The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

I had a dream that started with an introduction reminiscent of the Babylon 5 intro that went "The year is 2021, the Year of the Beleagered Badger, the second year of the Plague Years..." Gah and now I can't get it out of my head. Plague years indeed. Stupid subconcious.

And then after I twinged my back last week (I got better but it tooks days), I bit on the inside of my cheek (yes, those same wisdom teeth I would already have had removed if COVID hadn't closed the hospitals) AND I ate something that disagreed with me yesterday and well, crap, if this is an indication of what is to come... I starting to think my body only just got the memo I'm hitting forty in six months and started panicking. *eyeroll* Well, it can stop doing that any minute now because I'm starting to get fed up with it.

Brightdreamer said:

Otherwise, not much to report. Still need to come up with a game plan for the year to get out of my current dead end employment. Still need to get an idea for the solstice story swap that doesn't suck. Still need a life...

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Hooo boy, do I hear you, Bright. On all levels. With just the minor addition of 'un-' before employment.

E.F.B. said:

I was trying to finish the Christmas-themed book I was reading before midnight but didn't quite get there and had to finish it the next day. It was a really good book, though. The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork. If you think you'd enjoy a sweet, adventuresome, and overall fun Nutcracker retelling (with some Pied Piper retelling thrown in) I wholeheartedly recommend it and will probably make it annual Christmas reading.

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*Makes note of title* Sweet and adventuresome sounds just what I want right now. Thanks for the recommendation.

MaeZe said:

My power was out the whole day yesterday (11 to 5:30). I got a bit of reading in. Can't say that I did any writing, but I thought about it. Happy New Year to you all!

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If you thought about it, you've been already more active than me.

Friendly Frog said:

I had a dream that started with an introduction reminiscent of the Babylon 5 intro that went "The year is 2021, the Year of the Beleagered Badger, the second year of the Plague Years..." Gah and now I can't get it out of my head. Plague years indeed. Stupid subconcious.

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Sounds way too accurate. We've just had two of our closest shops shut because a person working in each of them got COVID and now everyone has to quarantine. If we had any badgers that would be something nice to look out for, I think here it would be the year of the Completely Unbothered Fox.

Not looking forward to the next few months, wish I could just hibernate through. Looks like we might just get shut down completely again for a while and it's going to be so hard for people. We just finished sorting out extensions for projects and justifying them and now it's all going to get messed up again, and a lot of people are (understandably) scared about coming into work. Sometimes it feels like we're stuck on a bad news hamster wheel.

Friendly Frog said:

I bit on the inside of my cheek (yes, those same wisdom teeth I would already have had removed if COVID hadn't closed the hospitals)

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I've got a non-urgent dental thing that I meant to do in September and I thought I would just leave it till the situation stabilised a bit... feel really dumb now.

Morning, Cantina.

Well, last night I tripped over a dog toy and fell in the living room, catching myself hard with my dominant arm and sprained it. It's very sore and I can't completely straighren it or bring my hand up to my head without the muscles seizing up. I thiiiiink it's slightly better now than last night but yeah, still pretty sore and stiff. Getting dressed first thing was possible but not fun. (Did I mention it's my dominant arm? Yeah.) I don't believe there's any breaks or dislocation because there's no swelling or bruising and I can lean on my elbow and use my fingers to type and such without pain, I just think I really sprained the crap out of the muscles around the elbow because of the way I landed. But if, after aggressively treating it all day today I'm not seeing more improvement in movemby tomorrow I'll go to an urgent clinic tomorrow.

Yes, definitely get it checked out if it doesn't improve. Soft tissue damage is a real problem, and not to be ignored.

Monday morning, drizzly and gray. There's talk of minor flooding and landslide risk, it's been so wet lately.

Still beating my head against a wall on Sisyphus, but I did get about 700 words down on an unrelated prompt, which is the most fiction I've managed in far, far, far too long. Months, I think.

