Reading Round-Up: February 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 12 books in February: 11 in print, 1 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #117 (February 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Victor LaValle’s “Ark of Light,” Kij Johnson’s “Noah’s Raven,” Daniel Jose Older’s “A Stranger At the Bonchinche,” and Maria Romasco-Moore’s “Dying Light.”

2.       The Golden Key by Marian Womack. A gothic-supernatural novel that takes place mostly in a London experiencing an upswing in interest in the occult thanks to the death of Queen Victoria. Told from the points of view of three characters: a man with a mysterious past, a woman who covers her deductive abilities with a veneer of the supernatural, and a young governess in the town the man is from. Full Review Here.

3.       The Midwinter Witch (The Witch Boy Book Three) by Molly Knox Ostertag. The third in Ostertag’s tales of Aster, a boy who has a talent for witchcraft even though all of the boys in his family are supposed to be shapeshifters. This time, Aster has to decide if it’s time to show off his growing prowess at the family reunion/midwinter celebration or he should heed his protective mother’s advice and stay hidden a while longer. I love every installment of this series.

4.       The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. Alternate history/steampunk/Afrofuturism novella that takes place in an independent New Orleans under siege by several outside forces including the Confederacy and the Union. The main character, a young girl who serves as a conduit for a powerful Orisha, must figure out how to save her city with the aid of a smuggler, the smuggler’s airship crew, a feral child and a pair of odd nuns. Full Review Here.

5.       LaGuardia (LaGuardia Vol 1) by Nnedi Okorafor, Tana Ford and James Devlin. In Okorafor’s future where aliens are immigrating to Earth, New York City’s LaGuardia Airport is still a hot mess for passengers arriving and departing. This topical piece of SF takes on immigration, acceptance vs. tolerance, and politics. The art by Ford and Devlin is realistic and expressive. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

6.       Arrow of God (Africa Trilogy #2) by Chinua Achebe. I set a goal to read all of Achebe’s Africa Trilogy last year after reading Things Fall Apart in 2018. I didn’t make the goal, so I set it again this year. This middle volume of the story only peripherally mentions events from the first book, but continues to focus on the conflict between local custom and new rules during the British colonization of Nigeria, this time with particular attention to religious belief. Powerful work.

7.       The Shape of Friendship (A Lumberjanes Original Graphic Novel) by Lilah Sturges and Polterink. The second Lumberjanes original graphic novel (as opposed to trade paperbacks collecting the monthly comics run) focuses on the friendship between April and Jo, and how that friendship morphs/changes with the arrival of Barney, who Jo went to came with before attending the Lumberjanes camp. April’s devotion to and protectiveness of her childhood best friend is beautiful, and the story doesn’t go in the expected/trope-y directions. This might also be the first Lumberjanes book to make explicit the fact that Jo is transgender, and it is wonderfully handled.

8.       The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle. I read this before I found out it was a response to/reworking of a specific H.P. Lovecraft story I’ve never read. It is a fantastic story on its own, with deep character work for the three main characters and plenty of both cosmic and every-day horror to go around. When compared to the very racist, very not-scary Lovecraft original, it becomes even more impressive. Longer Review coming soon.

9.       Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. One of my “To Be Read” Challenge books for 2020, this is only the second Butler I’ve read in my life. More SF than horror, it shares some similarities with Butler’s Fledgling in that the author pulls no punches and hides no trauma. I found myself intrigued by the Earthseed belief system the main character develops, and caught up in how Butler extrapolated, in the 90s, a near-future that feels even more real right now.

10.   Docile by K.M. Szpara. As I said in the Full Review I Posted Recently, Szpara’s debut novel joins Sabrina Vourvoulias’ Ink, and Butler’s Parable of the Sower, on a shelf of near-future SF that is not only believable given our current climate but harrowing and hopeful at the same time. Be warned though: there are all kinds of sexual and emotional abuse and assault front and center throughout the book, and lots of explicit sex. This book is not for the squeamish.

11.   The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe by Kij Johnson. Another Lovecraftian novella that builds off of and responds to a specific Lovecraft story (in this case “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” which I read many years ago and have some vague memories of). Johnson gives us a strong female professor setting out across the Dreamlands to find a missing student. It’s more fantasy than horror, and takes on the nature of dreams, reality, and the way the machinations of those who are more powerful affect those who have little or no power. Longer Review coming soon.

12.   Imaginary Numbers (InCryptid #9) by Seanan McGuire. The newest InCryptid novel finally places cousin Sarah Zallaby, who has been recuperating since overusing her powers in the second novel, at the front of the action, along with cousin Artie. Even having read the back-cover description, the book didn’t go where I thought it was going to, with some very pleasant surprises along the way. There’s also a bonus novella that bridges the action of the previous novel (which focused on Antimony Price) and this one.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Ark of Light” by Victor LaValle, from Lightspeed Magazine #117 (February 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “How We Burn” by Brenda Paynado

3.       “Dying Light” by Maria Romasco-Moore

4.       “The Gamecocks” by JT Petty

5.       “Noah’s Raven” by Kij Johnson

6.       “A Stranger at the Bochinche” by Daniel Jose Older

7.       “Toxic Destinations” Alexander Weinstein

8.       “A Statement in the Case” by Theodora Goss

9.       “All That Glitters” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.    “Journal” by Jim Butcher, from The Jim Butcher Mailing List, edited by Fred Hicks

11.   “Emergent” by Rob Costello, from The Dark #57 (February, 2020), edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace

12.   “Holoow” by Michael Wehunt

13.   “Ngozi Ugegbe Nwa” by Dare Segun Falowo

14.   “Live Through This” by Nadia Bulkin

15.   “The Best Horses Are Found in the Sea, and Other Horse Tales To Emerge Since The Rise” by Beth Cato, from Daily Science Fiction February 14, 2020 edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden

16.   “The Horror at Red Hook” by H.P. Lovecraft, in stand-alone ebook format, editor unknown

17.   “Follow The Lady” by Seanan McGuire, new novella published as back-matter for the novel Imaginary Numbers.

So that’s 17 short stories in February. Way under “1 per day,” so I’m behind for the year so far. (February 29th was the 60th day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 2 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  17 read; YTD: 43 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 4 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 12 read; YTD: 31 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 5 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: February was Black History Month and Women in Horror Month, so my goal was to read primarily authors from Africa or of African descent and female horror writers. Of the twelve books read in February, five were by authors from Africa or of African descent; three were horror or horror-adjacent works by female authors (Octavia E. Butler counted in both categories, but I did not count Seanan McGuire as a female horror writer because the book of hers I read this month was not part of her horror output.)

March is Women’s History Month, so my goal is to read primarily women authors across various genres and formats.

