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Continuing my belated discovery of Adrian Tchaikovsky, finishing Children of Time--which was industrial-grade awesome. The spiders were peak #ScienceFiction, just so so well done. Now starting Children of Ruin, & I am salivating for the meeting of the humans/spiders & uplifted octopi... #AmReading

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

So ... #DrWho "The Well..." Best of the Gatwa run. Bloody scary. That first jump scare: yikes! Dr Who does exceedingly good high concept horror when it wants, and this is a great example. Can't say anything else without risking spoilers ... oh, except that the space SFX were bloody gorgeous.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Decided to try Adrian Tchaikovsky (belatedly, but I'm always late to any party) by reading Alien Clay. What a novel. Loved the speculative biology and the oppression/resistance/transformation metaphor & Heart of Darkness vibe. Give it the Hugo, I say. Now tackling Children of Time...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Loved the new season of #WheelOfTime. They rushed some stuff, but overall, the increase in quality from the previous seasons was staggering. Intense, brilliantly written and filmed, amazing costumes and strong performances. Roll on season 4...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Newest #DrWno, Lux, was extremely strange but extremely good. Loving Belinda, who reminds me of Bill (my current favourite Doctor sidekick of the modern era). Gatwa is terrific in the role. Kind of over the whole Mrs Flood thing, but still wishing the season was longer.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Amazing ... A century after its discovery, scientists capture first confirmed footage of a colossal squid in the deep theconversation.com/a-century-af...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Here's a contributing factor to my constant weather whinging: my region has received so far this year twice the expected annual rainfall for this area. (And we're at the start of another "rain event" so, you know. Hip hip hooray.)

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Back under flood warnings. I swear, this summer has been torture. I just got one of those blackmail spams threatening to share my Internet history with my friends & family, & I'm pretty sure there's nothing there but weather & disaster management sites.

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

Earthquake last night. No damage, but hell of a bang, like an explosion, & lights out as far as the eye could see. Last couple months, my city has had a cyclone, multiple severe heatwaves, floods, & now an earthquake where earthquakes mostly don't happen. Feels literally ominous.

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

You know, it's my humble opinion that relentless innovate or die has made every single bit of software I've used over periods of time less useful, less flexible, less accessible ... I mean, I think the word I'm groping for is crap. Never being able to leave a good thing alone makes crap.

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

I may have to leanback into my Roman Catholic heritage. Every day seems to give me a stronger need to believe in Hell.

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

Re: Mr Trump & ignoring the law to save the country, a wee bit of Robert Bolt: Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?” Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

submitted 72 days ago • 1 comment

It's always been the case that "buying" an ebook from amazon was only actually a loan they could rescind at any point, but lately Amazon have gone harder on this, and it is 100% so that they can wipe banned books from your libraries without your consent. Buy direct from authors. Get your files.

submitted 73 days ago • 253 comments

I know the point of Agatha Christie bumping off endless people with sleeping draughts is they were very dangerous, but I kind of envy the free & easy access to unconsciousness people of yore enjoyed.

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Third day working on my short cosmic horror story. Starting to trust it's not going away, not if I keep showing up for it. Wrote the first scene & decided it out to be the first scene, but ignored my compulsion to derail and rewrite and just kept going. #amwriting

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Wrote the second scene of the eldritch horror story I began yesterday. A very short scene, 300 words, but a lovely bit of prose, if I say so myself, & it moves the horror element forward. By my recent standards, I'm positively on a roll.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

I've been severely writers blocked for a looong time now, & unsuccessfully tried everything to shift it. Now, I know one swallow doesn't make a summer, but this morning I started a new (eldritch horror) short story, & wrote the first scene. Good words that came easily, too. Touch wood.

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

So ... Assuming New Mexico to be renamed New America?

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

I feel as if sanity is the real Gulf of America ...

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

The tropical low responsible for all the flooding has finally buggered off over the ocean, & the sun is out for the first time in eternity. Rivers are still up. Still shortages. But restoration should speed up now. We had 2-3 metres (80-120ish inches) of rain. My soul feels damp.

submitted 77 days ago • 1 comment

God. Still with the rains and the storms and the flood warnings and the supply shortages. Things are trending better, I guess, but hell and damn I miss the Sun and the sky and sounds that aren't rain spattering.

submitted 78 days ago • 0 comments

I'm increasingly nervous we will suddenly invent an immortality drug and the current political moment will just quietly last forever.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Disappear for a week and when you come back the US mess has metastasized so much you can't follow it any more. It's madness.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Worst of the flooding probably over. Region going into recovery mode, schools opening and whatnot. Still cut off my road and rail, so supermarkets closed or empty, but hopefully that will change quickly. Personally: very tired.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Good news! Our days of major flooding have ended our weeks of severe heatwave. Summer is awesome. (I'm old enough to remember when summer was a season and not a relentless death match.)

submitted 88 days ago • 0 comments

#RaymondChandler read-through accelerated by sitting quietly with a book to hide from a (miserable, week-long so far) heatwave. The Lady of the Lake was great, though maybe telegraphed its punch. The Little Sister is a low-point. Overcomplicated & a bit mean spirited, I thought.

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

Starwars #SkeletonCrew ... well, I'm not their intended demographic. But, is it like the law now that Star Wars stories have to collapse into gibberish as they unfold?

submitted 103 days ago • 0 comments

Continuing my #RaymondChandler readthrough with The High Window. I swear, Chandler's prose gets better & better as he goes. This one brings out Marlowe's compassion: he's not fooled by anyone, but under the right circumstances he shows kindness & helps them. I love it. On to The Lady in the Lake...

submitted 103 days ago • 0 comments

Now reading Chandler's Farewell My Lovely. Still absolutely killer prose (though the title has me worried for a character I'm liking). Race is centred a bit, in this one, & that aspect hasn't aged well. I mean, I've learned two racial epithets I'd never heard before, so, you know. That's not great.

submitted 105 days ago • 1 comment

While I'm grumbling (and I'm basically just Victor Meldrew at this point) ... Woolworths has its Easter eggs out for sale. Are we basically not even pretending it's do do with Easter any more. Like, Easter is to egg as Mars is to bar, kind of thing?

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

I'm not saying I hate it with a towering passion, but if God wants to zap straight to hell all the YouTubers doing the moronic Home Alone palms on cheeks shock thumbnail to cadge clicks, I'm not going to pray for Him to stop.

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

Just finished The Big Sleep by #RaymondChandler ... I think the climactic paragraph that explains why it's called The Big Sleep may be one of the all time best paragraphs. Perfect. Even rivals (doesn't quite beat) Jackon's opening to The Haunting of Hill House, higher praise than which I don't have.

submitted 107 days ago • 1 comment

Reading new things to try and defibrillate my flatlining writing brain, so tackling Raymond Chandler for the first time. The Big Sleep. Knowing only pastiches, I expected overblown, hard-boiled irony and self-conscious noir, but so very no.

submitted 109 days ago • 1 comment

Amazing and kind of beautiful, but I do think pulling silk out of giant spider bums must be a candidate for worst job in the world. Those folk need to unionize, 'cause they ain't being paid enough. Whatever they're being paid now. youtu.be/Fv1qq6ypiTk?...

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments

Merry Christmas, to everyone who celebrates Christmas, & just generally a great day in accord with your own wishes & delights everyone else! After a rough year, it's nice to have a day that's just peace & gratitude & food & such.

submitted 126 days ago • 1 comment

Stegosaurus. Times were tough; they cosplayed a castle. Go the thagomizer...

submitted 128 days ago • 0 comments