And I got that whopping 600 buck stimulus deposit today. It covers the prescription sunglasses I ordered for my me-gift (which should be here today; will see if Warby Parker got them right) and a little on that new printer. I am incredibly fortunate that I'm not relying on that to feed a family or keep a roof over my head, having to stretch it for as long as possible... better than a poke in the eye, but still...

I also have a little wheeled shelf on its way, to help with some clutter sprawl. If it works, I have a place for a second one. (Did anyone ever warn me adulthood would be this thrilling? No. No, they did not.)

Morning, Cantina. My arm does seem to be improving, slowly of course because sprain, but I'm getting more range of movement in different directions already. I just really wish it hadn't been my dominant arm because doing most things right handed is really annoying. I don't know how you right handed people manage... jk Guess I should just be grateful that I'm ambidextrous in some activities so things aren't as difficult as they could be.


In other good news, Back on November 30th I'd ordered some packaging materials I need for my Etsy shop and and after reaching my state, LEAVING my state again, and touring the entire freaking country, it finally got here yesterday, just in time for me to get my first sale of the year. Ironically, something else I ordered is coming from the same state my Etsy sale is going to. It shipped this morning and I'll ship my sale today, too, so it'll be interesting to see which thing arrives at its destination first.

In further good news the place I subbed my flash fic to has one of those Moksha forms that shows where you are in the queue and despite starting out at 430, they seem to be moving along at a good clip and I'm already down to 386. Might not have to wait three months like with the last place.


I think there's a bird in the front door wreath because there's really loud cheeps coming through the door. We'll have to be careful when we go in and out so we don't get a bird in the house. Been there, done that twice, and it's a little hard to get them back outside.


Well, today, I'll try to make some progress on Sisyphus. I think I figured out the logistics issue my character was having so I can move past that, now.

[Checks out the new digs, fluffs up the smibble pile] I might be needing that tomorrow.

Falling sucks. I'm glad your arm is getting better, EFB.

Hooray for stimulus checks. My bank account looks okay until I remember I have 10K in debt. But $600 won't make a dent in that. Oh well... forward and onward.

EFB, I hope your arm improves speedily. Maeze, take all the smibbles you need.

feyngirl said:

If we had any badgers that would be something nice to look out for, I think here it would be the year of the Completely Unbothered Fox.

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The Beleagered Badger is the Discworld year. I read the announcement the day before the dream, so I imagine that's where that came from. Last year was the Year of the Condescending Carp. But I'd happily go into hibernation until the year of the Completely Unbothered Fox. Sounds promising.

I've got a non-urgent dental thing that I meant to do in September and I thought I would just leave it till the situation stabilised a bit... feel really dumb now.

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Yeah, I hear you.

If I had had a little more forsight, I would have opted for dividing the tooth extraction into two day clinic visits and I may already have been rid of them by now. But instead I balked at the idea of being awake during that and so I wuzzed out and preferred to have all four removed in one go that would require anesthesia. Would have been no extra cost. Cases were already on the rise when I made my appointment but since there were so many weeks still to go I stupidly didn't consider they would still be bad enough to close the clinics for non-emergencies by the time the actual appointment rolled on.

Planning your life around a pandemic is hard, y'all, but I doubt I'm telling any of you anything new. Still, we try. Forward and onward, as Maeze said.

Morning, gang.

Whut up?

Friendly Frog said:

The Beleagered Badger is the Discworld year. I read the announcement the day before the dream, so I imagine that's where that came from. Last year was the Year of the Condescending Carp. But I'd happily go into hibernation until the year of the Completely Unbothered Fox. Sounds promising.

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That's an excellent reminder that I should reread some of the Discworld novels! Just need to dig out my copies, I think they got moved during house reorganising.

Friendly Frog said:

Planning your life around a pandemic is hard, y'all, but I doubt I'm telling any of you anything new. Still, we try. Forward and onward, as Maeze said.

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Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions of fun/uplifting sf or fantasy that might be good for escapism? I could really use some distraction. I was recommended The Goblin Emperor on here and I loved that.