Black History Month: Black Genre Authors

February is Black History Month. In honor, I thought I’d put up a list of some of my favorite black genre writers, folks whose work really just blows me away. Note: as usual with this kind of thing, I do not intend this to be an exhaustive list. As I’m posting this kind of off-the-cuff as it were, I’m sure I’ll accidentally leave some wonderful creators out. It’s not intentional at all, and certainly not meant to be a slight.

Maurice Broaddus: I first became aware of Maurice thanks to his Knights of Breton Court trilogy, a modern-urban-gang-warfare take on the Arthurian mythos. His short story collection Voices of Martyrs is brilliant. His two most recent works are the middle-grade novel The Usual Suspects, and the steampunk alternate history Pimp My Airship. He’s also co-edited a number of anthologies including Dark Faith from Apex.

Nnedi Okorafor: Nnedi’s Binti novellas, hard SF mixed with fantasy, sheer blew me away, as did her post-apocalyptic novel Who Fears Death. Her short stories are great as well, and I’m about to read her graphic novel with Tana Ford, LaGuardia.

Tananarive Due: I should be embarrassed that I’ve yet to read one of Tananarive’s novels, based on how much I’ve enjoyed her short stories in various magazines and anthologies over the past few years. Ghost Summer: Stories is a few years old now, but it’s a great place to start on her short fiction.

Nalo Hopkinson: Another author whose short stories I love and whose novels I should have read long since. Some of Nalo’s best stories can be found in Skin Folk: Stories. She’s also the writer of the brilliant addition to DC Comics’ “Sandman Universe” called House of Whispers.

Nisi Shawl: Nisi’s alternate history Everfair, about the creation of an independent African state during King Leopold’s conquest of the Congo, is amazing and thought-provoking, and refreshing in that it’s alternate history that doesn’t center the US Civil War or World War Two. She’s also a great editor (New Suns: Speculative Fiction by People of Color, among others) and the co-author with Cynthia Ward of the non-fiction book Writing the Other.

Victor LaValle: Victor’s short stories are gut-punches of detail and emotion. His novella The Ballad of Black Tom takes on Lovecraft. He’s also a talented editor, most recently of A People’s Future of the United States with John Joseph Adams.

P. Djèlí Clark: The Black God’s Drums is another piece of amazing alternate history that combines steampunk with the supernatural. His other short fiction is great as well.

Nane Kwame Adjeh-Brenyah: Friday Black: Stories was one of my favorite short story collections of last year. Nane’s stories had me thinking about societal forces and systemic racism in ways I hadn’t done so before.

Octavia Butler: No list of black genres authors is complete without her. Parable of the Sower is coming up on my reading list during my next business trip, and as I said last week, Fledgling still disturbs me.

Tade Thompson: I just read Tade’s evocative supernatural poem “Komolafe” in the sixth issue of Occult Detective Magazine. I need to read more by him. A lot more.

Gary Phillips: Like many of the folks on this list, Gary writes in a number of genres, but I’m most familiar with him as a writer of “new pulp” adventure, in anthologies like The Green Hornet Casefiles (edited by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert) and the recent From Sea to Stormy Sea (edited by Lawrence Block).

Okay, your turn readers. There are a lot of black genre writers I’ve read who aren’t on this list, sins of omission based on a deadline and work-loads and such, but there are also plenty out there I’ve never read. Who do you think I should be reading? Give me names in the comments!

SERIES SATURDAY: Silverblade

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

Not long ago, I re-read (for the first time in many years) and wrote a Series Saturday post about the two Nathaniel Dusk mini-series written by Don McGregor, drawn by Gene Colan, and published by DC Comics. That, along with reading the first three volumes of Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection back in November, made me want to re-read more of the Gene Colan work I loved, starting with the Cary Bates-scripted, Colan-drawn maxi-series Silverblade.

Silverblade is the story of reclusive former movie star Jonathan Lord and his co-stars in the movie that shares the maxi-series’ title. At the height of his career, the “Lord of Sunset Boulevard” matched Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power as a screen star; in the waning years, Lord’s career parallels Boris Karloff, to an extent. In the then-present-day of 1987, Lord is long-since retired and is bitter and cranky. He spends most of his time watching his own old movies while being waited on by Bobby Milestone (who co-starred in “Silver Blade” as a young boy in need of rescue) and avoiding phone calls from several of his ex-wives (including Sandra Stanyon, the great love of his life, who also co-starred in “Silver Blade”). An ancient bird spirit, manifesting as a falcon, grants Lord the ability to transform into any of his former film roles (gaining whatever powers are inherent with each role), because the bird-spirit needs a human avatar to help battle the return of another ancient spirit called The Executioner. Returned to his prime (in his role as the hero of “Silver Blade”), Lord re-emerges into Hollywood society pretending to be his own son, Jonathan Lord Junior, going on auditions for a science-fictiony “Silver Blade” remake and falling in lust with a well-known reporter. All of which distracts him from the mission, to the falcon’s displeasure.

The story winds its way from there over twelve issues, delving into the characters’ shared past (other major characters include Brian Vane, who played the villain in “Silver Blade,” and Vincent Vermillion, the young boy who was Bobby Milestone’s stunt double on the film and holds a grudge) and slowly unveiling what the battle between the Falcon and the Executioner is all about. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns, and very cool use of the types of characters an actor who started out as a Flynn and ended as a Karloff would have played: there’s the swashbuckling hero, the disgruntled private eye, the turns as Dracula and the Mummy. Two of the issues have end-text that list every movie Jonathan Lord made, and several are named after classic DC properties. I really would have loved to see Bates and Colan’s take on Jonathan Lord as The Viking Prince or Sarge of “Gunner and Sarge,” but I suspect that list was created well after the main story was plotted out, and fitting every character Lord ever played into the main story would have been a bit too much. But I have to admire Bates’ dedication to giving us Lord’s full filmography and a look at the actor’s one turn on Broadway.

For the first three-quarters of the story, what we get is something that I think falls firmly into the realm of “urban fantasy.” There’s magic at play, forces that normal humans can’t comprehend; there’s a plucky band of main characters who are in the know, willingly or not, and working to save the day; and the city of Hollywood and its history play a major role in the proceedings (I’m not sure it could have been told the same way if Jonathan Lord had retired to, say, Chicago, or if his successful career had been centered on Broadway instead of the movies). There’s never a mention of other super-heroes, and the few moments where the supernatural is revealed to the greater public are usually written off as some kind of mass hallucination, which make it a lot easier to think of this story as taking place in “the world outside our window” (to steal a phrase from the great Philip Jose Farmer). Up to issue nine, Silverblade is a straight-forward “guy must save the world” story.

