All posts by Chris

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Brief linkity of brevity

February 12, 2021 Chris 3 Comments

New releases: Tor.com (horror/genre-benders, YA SFF, fantasy, SF), Smart Bitches (romance)
Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more.
Linkity from BookwyrmKnits.
“Ode to the emergency book“.
Coloring pages from NASA. Don’t forget to grab the Exoplanet Travel Bureau coloring book, too.
“Pandemic fine“.
Blueberry hand pies.
Flourless chocolate brownie cookies.
“I’m not a cat.” (But if you want to be a cat on a video call…)
Spinach can send email.
“Candy” mac and cheese.

Reading Update
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix. Very good urban fantasy about a young woman who goes to London for art school, but things get very, very weird before she even attends a class.
Slouch Witch, Star Witch, Spirit Witch, Sparkle Witch (The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Magic 1-4) by Helen Harper. The first one was the best – unfortunately, in each subsequent book, Ivy seemed more and more like a caricature than a character.
Crimes Against Magic, Born of Hatred, Infamous Reign, With Silent Screams, Prison of Hope (Hellequin Chronicles 1-4) by Steve McHugh. Pretty good series about a private investigator/sorceror who woke up tabula rasa a decade ago. Will his slowly returning memory save him from his forgotten past?
The Stolen Letter (Scottish Bookshop Mystery 5) by Paige Shelton. Note to self – don’t bother continuing this series.
Justice Calling, Murder of Crows, Pack of Lies, Hunting Season, Heartache, Thicker than Blood, Magic to the Bone, Dungeon Crawl, River of No Return (Twenty-Sided Sorceress 1-9) by Annie Bellet. Good series about a sorceress who runs a comic book shop in a small Idaho town with an awful lot of shifters in it. She’s trying to lay low and escape the notice of her evil ex (a sorcerer)…

*ignoring me with great focus* -Mayhem

(Mayhem definitely misses Chaos, but I just can’t go there in these photo captions.)

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Those Cats

No linkity this week because sad

February 5, 2021 Chris 4 Comments

Thanks so much to everyone who’s offered comfort and let me know about the impression Chaos left on them. (If you missed my previous post…) Mayhem and I are both definitely feeling his absence – he was present for all but the first three months of her life, and he was present for nearly a third of mine. That’s his gloriously green eye at the top of this page (and it’s staying there, even though it just made me cry). (You can go back and read his origin story here.)

I’m pretty sure my usual posting schedule will resume soonishly, because there’s a certain comfort in routine.

Take care. Go hug your pets and family members.

Chris

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Those Cats

Goodbye, Chaos

February 2, 2021 Chris 14 Comments

You will be missed SO MUCH.

September 28, 2003 – February 2, 2021

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Art Journaling

Art Journaling Monday!

February 1, 2021 Chris 2 Comments

Welcome to Art Journaling Monday! I’ve included some of my recent favorites below.

*radiates malevolence* -Chaos

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Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity’s just linkitying

January 29, 2021 Chris 3 Comments

Reading Update
Hell’s Spells (Ordinary Magic #6) by Devon Monk. Another enjoyable addition to the series. I also read the two short stories in Dirty Deeds: An Urban Fantasy Collection.
The Archive of the Forgotten (Hell’s Library #2) by AJ Hackwith. It took me a little bit to get into this one (I didn’t remember much from the previous book), but then I read it in a single evening, so!
The Ghost and Mrs McClure, The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library, The Ghost and the Femme Fatale, and The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller (Haunted Bookshop #1, 3, 4, 6) by Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle). This series about a woman running a bookshop in a small Rhode Island town and solving mysteries with the help of the ghost of a 1940s PI starts kind of rough but improves book by book.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

I DID check to make sure he was still alive before I took this picture.

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Art Journaling

Art Journaling Monday!

January 25, 2021 Chris 2 Comments

Welcome to Art Journaling Monday! I’ve included some of my recent favorites below. 🙂

For the Inner Heroine class, round 2: Catalyst, Companion, Call to Action, Pivot.
Completed bee journal.
Deer.
James Baldwin quote.
Rainbow geometric.
Scattered rainbow circles.
Ominous.
Happiness Googled.
Martin Luther King, Jr, quote.
BOOM.
Winter blues.
On complexity.
Sanest Happy.

*Mayhem’s tail, swishing*

*Chaos, annoyed at being thwapped by said tail*

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Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity’s breathing a sigh of relief after Wednesday

January 22, 2021 Chris 3 Comments

New releases: Smart Bitches (romance) and Tor.com (horror/genre-benders)
Linkity from Smart Bitches.
There’s going to be an Ursula K Le Guin postage stamp!
Some fascinating LoTR tidbits.
The Mother of Monsters.
Some tiger facts.
Quieter velcro.
Aww, Bernie.
Cool statue, but I have mixed feelings about some of the symbolism.
Zug.
Pretty sure I’ve posted this string of tweets from Jurassic Park, but the latest addition!
Some mask humor. And some quarantine humor.
“…I don’t own a cat.“
An eerie urban comic.
When you put the sea shanty thing like THAT…
“It is a lovely day in Australia, and you are a horrible…“
Frog balaclava.
Kafkabackpack.