In good news my kaffir lime is flowering lovely lime-scented flowers. Now I just need to work out how to pollinate them...

feyngirl said:

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions of fun/uplifting sf or fantasy that might be good for escapism? I could really use some distraction. I was recommended The Goblin Emperor on here and I loved that.

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The most uplifting and feel-good fantasy I've read recently is TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, which is a fairy tale for grown-ups.

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons is good for escapism; in a Victorianesque world, a woman defies society by becoming a scientist and researching dragons.

If you're open to books aimed at younger audiences, The Stone Girl's Story (Sarah Beth Durst) and The Girl Who Drank The Moon (Kelly Barnhill) are good.


Other than book recs, not much to report, really. Still stuck on Sisyphus. Still burned out at work. Still gray, though at least it stopped raining for a bit.

feyngirl said:

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions of fun/uplifting sf or fantasy that might be good for escapism? I could really use some distraction. I was recommended The Goblin Emperor on here and I loved that.

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Off to Be the Wizard is a fun one I read last year. A guy hacks into the source code of reality and is able to change anything he wants, leading him to travel back to the Middle Ages and try to pass himself off as a Wizard.

Jasper Fforde is also a good author for some rather strange fun. His Thursday Next books have a lot of good literary humor; it’s been a while since I read them, but IIRC she’s a Literary Detective, which involves a lot of literally jumping in and out of literature.

We’ve started our new year nice and mellow here, pretty content to keep to ourselves. I am glad to see our town seems to be less overcrowded with holiday tourists lately. The last couple of days, we’ve been able to take the dog down to the lake to run up and down the beach and through the woods without running into more than a handful of people. Seeing the pup bounding around with his tongue out, huge grin on his doggie face, makes me so grateful we live in a beautiful place where we can do that with him.

I have not written much lately, but I did get a start on my Sisyphus story, and even wrote an ending I want to get to. Just have to fill in all the middle parts with actual plot, how hard can that be...?

I have so many interesting books stacked up on my list for this year, and I can’t wait to read them all!

Gatteau said:

Off to Be the Wizard is a fun one I read last year. A guy hacks into the source code of reality and is able to change anything he wants, leading him to travel back to the Middle Ages and try to pass himself off as a Wizard.

Jasper Fforde is also a good author for some rather strange fun. His Thursday Next books have a lot of good literary humor; it’s been a while since I read them, but IIRC she’s a Literary Detective, which involves a lot of literally jumping in and out of literature.

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+1 to both suggestions. Fun romps.


Morning, gang.

Whut up?

feyngirl said:

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions of fun/uplifting sf or fantasy that might be good for escapism? I could really use some distraction. I was recommended The Goblin Emperor on here and I loved that.

Click to expand...

I have been really enjoying Diane Duane's Young Wizard series. It's YA and I personally enjoyed it a lot more than Harry Potter. It's has a strong sci-fi flavour, as wizardry is an intergalactal affair in this series. You can sort of tell she also writes Star Trek, even though there are far more Star Wars references in later books. The dog lives. It's fun and for lack of better word... wholesome. Be aware that she revised and updated the earlier books in the series and this is the version I have read. I have not read the earlier editions.

If cats is more your thing, she also has three books with cat-wizards set in the Young Wizard universe but not YA. Not going to lie, Book of Night with Moon had me tearing up, still a good book, mind, but not perhaps comfort reading.

Friday night, and exhausted; sleeping bad, and... gestures at National Events that have left me feeling like I did after 9/11.

Haven't written anything (see also: exhausted), and the book I'm reading has taken a definite turn toward the meandering and plot-dancing (pointing at The Pivotal Thing/Event while deliberately obscuring and not coming to The Pivotal Thing/Event; at some point, it stops being foreshadowing, passes through teasing, and becomes an author jerking the reader around lampshaded by "setting the scene" or "creating atmosphere" or whatever other term is supposed to cover a complete lack of progress.)

I'm hoping to get to writing tomorrow, though. I have dinner options in the fridge, so hopefully I don't have to shop.

