s commentary. But I want to write about stuff I…
a note to my future self
Review Sunless Skies, and soon. But just to give you a taste of what’s to come: listen, some things are just on brand for me, and Failbetter Games’ most recent release just tops that list. And I’m going to stop myself there for now and come back to this when I’ve had more time to…
“what do you do with the mad that you feel?”
/arrives 2 years late with Starbucks and The Big Questions, how’s everybody been, etc. I’ve been thinking about this question a lot lately–mostly because I’ve been mad a lot*, about one thing or another, and have felt 1) completely unable to change my circumstances, and 2) guilty about feeling mad in the first place. Which…
navigating doldrums: anchorhead, depression quest, and a cat petting simulator
Nice. As much of my life is in flux right now I have no shortage of obligations. That doesn’t seem to stop me from returning to hobbies that syphon away at my productivity in deceptively harmless minutes at a time. I’m especially susceptible to these distractions when 1) things are slow at my day job, and…
very friendly monsters: emily devenport’s “postcards from monster island”
“I like this one specific thing an awful lot, I just can’t figure out why.” Case in point: I enjoy a bonfire, but not hot weather. Why? Bonfires are cozy. Sometimes you cook food on them. Hot weather–and humidity–make me feel as though I’m walking through hot soup. Mystery solved. Figuring out just what it is…
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no shrinking violet 