The final third of the story is where things get really weird. Metaphysics is a subject I’ve never been able to fully grasp, and Bates lays it on think. As a late teenager when the issues originally came out, I have to admit I didn’t really get it; I think I understood more of what he was attempting while rereading at age 53, but I’m still not totally sure. There’s a major change to the characters’ world introduced in issue #9 that allows Bates to move the story from straight-up urban fantasy to a treatise on the nature of reality.  Is there more than one? How “true” is “the real world” versus its celluloid imitations? In the first eight issues, Lord deals with some of this as he transforms from character to character and explores where the line is drawn between private actor, public persona, and character (including being killed and brought back to life as Dracula). But thanks to the big shift in issue 9, every character has to consider the question of what is real and whether one is ever truly “whole,” either in inter-personal relationships with or within oneself. Ruminations on Reality and Wholeness lead into the twin ideas of Truth and Perception, questions about whether anyone can truly know everything about us, and whether our personal truth is one that others can recognize and accept. Which leads me to a slight digression: I had completely forgotten about the scenes featuring the newly-introduced characters of “Alfie York” and “Jeremy Lago,” forgotten about how clearly a May-December couple they are when we first see them and how later in the book as reality reasserts itself we find one of them at least uncomfortable with being forced to play that relationship. I’m torn between giving Bates kudos for even attempting to give us a gay couple in a mainstream comic in the mid-80s and being unhappy with the reveal that they’re not only not a couple but that one of them expresses their discomfort in a somewhat homophobic way (although I don’t think the lines were meant by Bates to be interpreted that way, they certainly can be) that might be more upsetting to the other character than he lets on (I think, without spoiling much, an argument could be made that that particular character is closeted throughout the book and only in the final third does he finally get a chance to live as himself).

(I also have to admit, the introduction of a spirit guide who takes corporeal form as a cartoonish leprechaun might have had something to do with me not taking part of the “big theme” seriously back in 1987.)

Colan’s art is, of course, brilliant through-out. His style lends itself to the more metaphysical aspects of this story as much as it does to the gothic storytelling of Tomb of Dracula or the noir of the Nathaniel Dusk books, showing just how versatile the man was without compromising what made him unique. He’s inked here by Steve Mitchell (except for the first issue, on which Klaus Janson did the inking, and which looks a bit like the issues of Daredevil that Janson inked over Frank Miller). Mitchell isn’t quite the perfect match for Colan that Tom Palmer was on Tomb of Dracula, but he’s still quite good. And occasionally we do get to see, as we did on Nathaniel Dusk, art shot straight from Colan’s pencils, in terms of movie posters and photos that appear as part of the end-matter.

Since Jonathan Lord and Sandra Stanyon have appeared in DC’s animated Young Justice series (at least according to Wikipedia; Young Justice is another cartoon I need to eventually watch), I assume the rights to Silverblade rest with the publisher and not with Bates and Colan (or Colan’s estate). I think Silverblade would lend itself excellently to a one-and-done 10- or 12-episode series on Netflix of Amazon Prime. (I have long pictured Derek Jacobi as the older Jonathan Lord; the “younger” Lord needs to be someone swashbucklingly handsome … while I’d love to cast Freddie Highmore because I think he’s that damned talented, he’s also still got a baby-face at almost 30, so I think the studios would have to use someone like Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Nicholas Hoult. I think Colin Firth would be perfect as Bobby Milestone… I might have to do a separate post with a “dream cast.”)

I also realize that DC seems to have a weird process for deciding which older books (meaning 40s-80s) get collected (and how they get collected: hardcover or softcover? Full color or black-and-white?), but since they collected Colan and Marv Wolfman’s Night Force run from around this period, one can dream that Colan’s other mid-80s work for the company (particulary Silverblade, Nathaniel Dusk, and J’Emm Son of Saturn) will also get the hardcover full-color treatment one of these days.)

Women In Horror Month

February is “Women in Horror” Month. In honor, I thought I’d put up a list of some of my favorite female horror writers. Note: this is not an exhaustive list. As I’m posting this kind of off-the-cuff as it were, I’m sure I’ll accidentally leave some wonderful creators out. It’s not intentional at all, and certainly not meant to be a slight.

Damien Angelica Walters: While Damien’s short stories may cross genres, her novels have been pretty solidly horror: Ink was about possessed tattoos, Paper Tigers about a possessed photo album, and her most recent, The Dead Girls Club, is about storytelling and the ways in which real-life and sleepover-story horrors relate and interact. Her two short story collections, Sing Me Your Scars and Cry Your Way Home, contain a number of psychological and supernatural horror stories.

Lucy A. Snyder: I haven’t checked out any of her novels (yet), but Lucy writes some of the most disturbing short stories I’ve ever read. “Magdala Amygdala” is one of the few zombie stories I will intentionally reread, knowing it is going to gross me out. Check out her collection Soft Apocalypses.

Mira Grant: Sure, some of the short fiction Seanan McGuire publishes under her own name contains horror elements, usually more on the “dark fantasy” side. But when she writes as “her own evil twin sister,” Mira Grant, the horror takes center stage and the other genre elements (science fiction and fantasy) are extra flavor. The Newsflesh novels (zombies); the Parasitology trilogy (medicine gone amok); ); and a string of novellas from Subterranean Press that cover mermaids, slashers, plagues, and Lovecraftian horror (including Rolling in the Deep, Final Girls, In the Kingdom of Needle and Bone, and In The Shadow of Spindrift House) are among my favorite horror books ever.

Elizabeth Hand: Just on the strength of Wylding Hall alone, Elizabeth Hand is one of my favorite horror writers. I need to read more of her longer work.

Sabrina Vourvoulias: Sabrina’s stories co-mingle Latinx life and legends with alternate history or every-day life, but her near-future novel INK is a horror potentially unfolding in front of us on a daily basis, and everyone should read it. Check out her short fiction in various magazines and anthologies as well.

Kaaron Warren: I reviewed Kaaron’s most recent novella, Into Bones Like Oil, a few days ago here on the blog. Every story of hers I’ve read had snuck into my hind-brain and stayed there.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: From the near-future vampires of Certain Dark Things to the music-based magic of Signal to Noise and everywhere in between, Silvia writes some of the most compelling horror out there. She’s also the editor of The Dark magazine, cultivating horror from marginalized voices.

Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. “The Lottery.” Of course Jackson is on any list of favorite horror writers I might compile.

Octavia Butler: I am not sure how many years it’s been since I read Fledgling and I still can’t get certain scenes out of my mind. Butler is an author I long-since should have read more of, and I’m working to correct that.