And tonight was pizza night. Always nice not to have to make dinner, especially when one has had maybe two cumulative hours' sleep since Wednesday night/Thursday morning...

Morning, Cantina. Looks like there are some great book recs in here!

My arm continues to heal. Still pretty sore with some movements but my range of motion is almost back to normal.

Yesterday was busy. It was time for the parents' annual doctors appointments and they had to be fasting for their bloodwork so we didn't get breakfast until afterwards... 2 hours later. *smile freezes on face* Thank goodness for McDonald's all day breakfast menu.

Thank goodness also that the makers/designers of the Hurrycane have truly crafted a sturdy, quality product because dad decided to exit the doctor's office via the concrete steps instead of the ramp. I *tried* to head for the ramp and the next thing I know he's going down the steps. His rationality was probably that the car was parked closer to the steps than the ramp and he has anxiety about walking distances because he's afraid he's going to fall down, but I don't know that going down concrete steps that are steeper than the steps at home is a good way to avoid that. *SIGH* To say the least it was a concerning few moments, but he made it. I just hope people, the nurses who were health screening people at the door included, didn't think I was being uncaring by not hovering over him, or trying to help him as he headed down the steps, but fact of the matter is, I can't provide more support than his cane, and if he'd fallen I couldn't have stopped his nearly 400+ lb body from going down without going down *with* him and getting very badly injured myself. We don't need both of us in the hospital.

I got absolutely no fiction writing done yesterday, but while sitting and waiting during the doc appointment I did finish reading the book I was reading so I wrote up a review for it. We also finally got the Christmas tree out of the house. Now it's on the back porch for a little bit until we're ready to drag it down to the swale so it can go back to nature.

Speaking of nature, sometime between sundown and taking da beagle out for his before-bedtime potty, a fox apparently got one of the neighbor's chickens and dragged it into our yard to pluck it. Gee, thanks, fox. We didn't see the actual animal or its prey, but we know foxes live around here due to past sightings (tomato thieves that they are) and the evidence was there in the form of many chunks of chicken feathers smack in the center of the yard. Thankfully for my stomach, there was no blood or actual body parts. It must have dragged the body off somewhere else to actually eat it. Poor chicken.


Well, I hope to make headway on the Sisyphus today, so better get to it.

Two days later...

I haven't mentioned it before, but our smoke detector (which is only a little over a year old) has been having some kind of issue for a while now where it's going off (3 loud beeps in a row, not the battery chirp) at random times when there's no smoke and seems to especially like going off at night. It wasn't so bad at first but has gradually increased to where it goes off at least once or twice an hour, ALL. NIGHT. LONG. We thought maybe dust was causing the issue, but yesterday we followed the instructions in the paperwork on how to clean any dust in or around it (it actually recommends doing so once a month) and I got visible dust out but quite frankly that seemed to make it go off even MORE last night. With an 80 decibel alarm we got jolted awake repeatedly until around 4am when it got quiet for a couple hours and then went off again around six. I am so freaking tired. X( We're calling the customer service line today to see if they can tell us what to do, because this is insanity-inducing.


ETA: Mom just tried to call but they've got a long queue, so she chose the option for them to call her back. The automated message did mention something about a recall, though. If some of their units do crap like this, heck yeah, I bet they're recalling them.


ETA2: Customer service called back quickly and indeed, our unit is the one they're recalling. Apparently a bunch of people were having this problem. They told us how to disable it and are sending us a new one. Yes, this means we won't have a smoke detector until the new one gets here, which we're not super pleased about, but it's that or not sleep at all and we're about to scream as it is. (I was almost in tears last night the sixth time I got jolted awake, and i have a headache from lack of sleep now.) So it is what it is at this point. We'll be even more careful about potentially flammable things than we already are and hopefully it won't take too long for the new one to get here.

Monday afternoon, and the boards are loading and a roughly reasonable rate, so I'll swing by and procrastinate a bit.

'Tis drizzly now, adding to already saturated ground. Supposed to be wet through most of the month.

