May/June 2025 in Review
Hello Funny People,
Uprooted oak tree
The tree not only ended up uprooted, its fall damaged two houses.
Pic of the Brandywine Falls
Eastern American Toad
Midland Water Snake
Mt. Rainier, taken from the plane to Seattle
The fabled anti-social cobra chicken of Bowman Bay
Anthology line-up announcement on Threads
Mmeory, a multi-genre anthology
Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai
Wind Breaker
Ghost Money by Stephen Blackmoore
Future's Edge by Gareth L Powell
Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard
Slow Horse's by Mick Herron
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger
The Floating World by Axie Oh
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
After a long silence from me on here, I'm back. And just in time to update you on what it's like to live life under a heat dome. To put it concisely: unpleasant.
A Brief Recapitulation
The last two months started off cool. Strangely cool. The transition from April to May in STL usually marks the start of a su season of spring we who live along the western banks of the Mississippi call "Hell's Front Porch." However, with a few exceptions, it was actually quite pleasant
During that time, my focus was on finalizing the closing of my late boss's company, giving her family all the tools they needed to do it both right and legally. This entailed making sure there was enough money in the till to ensure the company could pay its quarterly taxes come June (which meant haranguing old clients with outstanding bills), assuring all clients that archival information would be available should they need access to it, and downsizing the office furniture. A few serious buyers thankfully came through and helped themselves to what they wanted, but we also ended donating a fair amount of the old items too. Three filing cabinets alone went to a local church rummage sale.
I was at the office, only about five miles away, from the Central West End, when those tornados tore through the city. Having lived in STL most of my life, of course, I wasn't all that phased by it even when the sky darkened like an evening twilight in the middle of the day. However, the footage I saw afterwards of how bad some of the damage was, especially in north city, drove home how lucky I'd been. It was only later I discovered that a couple of old trees had collapsed in my neighborhood.
By the time Hell's Front Porch rolled around the last week of the month, however, all of the major items were taken care of, and I was ready to go visit my brother in Akron, Ohio.
My family and I spent a week occupying his apartment while he had vacation. We did a few day excursions, including one to a national park outside of Akron called The Brandywine Falls. (No joke, that was it's actual name. They didn't steal it from Tolkien.) We hiked along its river, got to see some scenes of nature I hadn't in a while, including some Eastern American Toads and a Midland Water Snake (which I mistook for an cottonmouth at first until I got a better look at it).
The strangest thing about being in Akron at that time was how much cooler it was for this time of year. When I think of May, I think of an obscenely hot time of year, with high humidity. Of course, when you're near a giant body of water like the Mississippi, in a state with so much sweating corn, that time of year is humidity city. By comparison, Akron was like STL in March. Not once did it get above 70°F while we were there
It was also while we were there that I broke a long standing rule and saw a Disney live-action remake.
My brother lives down the street from a $5 dollar movie theater that plays first run, new films. Back in November, we saw Part 1 of Wicked there, which was an amazing experience, and that previous July, we watched Alien: Romulus on the same big screen. This go-around, what did we see? The live-action Lilo & Stitch. Or to give it its more apropos title: Nani and the Division of Family Services, Hawai'i Edition. I'd long suspected these endless remakes of animated classics were pure cashgrabs, but I'd made that judgement from a position of never having watched one of them. Now, I know for certain that's what they are. This movie clearly came from a place of, "We have this IP, which we've done nothing with since we ended our Disney channel show. So, let's pimp it out for more money." And sadly, just when it looked like Disney was finally going to stop doing this, thanks to the colossal failure of Snow White, this movie not only outgorssed it's source material, but it was one of the biggest openers Disney had had in years. So big, in fact, that now, theyre planning a sequel 😫.
Unless my brother drags me to another of those in the future, I will not be seeing it.
When we returned from that adventure, a few things occurred between then and the next big outing.
Everyone from the office got together for one last parting brunch at a favorite breakfast venue of my late boss. I had my usual: coffee, with eggs, sausage paddies, and pancakes, with a side of fresh cut fruit. We shared our memories with my late boss's husband, now widower, and even heard some new stories I'd never heard over the years. After we finished, we parted amiably.