Caitlín R. Keirnan: Caitlín’s short fiction, collected in volumes like The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, is phenomenal. Her novel The Drowning Girl haunted me for months after finishing it.

Ellen Datlow: Okay, Ellen is not an author. But she curates, both in anthologies like The Best Horror of the Year series and as a novella editor for Tor.com, a wide range of horror from the explicit to the classic to the subtle. No list of “women in horror” would be complete without Ellen’s name on it.

Okay, your turn readers. There are a lot of female horror writers I’ve read who aren’t on this list, sins of omission based on a deadline and work-loads and such, and plenty who I’ve never read. Who do you think I should be reading? Give me names in the comments!

SUNDAY SHORTS: Into Bones Like Oil

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

Kaaron Warren’s moving novella Into Bones Like Oil is about the ghosts, both literal and figurative, that haunt us. The characters and the setting are equally haunted by the sins of their pasts, and in some cases their present actions as well.

Every person who enters the Angelsea rooming hours is broken in some way. Dora, the main character, cannot sleep because of guilt over the death of her daughters; Luke has PTSD from his military service; a resident called the Doctor almost seems to regret the crimes he committed against his patients. Property manager Roy is obsessed with learning the secrets possessed by the ghosts of a nearby shipwreck, to the point he is willing to abuse his tenants to get what he wants. While there are a few disreputable and thoroughly unlikeable characters in the boo, Roy is the worst – but also the only one not willing to admit that he has done – scratch that, is doing – something reprehensible.

Warren’s language is elegiac, wistful and dream-like. The whole story is permeated with a sense of loss, regret, decay, of being stuck in a limbo created by an individual’s choices despite where else they may wish to place the blame. There are some truly uncomfortable moments as different characters’ faults and failures come to the fore – but they are all necessary for the characters, and the reader, to find catharsis. This is most especially true for Dora, who needs to process her own culpability in her daughters’ deaths and also in the current goings-on at the Angelsea. Dora, Luke, and several other residents are on a path of possible redemption, but each must make their own choices regarding how or whether to pursue it.

Warren beautifully illustrates how guilt immobilizes some and motivates others while also asking whether forgiveness can ever truly come from outside if it doesn’t begin within.

Reading Round-Up: January 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 19 books in January: 8 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 6 in audio. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #116 (January 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were J.R. Dawson’s “She’d Never Had a Name Before,” N.K. Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” and Adam-Troy Casto’s “Fortune’s Final Hand.”

2.       The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate #4) by J.Y. Yang. The fourth Tensorate novella fills in a lot of the history of the current Protector and her arch-nemesis Lady Han. It’s told in a far more conversational tone than the previous three editions, making it feel that much more personal/intimate. I’m hoping this is not the last we’ll see of the Tensorate universe.

3.       Loki: Agent of Asgard Volume 1: Trust Me by Al Ewing, Lee Garbett, Jenny Frison, Joerge Coehlo and others. Trade collection of Loki: Agent of Asgard #1-5, the first storyline in which the redesigned-to-look-like Tom Hiddleston Loki appeared. A fun mix of spy/crime capers with a deeper underpinning.

4.       The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth. I saw this on Broadway last year not before it closed (and sadly not with the original cast) and with the varying Irish accents I was sure there was dialogue I’d missed, so I picked up the script. It’s a brilliant bit of Irish drama set in the late 80s. Quinn Carney left the IRA years ago, but his younger brother didn’t and wound up missing. The drama unfolds as the brother’s body is found. At the same time, the show is a celebration of family, and like all good dramas there’s a lot of comedy to contrast with the inevitable tragedy. Worth reading, but even more worth seeing.

5.       Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, translated by Natasha Wimmer. A group of former childhood friends share memories of a girl who disappeared from their lives during the Pinochet regime. The prose is sparing and beautiful, the unspoken underpinnings even more tense and horrific for what’s implied.

6.       The High Window (Philip Marlowe #3) by Raymond Chandler. I set a goal of listening to all of the Philip Marlowe novels in audio form before I realized that most of the recordings are either abridged (Elliot Gould narrating) or full-cast radio plays (which I’m sure are great but miss some of Chandler’s descriptive language). This one was a solid story, but not quite as stand-out for me as the first two Marlowe books.

7.       Trading Teams by Romeo Alexander. Billed as a “jock-nerd college romance,” this one is not as frothy as it sounds. There’s a serious sub-plot regarding how we process grief and social anxiety and deal with depression and mental illness. There’s also a lot of meet-cute misunderstandings and a very nice representation of a young man accepting that he is in fact bisexual. Other reviewers have complained about the present-tense style and the nerd character’s depression but I liked the former and thought the latter was handled realistically.

8.       Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand. When I realized Hand’s “VH1 Behind the Scenes documentary” style novella about the tragedy surrounding the recording of a famous trad-folk band’s last album was also available as an audiobook, I had to do a reread/listen. The cast is roundly superb and maintain the tension of the print version. I suspect Wylding Hall will join my “frequent re-read / re-listen” list.

9.       The Half-Life of Marie Curie by Lauren Gunderson. Following a personal scandal, Marie Curie spends a summer with her friend and fellow scientist Hertha Ayrton. They debate scientific methods, women’s suffrage, the public’s fascination with famous people’s lives, grief and pride and their contributions to the British and French forces during World War One. Played brilliantly by Kate Mulgrew (as Ayrton) and Francesca Faridnay (as Curie), I would love to see the stage version of this.

10.   The Adventure of the Incognita Countess (Blood-Thirsty Agent Book One) by Cynthia Ward. A fun pulp-adventure novella starring Lucy Harker (dhampir daughter of Mina Harker and Dracula and step-daughter of Mycroft Holmes). In this inaugural adventure, Lucy is assigned to play bodyguard to an American carrying secret papers across the ocean on board Titanic. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize nods to and guest-appearances by a wealth of familiar real-life and fictional characters, including a certain Jungle Lord and a famous female vampire.

11.   Whose Boat Is This Boat? By the staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Sold to raise money for hurricane victims in the southeast United States, the author put President Trump’s actual statements and tweets in picture book form.

12.   Midnight Son by James Dommek Jr., Josephine Holtzman, and Isaac Kestenbaum. My first non-fiction audiobook of the year focuses on the case of actor-turned-fugitive Teddy Kyle Smith’s statements about encountering a mythic lost tribe (the Iñukuns) in the Alaskan wilderness. We hear little from Smith himself except for material recorded at his trial, but Dommek incorporates statements from family, neighbors and victims to form a picture of what Smith was thinking and why he did the things he did. Compelling but also very open-ended.