Sisyphus is still fighting me, though to be fair I'm having trouble settling my brain down for a brainstorming session. Still very concerned about The State of Things, and it doesn't help that Dad's dementia is noticeably worse than this time last year. Mergh...

I really should do something more useful with my afternoon, I suppose. Need to get my masks washed, so I should probably do that while I'm thinking of it.

How's everyone doing today? My feelings the last few days have been... tumultuous, let's say. Obviously, the insanity that seems to have gripped DC has been pretty near the forefront of my mind. Though I did get to have a bit of a laugh hearing my dad's account of how he had been reading an ornithology magazine, got a bit tired and decided to rest his eyes, woke up to check his email and other things on the computer, and discovered that Washington had gone crazy while he was napping. Sigh. Such is the state of things.

In other news, I learned on Sunday that I won't have a job in a month. The shop has been far from profitable this past year, and the main investor's parent company took a huge hit due to Covid, so we've known this was a possibility for a while now, but definitely still feels like a blow. Apparently the lease for the building is up next month, and the owners have made the decision not to renew. If they can find a cheaper spot available in town, we'll be able to open again, but most real estate here - residential or commercial - is getting way too expensive for us locals to afford, so I'm crossing my fingers but not expecting anything. This will actually be the first time I'll be leaving a job due to outside forces and not because I wanted to, so that feels weird. I know I'll be fine, monetarily (savings are in good shape and we've been spending a lot less lately, particularly by not going out anywhere to eat), but I feel so bad for the owners having to basically give up this dream for the time being. I just wish I could have done my job better, somehow, to make the business more money, though I'm not really sure what more I could have done... Just a big ol' bummer.

The other big thing taking up a bunch of brain space this week is a sort of social dilemma, I suppose. Just before Christmas one of our former colleagues died, and they're planning on holding a memorial for him at my work this Saturday. Obviously, this was tragic, and I would never wish his suffering on anyone, no matter how I felt about them. But we didn't exactly get along. I tolerated working with him, but when he left and I was no longer forced to hold my tongue and interact with him, I basically cut all ties. So I'm struggling now with how to "pay my respects" when (feeling like a horrible person for saying it) I didn't necessarily... respect him? I also know that this memorial will probably become an excuse for a party and lots of drinking, because that's just how things run in that circle (some people might call some of them hooligans and crackheads...) and most of them have already disregarded a lot of the Covid precautions I'm still insisting on taking quite seriously. So I'm straight up just not comfortable being around that environment, even if the event is in theory all going to take place outside. I suppose I'll just be there earlier in the day, then escape when people start to show up, pleading "Covid sensitivity" (yes, one of these people used that term when she tried to hug me and I pulled away because... come on). Sigh, again. Oof.

Ok, well, I managed to bum myself out again writing all that. Let's find a good note to end on, shall we? Hm... Oh! I have so much good beer in the fridge from our trip up through Oregon a couple months ago; it's all just sitting there begging to be drunk. And the pup is looking at me with his giant eyes peering over the arm of the couch, just begging me to come cuddle. Looks like I've got wishes to fulfill.

I'm sorry, Gatteau. That sucks. For what it's worth, here is one stranger supporting your 'Covid sensitivity'. We frankly could all do with a lot more of it.

In other news I finally overcame my mental inertia and booked driving lessons as soon as they reopen for new students in March. It's stupid in a way how big a deal this is for me. It's not ideal with the pandemic and all and the weighing of risks really took some of the fun out of this achievement for me (not to mention adding a lot of different anxiety to this already bunch of nerves...). But I've wasted so much time beating myself up on this already and I need to get my life unpaused.