Father's Day weekend then rolled around. Naturally, my mother was furious at we dared to get the old man one extra gift more than we'd gotten her for Mother's Day, but that's my brother's fault. Since his move, his go-to gift for all occasions has been to ship a box of Ronnoco coffee to the house. He didn't for my mother, but he did for dad. I also got the chance to introduce my father to Breeze shoes, something I found online when I needed a few new pairs myself. My dad's very particular about his footwear. They can't be too tight, always need to be black with black soles, and they need to have wide toe boxes. This is mostly due to his own worries of the onset of neuropathy. However, the shoes I got him, in his size, checked all his boxes. And because they look like a dress shoe, but wear and feel like a sneaker, they're all-purpose.
After that, the No Kings Day protests took place too, including one in downtown STL. I was there, mostly as a body guard for my mother and a nun friend of hers who wanted to take part. It was quite the experience, and I caught a lot of pictures of the protest signs people were toating with them as we marched.
Most importantly though, there was no violence. No cops. No national guards. It was civil, despite some of the profanity-laden cheers, which stunned my mother but only caused me to chuckle and smirk.
By the end of June, we were off on the road again. Or, more accurately, off to the airport for a dear friend's wedding in Washington State.
I'd only been in the Pacific Northwest once before, four years ago, during our big family road trip in 2021. But, we'd only gotten a chance to stay for a short while, as it was our last destination before our two-day mad-dash home so everyone could go back to work. This was the first time I got to see its landscape properly, and it did not disappoint.
Washington is a strange state. Gorgeous, yes, but climate wise, similar to Akron. Cool when the clouds are out, always on the verge of drizzling, and warm while the sun is out. If STL were a few (hundred) miles future north, I'm sure, When we first arrived, the place we headed to in Seattle was the tourist trap area bear the bay front, aka where our kind belonged. Only when the sun emerged for ten minutes did it crack 70°F, and that was the hottest part of the trip. So, I'm glad I brought my hoodie with me.
The wedding, of course, was beautiful, and it was a privilege to receive an invitation to attend. The after-party picnic the next day, I'd say, was even more delightful, if only for the scenery.
View of the beach of Bowman Bay
Washington State on the western side of course boarders the Pacific Ocean. As such, there are numerous bays and small islands. Our hosts arranged to have the picnic in a small area in Bowman Bay, now part of Deception Peak State Park. After seeing it, there only one apt word to describe: gorgeous. At some point, I'd love to visit again to see more of it, along with the other parks in the region.
Of course, after we returned to STL I missed the cooler weather, but that's life in the heartland for you.
The Writing Life
Two major events transpired in the last two months in the writing front.
Naturally, with the loss of my job, my writing routine has gone completely out the window. I've only been able to snatch time where I can to get a scene or two done, let alone keep up this blog. That said, there are things in play.
First, another of my short stories is due to appear in print. An old tale which I'd written for an anthology from Lost Boys Press that didn't get accepted, titled "Hard Lessons Once Learned," will appear in the upcoming Fall into Fantasy 2025 anthology from Cloaked Press this coming September.
It's the first piece of mine that isn't a Boltstone story to appear in that series, and compared to the lighter, more fun tone of those narratives, this one might end up shocking readers. It's likely the nearest thing I'll ever come to writing grimdark, and it's a first-person narrative. It's an honor to be selected for a fourth consecutive year, of course, and I look forward to the final cover reveal, which I'm sure will come soon. Another book to add to my shelf of publications.
On the novel side of things, I'm still waiting to hear back from the agent who made a full request for my space opera novel. Since that request back in April, I've of course continued to send other queries out for it, if only to gauge interest. So far, there have been no follow-ups, beyond the usual, "Good, but it's not what I'm looking for at this time," rejections. I've been more selective about who I've been querying this time around, and I've been doing my best to avoid any agents I've previously queried because why waste their time?