13.   Pirates of Venus (Carson Napier #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Carson Napier’s homemade spacecraft takes a wrong turn on the way to Mars and he ends up on Venus, discovering indigenous civilizations and falling in love with a native girl. It’s classic Burroughs fare, with deeply developed civilizations and language and lots of swashbuckling derring-do.

14.   A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert. A beautifully-written novella about the tragic life of a woman’s maid. This was my first time reading anything by Flaubert, and his skill at catching the details of every-day moments and expressions of grief is on full display.

15.   The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum (Blood-Thirsty Agent #2)  by Cynthia Ward. This time, Lucy is assigned as bodyguard to Winston Churchill when he decides to return to leading men on the Western Front during World War One, because of rumors the Germans are fielding a team of mind-controlled wolfmen in the area. Complications ensue, of course. Another very fun bit of steampunky-alternate-history-pulp-fiction. (I’m planning a Series Saturday overview of the series, including the soon-to-be-released third installment, The Adventure of the Naked Guide, in the near future.

16.   The Sideman (John Simon Thrillers #2) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Luddite cop John Simon and his android partner/friend Lucas George return for a second adventure that is more tightly plotted and faster-paced than the first book (Simon Says) without sacrificing any of the intimate moments or character development of the first book. The stakes are even higher this time, as a string of burglaries become evidence of a terror attack in the offing. (I read an ARC; the book will be on sale February 10. Longer review to come.)

17.   The Lady in the Lake (Philip Marlowe #4) by Raymond Chandler. Again, I listened in abridged audiobook form. Elliot Gould really nails Marlowe’s world-weariness. I found the overlapping cases this time (Marlowe is hired to track down a missing wife but finds dead bodies instead) a bit more intriguing than in The High Window.

18.   Occult Detective Magazine #6 (Fall, 2019), edited by John Linwood Grant and Dave Brzeski. A really fine mix of stories that feature both experienced and novice occult investigators, in stories that take place in eras ranging from pre-history to the far future, in locations from deep in the African continent to a space station. I’m sure a number of these stories featuring series characters, but I never felt like I was coming in the middle. There’s also a wealth of non-fiction book reviews, retrospectives and interviews.

19.   The Little Sister (Philip Marlowe #5) by Raymond Chandler. This was the first abridged audiobook that I felt actually suffered from sections being left out to keep the recording under three hours. I can’t point to any glaring plot-holes, but I felt throughout like there were necessary details I was missing. Still, the overlapping cases are intriguing.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Men Who Change The World” by Christopher East, from Lightspeed Magazine #116 (January 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “All Together, Now” by Jason Hough and Ramez Naam

3.       “She’d Never Had a Name Before” by J.R. Dawson

4.       “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” by N.K. Jemisin

5.       “Story Kit” by Kij Johnson

6.       “Destinations of Joy” by Alexander Weinstein

7.       “Holiday” by M. Rickert

8.       “Fortune’s Final Hand” by Adam-Troy Castro

9.       “Off-Balance” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “Here We Come A-Wassailing: A Christmas Story” by Thomas Perry, the 2019 free Christmas short story given out to Mysterious Bookshop customers by owner Otto Penzler.

11.   “Mike” by Jim Butcher, from The Jim Butcher Mailing List, edited by Fred Hicks

12.   “Mother Love” by Clara Madrigan, from The Dark #56 (January, 2020), edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace

13.   “No Good Deed” by Angela Slatter

14.   “Forwarded” by Steve Rasnic Tem

15.   “The Man at Table Nine” by Ray Cluley

16.   “The Rending Veil” by Melanie Atherton, from Occult Detective Magazine #6 (Fall 2019), edited by John Linwood Grant and Dave Brzeski

17.   “Komolafe” by Tade Thompson

18.   “The Way of All Flesh” by Matthew Willis

19.   “The Blindsider” by Cliff Biggers

20.   “Vinnie de Soth and the Phantom Skeptic” by I.A. Watson

21.   “The Empanatrix of Room 223” by Kelly M. Hudson

22.   “The Unsummoning of Urb Tc’Leth” by Bryce Beattie

23.   “In Perpetuity” by Alexis Ames

24.   “The Way Things Were” by S.L. Edwards

25.   “Angelus” by John Paul Fitch

26.   “The Last Performance of Victoria Mirabelli” by Ian Hunter

So that’s 26 short stories in January. Slightly under “1 per day,” so I’m slightly behind for the year so far. (January 31st was the 31st day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 1 of 14 read.

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  26 read; YTD: 26 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 1 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 19 read; YTD: 19 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 3 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 4 books read; YTD: 4 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: I didn’t set a mini-goal of any kind for January, other than trying to get to some recently-acquired books. 11 of the 19 books read were books acquired in the past 6 months.

February is Black History Month, so my goal is to read primarily authors from Africa or of African descent. It’s also Women In Horror Month, so I’ll be working on reading horror by female writers as well.

2019 By The Numbers

Earlier than previous years, here’s my media round-up for 2019: what I wrote, what was published, and what I read, listened to, and watched.

WRITING

Not much to report on this front. 2019 was not a good year for creating new content. I didn’t track what little writing I actually managed to do – but I know there were more days where I didn’t write than there were days I wrote, by far. I’m considering it a “recharging” year, as I consumed and processed a lot of wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) books, television, movies, live theatre and music events. The writing I did manage was mostly work on previous unfinished short stories.

PUBLISHING

2019 saw the publication of one short story:

• “Regardless of How Lost You Are Returning From, Regardless of How Far” appeared in Kaleidotrope magazine, edited by Fred Coppersmith

I also wrote a six paid book reviews for Strange Horizons magazine, and one for Out In Print (non-paid):

·         So You Want To Be A Robot: 21 Stories by A. Merc Rustad

·         Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

·         Forget The Sleepless Shore: Stories by Sonya Taaffe

·         The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag

·         Sealed by Naomi Booth

·         The History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

·         Of Echoes Born by ‘Nathan Burgoine (Out in Print)

READING

I set myself a variety of reading challenges in 2019. I managed to complete a few of them.

Goodreads Challenge:

I challenged myself to read 125 books. I read 144 books from approximately 73 different publishers.