*hugs* for all those who need them. I could probably use a virtual hug or two myself as I didn't have the best start to my day. For reasons unknown, da beagle woke up around 4am and jumped down from the bed. Usually, that time and that behavior indicates he may be about to have a loose poop accident (which thankfully, he hasn't had since... maybe July/August of last year?) so of course I'm sitting up wondering what he's doing, moving stuff off my floor, etc. But then he didn't have a poop or pee accident and was acting like he thought it was time to get up or something. Ummm... no? Not at 4am, pup. So then of course I'm all stressed because I don't know why he did that. Tried to put him back up on the bed only for him to get down again. Repeat once more only to finally give up because fine, if he wants to be on the floor he can be on the floor and if he has an accident he'll just have to have an accident because I'm not sitting up monitoring him for the next three hours that I should be sleeping. He did finally settle down and go to sleep on the floor, no accidents involved, but of course I was all stressed out by that time and had stress dreams. The only thing I can think was the issue is that he was coughing before he jumped down (he has an allergy cough that we manage with meds from the vet. Periodic dog coughing is just part of daily life at this point and, based on my research, that's not uncommon with older dogs.) and maybe laying on the flat floor helped because nothing was pressing on his chest or throat, which does irritate the cough. Thing is, when he has to go potty, that also makes him cough more, so... *crazy face* Really not the best way to start my day and I'm not in the best mood right now.

I somehow wound up on the west coast for New Years, so I stood on a windswept sand dune with an ocean at my back as a lot of wealthy people send a lot of money up in flame. Colourful, loud flame. Very nice. My mom and aunt had rented a vacation home for the week between Christmas and New Years, which had a fireplace that I want. And a hot tub.

I read a book. A non-SFF book. A book with a dog as the protagonist. It's called Dog On It by Spencer Quinn, and I need more of that series. Doggy protagonist is done pretty well, although there's not a sufficiently high focus on smell, but that might improve as the series progresses. Also, that dog is somehow special, he reasons and understands human speech too well.

Minty has been having a lot of minor health problems, an ear infection and her teeth. Again. How is her dental health so bad? I think her ear infection is all better now, and now I just need to report it to her insurance. That might be a while.

Oh god, the net, it's so bad. Ugh... gonna need to solve that with my landlady somehow.

We had a sudden cold snap, where a bunch of snow came in for about three days, then it all melted in one strangely hot day, and then everything froze and it snowed again for a few days, including the coldest day we've had in years. Which wasn't all that cold (-6C), but what with global warming and the gulf stream, it's been a long time since we hit any legit cold temperatures. It should be getting warmer (but wetter) again now, but who knows if the snow tries to make another comeback.

BTW, would anyone like to try a cantina roleplaying session? It's been so long, I'm getting abstinences.

Big, virtual hugs to everyone.

Religion0 said:

I somehow wound up on the west coast for New Years, so I stood on a windswept sand dune with an ocean at my back as a lot of wealthy people send a lot of money up in flame. Colourful, loud flame.

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That's a lovely image.

I read a book. A non-SFF book. A book with a dog as the protagonist. It's called Dog On It by Spencer Quinn, and I need more of that series. Doggy protagonist is done pretty well, although there's not a sufficiently high focus on smell, but that might improve as the series progresses. Also, that dog is somehow special, he reasons and understands human speech too well.

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Chet and Bernie mysteries!!! My mom looooooves those books. I'm not sure if she's read them all yet, but she's read the majority and is highly entertained by them. I enjoy hearing about the doggy antics, too

Minty has been having a lot of minor health problems, an ear infection and her teeth. Again. How is her dental health so bad? I think her ear infection is all better now, and now I just need to report it to her insurance. That might be a while.

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Aw, poor pup. Unfortunately some breeds are more prone to dental issues, just like some are more prone to other issues.


Morning, Cantina. Da beagle hasn't woken me up at 4am since I last posted, so I guess that night was a one-off, thankfully.

New smoke detector got here and now just needs to be installed. Fingers crossed it doesn't have a dreadful glitch like the last one.

In writing news Sisyphus story is still going slowly, but it *is* going. Today, though, I need to get an excerpt read for critique group.

ION: There's a new dessert store in town called Vampire Penguin. Yes, you read that right. Apparently they sell fancy shaved ice desserts and are popular enough to have stores in multiple states. There's a website https://www.vampirepenguin.com/menu and if you look in the About section you can find Vampire Penguin's (the character) backstory. There's even an animated video and an audiobook. All I can say is that someone certainly got creative with their branding. And yes, yes I will be trying their desserts when it gets warmer.

