fmalexander

A mid-month recap to break up the miniatures posts.As long as I’m not working, I might as well write more.

My wife started a project to re-paint the bathroom a few weeks ago, but then she got hurt. Neither of us were prepared to pay someone to paint at this point, so I spent a few days painting, so we could have our bathroom back after a month of it being unusable. There was almost no light because of 2 burnt out pot-lights and a fixture with bad wiring where only 1 of 3 lights worked, so  I was pleasantly surprised with the results when we replaced some bulbs. It’s a tiny room, and now it’s painted a dark, dark blue except for white trim and doors hiding our washer/dryer. I’m hoping it’s not too dark.

I spent most of the time powering through the Alice Isn’t Dead podcast while I was painting. I’m NOT a fan of Welcome to Nightvale, but I listened to it because of Jasika Nicole, who portrayed one of my favourite characters on the TV show Fringe. I’m a bigger fan for having looked at her website while writing this post.She writes comics! I’ll be checking those soon. I’m quite looking forward to season 2, and to see how much is resolved. Jasika Nicole narrates the story of a truck driver who is searching for her missing wife, and along the way discovers a sinister, supernatural, hidden world. It’s quite creepy, though we don’t know all that much. I still have to listen to the last episode of  season 1 so maybe that will change.

I’ve made it a goal next year to read more (in general) Quebec speculative fiction and horror (le fantastique). So, of course, instead of doing the stuff I’m supposed to be doing I started research. I managed to grab a copy of issue #61 of Virages (a shift or turn), which is horror-themed, by arranged pick-up at a script drop-off box. I haven’t read it and already I’m getting thrills – it feels like I’m dealing in dangerous goods. I’ll also be checking out Brins D’Eternite, and Solaris, and Clair-Obscur. I’ve discovered a few publishers (Les Six Brumes, Alire, and La Maison des visceres) that I intend to keep an eye on, but I’m not ready to buy any single author collections or novels at this point. I haven’t seen too many anthologies, and I’m wary of reading too much sci-fi, or fantasy, so… expect semi-regular updates about this next year.

Last weekend, I tried brunch at a vegan restaurant called Grasshopper. I loved the Kimchi Fries so much, that I’ll be making some kimchi pulled “pork” (ie jackfruit) nachos .I’ll be posting about that soon.

I’ve fallen behind on reading the Short Story Advent Calendar, so today I’m reading 10 stories to get caught up! The rest of the month is writing time, because I’ve caught up on the immediate stuff, and I’m waaaay ahead of the holiday stuff.

No Gigi updates for today, but that’s coming soon. I’ve received a lot of reading material, but that can wait until after Christmas.Now I’m going to contact my government to do more than self-promote, and try to help with the evacuation of Aleppo.

Signal Boost:

As of earlier this week, there were still about 50% of copies available for Michael Wehunt‘s Dim Shores collection, with art from Justine Jones, which is currently open for pre-order. Those books are usually already sold out by the time I post about them, because I get my books sent 2 at a time to help with shipping costs. My reviews have been in draft form since June? which is really little help to anyone either.