Here’s the breakdown of what I read:

• Fiction: 140 books

  • 6 anthologies

    • 1 crime

    • 1 horror

    • 1 romance

    • 1 fantasy

    • 1 science fiction

    • 1 mixed-genre

  • 12 single-author collections

    • 3 science fiction

    • 3 horror

    • 2 fantasy

    • 2 crime/mystery

    • 2 poetry

  • 33 graphic novels

    • 8 super-hero

    • 4 horror

    • 12 fantasy

    • 1 crime

    • 2 pulp adventure

    • 2 romance

  • 12 magazines (all issues of Lightspeed magazine)

  • 40 novels

    • 8 crime

    • 3 horror

    • 1 thriller

    • 1 mystery

    • 6  Fantasy

    • 8 science fiction

    • 3 paranormal romance

    • 4 urban fantasy

    • 1 romance

    • 3 pulp adventure

    • 1 suspense

    • 1 mythology

    • 1 Christmas

  • 34 novellas

    • 11 horror

    • 5 fantasy

    • 4 romance

    • 7 literary

    • 4 pulp adventure

    • 1 science fiction

    • 1 crime

    • 1 Christmas

  • 2 novelettes

    • 1 fantasy

    • 1 horror

• Non-Fiction: 8 books

  • 2 Memoir

  • 1 History

  • 1 literary analysis

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: approximately 136 (including graphic novel artists; I need to be better at listing all of the creators of graphic novels somehow). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         39 female creators

·         5 Trans/Non-Binary

·         29 LGBTQIA+

·         10 Persons of Color

Shortest Book Read: 25 pages (Christmas with the Dead by Joe Lansdale)

Longest Book Read: 669 (Upon A Burning Throne by Ashok K.Banker)

Total # of pages read: 25,513

Average # of pages per book: 205

# of Rereads: 6 (including annual rereads of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 11

·         February: 18 (most read in a month)

·         March: 14

·         April: 7 (fewest read in a month)

·         May: 11

·         June: 10

·         July: 8

·         August: 14

·         September: 11

·         October: 15

·         November: 13

·         December: 13

Review-wise on Goodreads I gave 2 two-star reviews, 21 three-stars, 86 four-stars, and 35 five-star reviews.

Format Summary:

• 17 audiobooks

• 31 ebooks

• 96 print

  • 25 hardcovers

  • 71 softcovers

365 Short Stories Challenge:

Each year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. I read 401 stories in 2019, beating the goal handily. The shortest was approximately 7 pages and the longest approximately 61. Those 401 stories appeared in:

• 12 Magazines

  • Nightmare

  • Lightspeed

  • The Dark

  • One Story

  • Analog

  • The Strand

  • Interzone

  • Lamplight

  • Black Static

  • Abyss & Apex

  • One Teen Story

  • Uncanny

• 9 Anthologies

  • Resist Fascism

  • From Sea to Stormy Sea

  • If This Goes On

  • A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Godds

  • The Many Tortures of Anthony Cardno

  • Fool For Love

  • F is for Fairy

  • At Home in the Dark

  • Devil Take Me

• 15 Single-Author Collections

  • The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Physics by Carlos Hernandez

  • The Time Machine and Other Stories by H.G. Wells

  • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

  • Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • Untranslatable by Alma Alexander

  • Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert

  • Trans Space Octopus Convention by Bogi Takacs

  • Oriental Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

  • Spinning Around A Sun by Everett Maroon

  • A History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

  • Acres of Perhaps by Will Ludwigsen

  • Under the Sunset by Bram Stoker

  • Two Todd Tales by Joseph Pittman

  • In Re: Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth

  • Forget the Sleepless Shores by Sonya Taaffe

• 5 published as “back-matter” in the following novels

  • If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear

  • Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother

  • Rosemary and Rue 10th Anniversary Hardcover Edition

  • That Ain’t Witchcraft

  • The Unkindest Tide

• 16 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in e-format)

  • Seanan McGuire (Patreon)

  • Lucy Snyder (Patreon)

  • Sabrina Vourvoulias (Cast of Wonders audio podcast)

  • Lydia M. Hawke (author website)

  • Jim Butcher (Evil Hat website)

Those 401 stories were written by 232 different authors. The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, but roughly:

·         104 female creators

·         6 Trans/Non-Binary

·         33 LGBTQIA+

·         32 Persons of Color

I gave 13 two-star ratings, 208 three-star, 157 four-star, and 23 five-star ratings. The shortest story was 7 pages long and the longest 61.

Graphic Novel Challenge:

Because I own so many, I challenged myself to read one graphic novel per week. I didn’t make it, reading a total of 33 from 11 different publishers:

·         DC Comics: 7

·         Marvel Comics: 8

·         BOOM! Box: 8

·         Dynamite Comics: 2

·         Image Comics: 2

·         Hard Case Crime: 1

·         TO Comix: 1

·         Scholastic Books: 1

·         Panic Button Comics: 1

·         Dark Horse: 1

·         Self-Pubbed: 1

Non-Fiction Challenge: I didn’t do as well on this one. I challenged myself to read 24 non-fiction books in 2019, and I only read 4.

Read the Book, Watch the Movie Challenge: Completely bombed this one. Planned to do at least 10 of these and did 0.

Complete the Series Challenge: Bombed this one too. Planned to read 3 complete series, totally 16 books, and read 0 of 16, completing 0 series.

VIEWING

I tried tracking the movies, TV and live events I watched this year. Here’s how that went:

Movies: Apparently, I only watched 17 movies this year. (I suspect I forgot to enter a few things into the database.)

·         9 on DVD

·         2 on Netflix

·         6 in the theater

Live Events: I attended 15 live events this year.

·         10 plays

• 6 straight plays (4 on Broadway, 2 high school, one attended twice)

• 4 musicals (1 Broadway, 1 regional, 2 high school)

·         4 concerts (Dennis DeYoung, Greyson Chance, Blue Alien Mystic, and the Mahopac High School Pacapellas)

Television: I watched approximately 162 hours of episodic television:

·         Arrow (20 episodes)

·         Batwoman (9 episodes)

·         Beyond Stranger Things (7 episodes)

·         Black Mirror (2 episodes)

·         Doctor Who (1 episode)

·         The Flash (21 episodes)

·         Game of Thrones (1 episode)

·         Good Omens (6 episodes)

·         Great Performances (1 episode)

·         DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9 episodes)

·         Planet of the Apes (14 episodes)

·         Stranger Things (25 episodes)

·         Supergirl (22 episodes)

·         The Big Bang Theory (2 episodes)

·         Vera (1 episode)

·         Vicious (14 episodes)

·         Watchmen (6 episodes)

·         Young Sheldon (1 episode)

So there you have it: my writing, publishing, reading, and viewing by the numbers, for 2019.

Earlier this week, I posted about my reading challenges for 2020. I plan to post about my writing plans, and possibly viewing plans, next week.

Reading Challenges For 2020

I always set myself more than one reading challenge per year. Some carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. Here’s this year’s list.

