The Wonderful World of Was: May
😆 Remember to laugh 😆
It may be a slightly belated welcome, since we’re already at the 7th of the month, but with it being the first Sunday in May, we’re just about a week down. So may the next three and a bit weeks be full of enough awesomeness to carry you through to June. Being the first Sunday in May also means that today is World Laughter Day. I wrestled between two extremes of the celebration, either embarking on a mission to make you laugh—which would inevitably fail—or letting the event pass without acknowledging it. You can take this as the middle ground, where I acknowledge the day. Not only does laughter release endorphins and trigger a happy emotional response, it relaxes the body, boosts the immune system, burns calories, and protects the heart… and that’s not me being figurative, it can literally help prevent cardiovascular issues, protecting you from a heart attack.
While this newsletter will undoubtedly fail to make you laugh, I hope you find something to laugh about today. While as kids, we laughed far more easily, as adults we do so less often. So today, why don’t we all embrace our inner child and have a good laugh?
Writings
I did it; I finally finished Till Death Do Us Party, draft 4.2, and although I cut it close, as predicted in my last newsletter, I finished it by the end of April. ProWritingAid’s quirks have now been removed from the draft, and now it can sit, gathering proverbial dust as it floats about the cloud, waiting for me to work on draft 5. I can talk more about it here, or I could direct you to a blog post I wrote about it right here.
That blog post added to my word count (as did the book reviews I wrote, but I’ll link to those a little later), which ended up coming in at about one and a half times March’s total, or 14,015 words. With it being a disjointed month after the passing of Ghost the Cat, I’m surprised I wrote as much as I did. Conversely, I only spent about two thirds as much time editing in April, at 30:15.
At some point in May, I’m aiming to start Luminary, draft 2 (though kind of the third), which is going to be a mammoth task, thanks to a wholesale rewrite. The story needs a little work, but I’m also changing it from the third person to the first. I won’t say why, but when it comes time to read it, I hope it’s evident why I’m kicking myself for not thinking to write it in the first person originally.
Grogu’s still adorable. Adorable like Krang
I’m a few days late for May the Fourth, but that’s okay, because the timing’s purely coincidental.
In the March edition, I commented about how the opening episode of The Mandalorian season three seemed to be about how adorable Grogu is. Now the season’s done, my opinion hasn’t changed, with it being packed with adorable moments from making friends with Lizzo and Jack Black (but sadly failing to meet Christopher Lloyd) to becoming Star Wars’ very own version of Krang.
Aside from his adorableness, a lot has been said about how terrible The Mandalorian season three is, and how it’s descended into irredeemable drivel. The show that once was is no more. I’m a little more measured in my opinion. At times it felt lost, and at other times, it felt as though it was stalling for time until the next big thing. It doesn’t work as well as those first two seasons, but it brought it in the end. And at least the finale brought enough closure to the season that we won’t have its cliffhanger cleanly resolved in Ahsoka—but the jury’s still out about whether Rosario Dawson will have to hand an episode or two over to Pedro Pascal.
Cal Kestis is adorable in his own way, especially when being trolled by Luke Skywalker
In the March newsletter, I thought I’d pit Grogu against Kal Kestis, since I was planning on playing Jedi: Fallen Order. I still haven’t fired it up, but plan to after catching up with book reviews.
With its sequel, Jedi Survivor, now being out, I expect I’ll get to that following the release of Jedi 3, whenever that comes out. At least the bugs that have been impacting Survivor’s playability should be mostly ironed out in a few years, right?
But while I wait to play Jedi—any Jedi game—I’ll have to make do with watching Luke Skywalker provide the young jedi with sage advice.
Saturday snippets
Yeah, this is the point where I comment about how it’s Saturday snippets on a Sunday. Which is getting pretty passe by now. So, unless I can think of a new gag, I’ll probably just rename it to “Snippets” in future.
Regardless, they’re now up, and there’s fourteen of them. And believe it or not, some are even more tasteful than the one I shared.
Fucking Peaches
No, I’m not talking about a previously unrevealed fetish. You won’t find me doing that before deciding to hide some content behind a paywall.
Instead, I’m talking about the song by The Mandalorian’s Jack Black, who also appeared in a little film called The Super Mario Bros Movie, that approximately seventy-three per cent of the world has now seen. Since seeing the movie, the kids have had it on repeat, whether it’s Spotify or YouTube. So you can feel my pain, I’ve linked to The Mandalorian star’s film clip of the song. Just be sure to play it on repeat for three weeks straight.
Book reviews
April was a fantastic month for book reviews, packed with wonderful books, which I’ll get to below. I dug every single book that I read. I’m currently working my way through May’s reviews (two are up if you can’t wait), which I think will be the most packed month ever. And so far, I’m really digging what I’m seeing.
I have three reviews for novellas by Tanweer Dar. Two very different cyberpunk stories, and another set in space. The Man with No Name has shades of a Western in a story that’s best going into blind, building slowly as it unveils its mystery. The Demon is a superhero cyberpunk tale that feels akin to the 1989 Batman movie or Darkman. If that has shades of superhero movies, In the Heart of the Void has shades of Alien, telling a great horror set on board a spaceship.
The Shadow of Theron by Kathryn Troy also bears similarities to superheroes, though in this case, it’s the Batman of 1966, or The Mark of Zorro. Or even The Princess Bride. Sure, each example is less of a superhero story than the last, but this book is a great fantasy story filled with secret identities and classic derring-do.
Secrets of the Sorcery War is another fantasy tale, the second book in Elise Carlson’s Ruarnon Trilogy. Better than the already great first book in the series, it’s a portal fantasy filled with wonderful characters, including a non-binary protagonist.
Last but absolutely not least, Mark Runte’s Wolf Prince of Kstovo and Zolushka are two of the shortest books I’ve reviewed. They are both short stories forming the Midwinter Nights duology, fantasy stories that feel like classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, set in Russia during the 1800s.
Did I get through a newsletter without mentioning Batman?
Why, yes. Yes I did. Given the last couple of months, maybe I should ask whether I got through a newsletter without mentioning Star Wars. I won’t, but I will leave you with the above meme my 10-year-old son sent me, a little fuck you do his dear old dad.
And it’s time to bid you adieu for the month. Until we meet in June, keep on laughing. It really is good for you.
TTFN,
Was