Reading Update
Dues and Don’ts; Gods and Ends; Rock, Paper, Scissors; Dime a Demon (Ordinary Magic 0.5, 3-5) by Devon Monk. Decent fluffy paranormal romance series about a town called Ordinary, where the gods vacation without their powers.
Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection by Ben Aaronovitch. Enjoyable collection of short stories, most (but not all) from Peter’s POV.

*radiating malevolence* -Chaos

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Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is a sea shanty-free zone

January 15, 2021 Chris 2 Comments

Cross your fingers – I’m trying a different plugin for emailing comments because the old one was, um, REALLY OLD and kept preventing WordPress from updating.

New releases: Tor.com (fantasy, scifi, YA SFF)
Linkity from Smart Bitches.
“Using neuroscience to understand reading slumps“.
“A history of antiracist literature“.
“Helping the princess“.
A mash-up of Dr Seuss and JRR Tolkien.
A bunch of little fics: Pevensies at Hogwarts, fantasy world field surgeon, not who the superhero expected would break into his place, the mysterious black door that’s only in the hallway in the middle of the night.
Muppet 1984.
Representation matters! The second story (the one in regular text, not screenshots from Twitter) REALLY got to me.
A cursed human fact. Another one.
I had never heard of karpati mutations before.
Face mask comparison chart.
Herd immunity poster.
Kitten kindergarten.
A saga of missing clouds found.
“Art blamed in divorce suit (1947)“.
Ok, it’s a little disturbing, but if you’re a knitter, it’s worse.
Caffeine cryptids.
Oh, SNAP, India!
HA.

Reading Update
Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. This is a book to read in bits over time because it is dense and slow going. But I found the Jungian analysis and conclusions fascinating. I got the most out of the chapter on rage and forgiving (if you have trouble getting into the book sequentially, read this chapter first), and the chapter about the underground forest. If you’re a very literal thinker or if you don’t see any value in archetypes, you’re not going to like this book. (I would’ve hated it 25 years ago!)

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

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Art Journaling

Art Journaling Monday!

January 11, 2021 Chris 2 Comments

Welcome to Art Journaling Monday! I’ve included some of my recent favorites below. 🙂

Going through The Inner Heroine class again: Title page, Hoping for Integration and Understanding, Coat of Arms, The Heroine Feels Different.
…I have questions.
Very 2020.
Just playing with the thermal mini printer I got.
Quote from Connie Willis.
Black Lives Matter.
No honor among thieves.
Iambic pentameter.
Rainbow scribble doodle!
I made this before January 6, I swear.
This one, too. (This one is pretty eerie.)
Haruki Murakami quote.

“No, I don’t need a bigger box, thanks.” -Mayhem

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Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity’s just trying to keep it together over here

January 8, 2021 Chris 3 Comments

Linkity from Smart Bitches.
Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
“Journaling is much more than keeping a diary“.
An intriguing LotR observation.
An unexpected tale of the tooth fairy.
The Paladin and the dark goddess.
“I just want to say, for the record, the time of the coronavirus pandemic was not a time when America came together.“
John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats shares his thoughts at the end of 2020. (His song “This Year” was played over 20 million times on Spotify last year, specifically for the line, “I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me.”)
Both cursed and fun facts about owls.
Harpy eagle cursed image.
“Why you can’t look away from cursed images“.
Speaking of which, this 59 second video of a woman going over her goals for 2020 is tragicomedy and I couldn’t look away. 🙁
Knit some yin-yang kitty socks.
“Eight thrifty uses for excess night“.
Shrimp dragon.
…well, that’s one way to sell a house, I guess?!
I’m with you on this, evill-an.
“Baby cake creep off“.

Reading Update
Zen Pencils – Creative Struggle: Illustrated Advice from Masters of Creativity by Gavin Aung Than. Enjoyable graphic novel style book with quotes from creatives such as Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, and Nikola Tesla.
Carry On and Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2) Wayward Son (Simon Snow 1-2) by Rainbow Rowell. Amusing, absolutely NOT Harry Potter (AHEM) story of Chosen One Simon Snow and the wacky shenanigans he and his friends get up to at their British wizarding school (first book). In the second book, he and his friends visit the US over their university holiday and get up to more wacky shenanigans. Ends tidily, unless you read the epilogue, which sets up a sort of cliffie situation for the next book. Grrrr.
Death and Relaxation, Devils and Details, Rock Candy, and Paper Stars (Ordinary Magic 1-2, 4.1, 4.2) by Devon Monk. Ok paranormal romance series about the chief of police and her sisters (also cops) of Ordinary, Oregon, where the gods go to vacation without their powers.