TO BE READ CHALLENGE

In past years, the wonderful Roofbeam Reader has hosted a “To Be Read Challenge” with specific rules about posting, etc. He’s not hosting one this year, but I’m going to do a version of the challenge for myself without making it a separate post this year. The idea is to pick 12 books (plus 2 alternates in case you find yourself unable to finish a couple of your main choices) that have sat unread on your bookshelf for a year or more. Thus, books published in 2019 wouldn’t be eligible, nor would re-reads. I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. Here are my 14 for 2020 (not listed in intended reading order):

1.       Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

2.       No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

3.       Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

4.       A Diet of Treacle by Lawrence Block

5.       Shadowhouse Falls by Daniel Jose Older

6.       Greatheart Silver by Philip Jose Farmer - finished September 23, 2020

7.       Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs - finished January 22, 2020

8.      The Bad Seed by William March - finished October 30, 2020

9.    The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - finished February 19, 2020

10.   Choke Hold by Christa Faust - finished March 29, 2020

11.   Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

12.   The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Alternate #1: The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

Alternate #2: Excalibur! by Gil Kane and John Jakes

366 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE

Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace pretty well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again). I used to post thoughts on each individual story over on my now-largely-defunct Livejournal; this year I plan to review a story or two in-depth each Sunday and then do a monthly “round-up” of all stories read that month. I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length. If a story/novella is published as a stand-alone book (ebook or otherwise), that story will also count towards my annual Goodreads “Books Read Challenge.” 2020 being a leap-year, the goal is 366 instead of the usual 365.

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In 2019, I set a goal of 125 books and actually read 144. For 2020, I’m setting the same goal of 125 to start with, and we’ll see what happens. Goodreads counts magazines and individually-published short stories as “books,” so I count them for this challenge as well. Of course, any book read for the TBR Challenge, or the other challenges mentioned in this post count towards this one.

GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE

I own far more graphic novels and trade paperback collections of classic comics than I’ve read. In 2017 I started trying to turn that around, and I’m again setting a goal in 2020 of reading one graphic novel per week, so 52 for the year, tracking them in the monthly Reading Round-Up Posts.

NON-FICTION CHALLENGE

As with graphic novels, I tend to get intrigued by and purchase far more non-fiction books than I actually end up reading. In an effort to clear some shelf-space, justify the money spent, and increase my knowledge a bit, I’m setting myself a new challenge this year to read two (2) non-fiction books per month, or 24 for the year, also tracked via the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.

READ THE BOOK / WATCH THE MOVIE CHALLENGE

I have so many books in my collection that are the basis for classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) movies that I thought it would be fun to read some of them and then see how the movies compare. In 2019, I didn’t do so well on this challenge, but I’m game to try again, and of course track them in the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.

COMPLETE THE SERIES CHALLENGE

In previous years I’ve challenged myself to come “up to date” on series I’d started but fallen behind on. Last year, I challenged myself to also read one series that I own but have not read. Titles that I have read in each series are indicated with (read). Last year, I blew this completely, so I’m repeating two of the challenges from last year, adding two (one that will be audio rather than print) for 2020.  I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. If I complete any other series on my shelves, I’ll come back and add that series to this entry.

THE VELVETEEN SERIES by Seanan McGuire

1.       Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super-Patriots

2.       Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse

3.       Velveteen Vs. The Seasons

THE AFRICA TRILOGY BY Chinua Achebe

1.       Things Fall Apart – read in 2018

2.       Arrow of God - read in February 2020

3.       No Longer At Ease

CARSON OF VENUS by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1.       Pirates of Venus - read in January 2020

2.       Lost on Venus

3.       Carson of Venus

4.       Escape on Venus

5.       The Wizard of Venus

THE PHILIP MARLOWE SERIES (audiobook versions)

1.       The Big Sleep – listened to in November 2019

2.       Farewell, My Lovely – listened to in November 2019

3.       The High Window - listened to in January 2020

4.       The Lady in the Lake - listened to in January 2020

5.       The Little Sister - listened to in January 2020

6.       The Long Goodbye - listened to in April 2020

7.       Playback

8.       Poodle Springs (started by Chandler, completed by Robert B. Parker)

MONTHLY MINI-CHALLENGES

In 2019 for the first time I set myself some monthly mini-challenges based on various factors. I’m going to do it again in 2020, but list those challenges here as well:

January: No specific challenge (because I want to catch up on stuff from late 2019)

February: Authors from Africa or of African descent (for Black History Month)

March: Women Authors (for Women’s History Month)

April: Poetry (for National Poetry Month)

May:  Asian/Pacifican Authors (for Asian Pacific / South Asian Heritage Month)

June: Queer Authors (for Pride Month)

July: US and World History (because of Independence Day)

August: Classic and New Pulp Authors (because Pulpfest/Farmercon is held this month)

September: Hispanic authors (Hispanic Heritage Month)

October: Horror! Horror! Horror! (because Halloween, obviously)

November: Noir (because “Noirvember”)

December: Winter Holiday-related Fiction (Christmas, Hannukah, etc.)

Sunday Shorts: At The Bay

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

TITLE: At the Bay
AUTHOR: Katherine Mansfield
56 pages, Melville House Publishing, ISBN 9781612195834 (softcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): Told in thirteen parts, beginning early in the morning and ending at dusk, At the Bay captures both the Burnell family's intricate web of relatives and friends, and the dreamy, unassuming natural beauty of Crescent Bay.

MY RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Yet another classic novella that I don’t remember being assigned to read. Mansfield packs a lot of characterization and social commentary into 56 or so pages. The focus is on the women in the Burnell family, both adults and children, and a small cross-section of their neighbors. How they interact, how they empower and disempower each other in everyday moments. There is no grand event the story builds toward, no community-threatening or -destroying big moment that ties everything together. We’re experiencing a day-in-the-life of a very specific group of women and girls at a specific moment in time (1922), but much of what the author relates, in terms of what is deemed appropriate behavior and the like, is still true today. The moments among the children (three girls and their two boy cousins) mirror the moments among the adult women.

Because the story is set on a week-day the men in the family are fairly peripheral, acting on the women mostly from afar rather than in-scene. The men clearly think they are the center of the universe (one, near the story’s end, is highly concerned that his wife’s day was totally ruined because he rushed out to work without saying goodbye.), and are pretty much oblivious (willfully, I think) to the details of how the women spend their day. Interestingly, Mansfield starts and ends the story with the men: the opening scene focuses on two men going for a swim as well as the movements of a local shepherd. The shepherd retraces his route near the end of the story, overlapping with one of the few moments where a man’s effect on one of the Burnell women is direct and in-scene rather than from afar.

Mansfield’s descriptions of the weather and the natural setting are just beautiful. The weather isn’t the focus of the story, so one might be tempted to take these descriptions as window-dressing and choose not to linger over the language. I also found it interesting that she personifies some of the animals (a cat, and the shepherd’s dog, have distinct personalities), and also that the one infant in the story is described the way the animals are – he’s given a bit of personality but remains nameless unlike the older children. Even nameless and speechless, the baby still comes across as as much of a burden/inconvenience to his mother as his father is.