Brightdreamer said:

The most uplifting and feel-good fantasy I've read recently is TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, which is a fairy tale for grown-ups.

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons is good for escapism; in a Victorianesque world, a woman defies society by becoming a scientist and researching dragons.

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Thanks Brightdreamer! I picked up House in the Cerulean Sea and am loving it so far, and I found A Natural History of Dragons in our bookshelf where I had a vague memory of seeing it, my husband got it but I never got round to reading it.

Gatteau said:

Off to Be the Wizard is a fun one I read last year. A guy hacks into the source code of reality and is able to change anything he wants, leading him to travel back to the Middle Ages and try to pass himself off as a Wizard.

Jasper Fforde is also a good author for some rather strange fun. His Thursday Next books have a lot of good literary humor; it’s been a while since I read them, but IIRC she’s a Literary Detective, which involves a lot of literally jumping in and out of literature.

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Oh I loved the Basic Instructions comics by Scott Meyer, I didn't realise he'd written a book! And the literary detective sounds right up my street.

Friendly Frog said:

I have been really enjoying Diane Duane's Young Wizard series. It's YA and I personally enjoyed it a lot more than Harry Potter. It's has a strong sci-fi flavour, as wizardry is an intergalactal affair in this series. You can sort of tell she also writes Star Trek, even though there are far more Star Wars references in later books. The dog lives. It's fun and for lack of better word... wholesome. Be aware that she revised and updated the earlier books in the series and this is the version I have read. I have not read the earlier editions.

If cats is more your thing, she also has three books with cat-wizards set in the Young Wizard universe but not YA. Not going to lie, Book of Night with Moon had me tearing up, still a good book, mind, but not perhaps comfort reading.

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I'd vaguely heard of Duane, it sounds really good. Thanks for the rec!

Today I had my first vaccine dose, currently sitting on the sofa trying to avoid moving my arm which is a bit sore. Hopefully it will do the trick because I've been working from home since the start of Jan but I'll have to go in next week. It's been pretty bad seeing the cases getting ever closer - in the first outbreak I only knew one person who got it (though of course there was less testing), now there have been cases in local shops, people in my group have had direct contact with diagnosed cases, people's kids have had it...

Hope everyone is doing okay. It's such a strange time.

EFB, now I've seen Vampire Pengiun's menu I really need cotton candy shaved ice topped with lychees.

Cold and sunny here on the East Coast of the US and looking like a week of (hopefully) decent snow. Fingers crossed!

Bees are well (read: still alive), words are wording, and house is getting put together. Hanging stuff, organizing stuff, pitching stuff.

All good things.




Afternoon, gang.

Whut up?

CobraMisfit said:

Cold and sunny here on the East Coast of the US and looking like a week of (hopefully) decent snow. Fingers crossed!

Bees are well (read: still alive), words are wording, and house is getting put together. Hanging stuff, organizing stuff, pitching stuff.

All good things.




Afternoon, gang.

Whut up?

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Sounds like you're making good progress on all fronts there, Cobra. Do the bees like snow or do they hibernate?

Talking of hibernating, that's what I seem to be doing at present. It's not snowing here but it is farther South, down Birmingham way where my youngest son lives. Got lots of WhatsApp images today of the family out snowballing.

On the Sysyphus writing front I am progressing, slowly but that's better than nothing.

And OH! Got my first of two Astra Zeneca jabs last Sunday. No after effects at all and it's quite a relief to know that at least now I have a pretty good chance of surviving if I catch that darned virus. Never fancied the idea of a ventilator.

Just had a gorgeous tomato and cheese omelette made by my better half. She's an excellent cook.

Then I'm shortly going downstairs to put my feet up and watch the the Telly. Not sure what's on, but I don't mind taking it as it comes. I don't care for the present trend to give snippets and extracts of what's to come from particular programs.

Must stop grumpin' and become the happy chappy I know I am inside.