Today I took the afternoon off – the heat was insufferable, so I got me a big cup of ice cream and the first two Monstress collections (thank you, mysterious fan who had them delivered) and called it a day off.
And I must say I am absolutely impressed by both the quality of the artwork and the depth and fun of the story. Beautiful.
No better way to try and get some of my energies back.
The ice cream helped, too.
I do not read many comics anymore. I used to, but in the early 2000s it turned into a very expensive habit – the funnies I used to buy for a pittance at the news-agent’s when I was a kid had become the classy big books I found in a bookstore by my university when I was older, and now they were luxury items sold in specialist bookshops in which guys bickered about whether Evangelion was stronger than Gundam or whatever.
In the end, I decided to keep buying books and drop most of my comics.
But once in a while I still find something interesting – like today’s offer via Amazon, of the digital version of the first issue of Monstress for free.
I can go for that.
Having set straight (hopefully) the first 150 pages of the second draft of my Ghostwriting Job from Hell in two days, I have spent yesterday afternoon and this morning writing a learned article about the Tomb of Nefertari, the beautiful (and resourceful) wife of King Ramses II. One of the perks of working as a freelance is the fact that often variety allows us to forget about the chores and enjoy the truly entertaining.
That’s the nice part – doing something interesting and fun, and get paid for it.
The Nefertari piece is one of three that I pitched to an Italian magazine – the first (already written and accepted) was about the canals of Mars, and the next one will be about surrealist fashion in the ’30s and movie costumes.
Spot the common thread connecting the three pieces, and you’ll get a prize.
No, not really.
But anyway… if you’ve got an idea, just write it in the comments.
I’ve often mentioned how book bundles have been for me a good way to keep reading while money was tight. These days maybe money is not as tight as before, but I still check out regularly HumbleBundle, StoryBundle and, for my gaming needs, the Bundle of Holding. And today I happily splurged five bucks on the basic tier of the latest SciFi StoryBundle – a fine selection of world SF curated by Lavie Tidhar.
The basic level featured three books that are on my Amazon wishlist, plus one I did not know about – so, why not?
I saved money, I made sure some of my coins went into a charity, and now I have a few books to read, and a new author to discover.
All the books in the bundle come in multiple formats and DMR-free.
So, yes, please, check it out.
The selection features an Italian colleague of mine, too – and a fine novel published by my publisher, Acheron Books.
Just sayin’.
A few days ago I was told (once again) that I should find me an alias (as if…) to “differentiate my offer” and “avoid confusing my readers” – the poor creatures being of the sort, apparently, that might be shocked and confused to find I write historical fantasy, science fiction, occasionally horror, thrillers and adventure.
And confused readers apparently stop buying your stories.
Now, I usually assume my readers are strong-willed enough not to be scared off by the fact that a story of mine does not fall in the same genre as the previous. And indeed, I usually point out a number of excellent writers that wrote across all the spectrum of fiction without changing their names.
I usually mention C.J. Cherryh as a good example, or Tanith Lee, or Poul Anderson, or Jack Vance.
Just a quick one to let you know I’ve just got my author copies of the two-volume set of Sherlock Holmes & the Occult Detectives, the massive anthology edited by John Linwood Grant, and they are beautiful books.
In other news: I need a new webcam (this one sucks).
… I do not have much time to write a post because I am busy reading, and last night the Amazon Oompa-Loompas delivered on my reader a pristine copy of Jessica Bakkers’ Guns of Perdition.
And if you will take a look at the cover, you will realize that you need to read it like, now.
Now you’ve seen it – go and buy it!
Karavansara 