What a day, my lovely people.
Today is 6 August (although you may happen upon this on a different day, or your time zone could be wrong). In the spirit of it being Psychic Day, I foresaw both you reading this newsletter and you not finding me as amusing as I do. If you’re in the US, it’s both National Friendship Day and National Wiggle Your Toes Day. And who knew that both Andy Warhol and Allfred Lord Tennyson were born on International Sailor Moon Day?
Back in 1965, Lyndon B Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act to overcome the barriers that prevented African Americans from voting, and then in 1996, the Ramones played their last concert.
6 August, 1945, however, was the day the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Sure, the USA was looking to end World War II, but they did so at the expense of more than 70,000 immediate lives, which grew to 140,000—55% of Hiroshima’s population—by the end of the year. Three days later, they did the same thing to Nagasaki. Pearl Harbor may have come first, but the bombings were final atrocities committed in what was, in many ways, a six year global game of tit for tat.
Before we jump into the rest of the newsletter—which won’t be as dour as its introduction, I promise you—let’s take a quick look at the anti-Japanese propaganda from the time, lest anyone believes the end of World War II was purely altruistic.
On the blog
Rediscovering the Ronin Rabbit: Mirage of a Dark Horse: My fourth piece discussing Usagi Yojimbo, where I discuss the stories from books 7 to 11.
Winning is Just the Beginning: Would I really spoil my Camp NaNoWriMo outcome in the title like that?
Saturday Snippets: If you’ve been reading this newsletter for any amount of time, you know what this is all about. I will say that this is the last month with Till Death Do Us Party snippets for a little while…
Writings
I’ll get this out of the way quickly; I only spent 4:30 editing in July, and those hours were spent on book reviews.
In all fairness, the month wasn’t about editing; it was all about writing. In particular, rewriting Luminary, as part of Camp NaNoWriMo. To resolve that earlier mystery about if I would spoil the result in a blog post’s title, damn straight I would. I wrote 59,002 words against a target of 50,000, a result I’m pretty happy with. Especially, since for most of the month, I was staring down the barrel of not hitting the target.
In total, I wrote 70,830 words, with the remainder being book reviews and blog posts. It was my most productive month of the year so far, and chances are it will stay that way. I also hit a milestone of writing the year’s 200,000th word.
I’m a terrible Neil Gaiman fan
I haven’t watched Good Omens 2 yet. Granted, that’s at the time of writing—I probably will have seen at least some of it by the time you read this.
If that’s not bad enough, I held back watching it for the final three episodes of The Witcher season three. As I stare at my bookshelf and see the box set of the novels sitting there still unread, I realise I’m also remiss there (but I have read Good Omens, for the record).
While the season’s copping a lot of hate, I have to say I enjoyed it, and found it to be on par with the first two seasons. Episode six is the most brutal and epic the show has ever been, and I appreciated how the following episodes felt like a coda to Henry Cavill’s time as Geralt. While the plot’s open for it to loosely adapt the rest of the books, those last episodes played like a series finale.
Which, ironically, may end up being the case. While not-Thor Hemsworth has been cast as Geralt in season four, it’s rumoured the show has been put on pause indefinitely. So has everything else, in light of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. But apparently, in light of these strikes and the less than warm embrace as not-Thor Hemsworth replacing no-longer-Superman Cavill as Geralt, Netflix is considering calling it a day on The Witcher. Which I guess means that will be the end of the franchise they were building, and we’ll never get that kids’ show.
On those strikes
Support them. This isn’t a case of overpaid actors and writers being greedy; it’s about getting greedy corporations to give those people without name recognition a living wage. A situation further complicated by the advent of AI and a lack of residuals from streaming shows.
Remember how big Orange is the New Black was? Do you know how appallingly the majority of its largely female, largely POC, cast was paid?
My comfortable posterior
Even if you’re no Victor Hugo, when you spend as long as I do sitting at your desk—between my day job and my writing, over twelve hours in a day isn’t unheard of—it’s worth investing in a chair. It’s particularly worth investing in a chair when you score about a third off its retail price.
And don’t worry, this isn’t a paid advertisement, and I won’t be pushing my chair on you. Consider it a public service announcement. If you spend a decent amount of time at your desk, do yourself a favour and invest in a good chair. One that’s not only comfortable on your posterior (it deserves it), but provides decent back and lumbar support. With my old chair wearing a little thin, I invested in something meant to be sat on for hours on end, and I felt the difference as soon as I sat on it.
Book reviews
With my focus on writing as many words as I could in Luminary, July was a small month for book reviews. With that said, I still managed to review a few. If you’re looking for something to read, why not see if any of these grab you?
Streetcab Seshjack by Olle Ordsmed is a cyberpunk novella that takes the reader out of their comfort zone while being equally familiar to fans of the genre, and unique. Read it if you don’t mind some adult subject matter, especially when it’s combined with an engrossing plot and wonderful characters.
The Tale of the Young Witch by Joseph Minart presents an engaging coming of age tale set within a rich fantasy world. Read it if you enjoy books for younger readers, especially if you appreciate them having a brilliant setting.
What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky bills itself as “part creature-feature, part survival story,” which is both an appropriate description and sells itself short. Preorder it if you enjoy horror stories, particularly if you also enjoy engrossing characters and literary fiction.
Taking Medusa by S.M. McCoy is part retelling of the Greek myth, and part story set long after those events. Preorder it if you’re a fan of Greek mythology and enjoy stories told by their witty protagonists.
Eve by Mark Jonathan Runte is a story about werewolves that blends science fiction, urban fantasy, horror and a dystopia. Preorder it if you like visceral stories that present strong themes through rich characters.
Bowie album of the month: Hunky Dory
6 August (1971, this time) was also the last day of recording for David Bowie’s fourth studio album, Hunky Dory, including one of his most famous songs, “Life on Mars.” Bowie’s the biggest influence on my writing; the song’s lyrical diversity and beautiful melancholy of “Life on Mars’” encapsulates why, through its tale about a girl disappointed humanity’s ills, and dreaming of a better world.
As Bowie’s last album before embracing concept albums and glam rock with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars, listeners discovered his love of change with “Changes.” More than a song title, it swapped genres from the hard rock of his two previous albums to pop rock, and from guitar-led music to piano. Although Andy Warhol was offended when Bowie performed the song named after, and written for, him, it’s rare for the album to not place in “Best of” album lists.