I wasn’t as enamored of the vignette-style telling of the story as I was of what it had to say about culture and the treatment of women (both by men and by other women). It felt more disjointed than cohesive.

Reading Round-Up: December 2019

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 13 books in December: 9 in print, 4 in e-book format, and 0 in audio. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #115 (December 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were T.L. Huchu’s “Njuzu,” Rick Wilber’s “Today Is Today,” Cat Rambo’s “The Silent Familiar,” and KT Bryski’s “The Path of Pins, The Path of Needles.”

2.       Faux Ho Ho by ‘Nathan Burgoine. Another wonderful holiday m/m romance novella from one of my favorite authors. This time, the story involves a fake relationship to appease nosy family members, and a gathering of conservative family members at a sibling’s Christmas wedding. The two leads are adorable (I may be crushing on Silas still, weeks after reading the book), the supporting cast wonderfully varied. Read my Full Review HERE.

3.       From Sea to Stormy Sea: 17 Paintings by Great American Artists and the Stories They Inspired edited by Lawrence Block. The paintings range from naturalist to abstract, the stories range from noir to science fiction. Favorites include Charles Ardai’s “Mother of Pearl,” Jerome Charyn’s “The Man From Hard Rock Mountain,” Janice Eidus’ “You’re A Walking Time Bomb,” Christa Faust’s “Garnets,” and Gary Phillips’ “A Matter of Options.”

4.       The Dead Girls Club, by Damien Angelica Walters. One of my most-anticipated books of the year came out in early December, and Walters did not disappoint. Time-jumping between the narrator’s present adult life and the summer when she was 12 and her best friend went missing, the story is a multi-layered supernatural mystery.

5.       Kolchak: The Last Temptation by Jim Beard. In this novella, Beard digs back into a mystery from the very first Kolchak TV movie and gives the reporter some closure. The story also involves investigating a charity organization called “Sons of the Morningstar,” so there’s some devilry afoot.

6.       Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven by Ron Zimmerman, Howard Chaykin, and more. The trade collection of the second Rawhide Kid mini-series from Marvel teams the character up with Annie Oakley, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Red Wolf, Kid Colt and the Two-Gun Kid to rescue Wyatt and Morgan Earp. Tons of fun in the old West. Also pretty bloody.

7.       A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. My annual reread of the print edition signed for me by Dickens’ great-great-grandson was accompanied by a listen to the audiobook version narrated by Tom Baker. Baker struggles with some of the character voices, but as Scrooge and the Narrator he’s wonderful.

8.       Into Bones Like Oil by Kaaron Warren. A troubled woman checks into a seaside hotel that promises to help her sleep – but is also haunted by the ghosts of a shipwreck.

9.       A Family for Christmas by Jay Northcote. Another truly wonderful “fake relationship” gay Christmas romance, this one between an awkward young man and the somewhat anti-social coworker he takes home to his family for Christmas. Bonus cute kittens.

10.   Fearless by Seanan McGuire, Claire Roe, Rachelle Rosenberg (main story), various creators (backup stories). The trade collection of a four-issue mini-series from earlier this year with stories told completely by female creators. The main story involves Sue Storm, Captain Marvel, and Storm as guest-speakers as a science-based summer camp for girls which Ms. Marvel and a few teenage mutants are attending. One back-up pays tribute to the unsung female comics creators of the Golden and early Silver Ages.

11.   Lumberjanes Volume 13: Indoor Recess by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Dozerdraws, Maarta Laiho, Aubrey Aiese. The Janes find themselves stuck in the dining hall during a particularly bad storm. Jo and Molly find themselves helping Athena Cabin with play-testing a new board game, while April, Mal and Ripley unexpectedly explore caverns underneath the camp.

12.   If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Clear and Cold by Ken Scholes. A beautiful novelette that explores grief after the loss of a parent and why we continue to uphold traditions in which we no longer believe. Print edition also includes a prequel short story. Longer review HERE.

13.   Christmas with the Dead by Joe Lansdale. A fun short novelette about a guy just trying to get in the holiday mood after a zombie apocalypse.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) each year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “A Bad Day in Utopia” by Matthew Baker, from Lightspeed Magazine #115 (December 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Njuzu” by T.L. Huchu

3.       “Motherhood” by Pat Murphy

4.       “Today is Today” by Rick Wilber

5.       “The Mocking Tower” by Daniel Abraham

6.       “End of the Sleeping Girls” by Molly Gutman

7.       “The Silent Familiar” by Cat Rambo

8.       “The Path of Pins, the Path of Needles” by KT Bryski

9.       “Help Wanted” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “The Eight People Who Murdered Me” by Gwendolyn Kiste, in Nightmare #86 (November 2019), edited by John Joseph Adams.

11.   “The Prairie Is My Garden” by Patti Abbott, from From Sea to Stormy Sea: 17 Paintings by Great American Artists and the Stories They Inspired, edited by Lawrence Block

12.   “Mother of Pearl” by Charles Ardai

13.   “Superficial Injuries” by Jen Burke

14.   “The Man From Hard Rock Mountain” by Jerome Charyn

15.   “Adrift Off the Diamond Sholes” by Brendan DuBois

16.   “You’re A Walking Time Bomb” by Janice Eidus

17.   “Garnets” by Christa Faust

18.   “He Came In Through the Bathroom Window” by Scott Frank

19.   “On Little Terry Road” by Tom Franklin

20.   “Someday, A Revolution” by Jane Hamilton

21.   “Riverfront” by Barry M. Malzberg

22.   “Silver at Lakeside” by Warren Moore

23.   “Get Him” by Micah Nathan

24.   “Baptism in Kansas” by Sara Paretsky

25.   “A Matter of Options” by Gary Phillips

26.   “Girl With An Axe” by John Sandford

27.   “The Way We See The World” by Lawrence Block

28.   “The Doom of Love in Small Spaces” by Ken Scholes, included in the print edition of If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear.

So that’s 28 short stories in December. Slightly under “1 per day,” but still enough to keep me way ahead for the year so far. (December 30th was the 365th day of 2019.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  28 read; YTD: 402 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 35 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 13 read; YTD: 144 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 5 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 of 10 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 0 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: I didn’t set a mini-goal of any kind for December, other than trying to get some recently-acquired books in before the end of the year. 11 of the 13 books read were books acquired in the past 3 months.

I’ll be posting a full 2019 Round-Up as soon as I’m able to crunch numbers and put it all together. Ditto a post about my Reading Challenges for 2020!