Things on the side of my first fantasy novel have also improved. I mentioned in my last installment that I'd sent it to Cloaked Press as part of their open-query window. Well, I finally got a response from them: a revise & resubmit. They waned me to take another look at it to see if I could lower the number of viewpoints, especially in the latter part of the novel. So, in those times I've been able to snatch writing time and peace of mind, my focus has been on those revisions.
My primary focus has been to parse down the viewpoints to only two, between my central duo and focus on the growth of their (platonic) relationship while pursuing their shared goals. It's been an interesting endeavor and probably the truest revision I've made to the book since the initial major rewrite back in 2021, where I expanded the book from a single POV story to an ensemble POV story. This version is coming along nicely, and in the two months since receiving the feedback, I've gotten to the point where I now only have six chapters left to revise. The task is considerable, but given I've done major rewriters before, especially on this project, I'm not concerned. I'm a writer for whom revision is the fun part. My hope is to have a draft ready to resubmit to the Cloak when they next reopen for queries in August. Fingers crossed I finish in time.
A final note before moving on, I'd like to draw attention to a Kickstarter I'm looking forward to. Earlier this year, Todd Sanders, the lovely EIC of Air and Nothingness Press and the man who gave me my first pro-rate sale as an author fell ill with quite a disconcerting medical issue. So serious was it that he concealed plans to do any Air and Nothingness Press books this year, despite having plans to do so since last year. Well, good news: Todd recovered and immediately jumped into promoting the Kickstarter to that canceled project.
The project is in its final stretch, having already filled it's base goal and very nearly there to see its stretch goals fulfilled. He plans to have an Open Call for stories that meet it's guidelinesstarting July 7th. Naturally, I have a piece prepared that I plan to submit for consideration, but I'd like to see the stretch goals met. So, if you have a few bucks to spare and you enjoy books, please consider supporting the project.
Miscellaneous
So many horrible things have happened in this country since last I posted, but I'm not going to focus on them. If I do, my own tendency towards despair will come crashing through the pixels of your screen, and I'd rather not give the buffoons presently sitting on Capitol Hill, the Executive Mansion, or the Supreme Court Building anymore space than they already have, as they erode this country from within.
To cope with all that awfulness, I've been keeping up with my reading and watching.
Admittedly, most of my watching has been comfort rewatching old favorites, with very little new stuff mixed in. But the new stuff... it's been good.
Transformers One
For one nearly a year after it came out, I finally watched Transformers One. And...wow, I do not understand why this movie didn't do well at the box office. Like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, this film took an old IP and imbued it with new spirit, and it did it by doing a form of story I typically hate: prequels. Not only did it pull off an exceptional corruption arc and Virginia story for the characters we all know and love today, it also pulled off a truly heartbreaking friends-to-enemies story in the process. Hasbro is a cluster of idiots for not trying to get a follow-up made, but money in the film world isn't what it was during my childhood, where films that bombed in theaters could make up the difference in media sales and rentals. Those were the days...
After that, I started dipping back into anime a little more and found myself watching a lot—and I do mean, a lot—of rom-coms. At first it was old favorites, like Horimiya and My Dress-up Darling (season 2 of which is on my watchlist), along with a few others I won't mention here, but one that captured my attention almost immediately was Aharen-san was Hakarenai.
The tale of two deadpan protagonists finding love in high school, for some reason, just kept me hooked through 24 episodes, and I regret nothing. It was heartwarming and just what I needed at the time.
Naturally, after so much low-key sweetness I needed to enjoy a little action. I didn't quite feel up to rewatching someone old, so I settled on something new: Windbreaker.
This show is pure shōnen madness, with its adolescent protagonists and its sequence of increasingly escalating fights. Yet, it's actually about something much more interesting, several things in fact. Normally, shōnen stories focus entirely, or perhaps merely too much, on external conflicts and chart their progress by showing how the protagonist advances in their skills to succeed in those external conflicts. See DBZ, Naruto, and My Hero Academia as classic examples of such, where the stories mostly revolve around the heroes getting stronger through acquiring new skills in order fight more powerful foes. Wind Breaker, however, takes a different path. Sakura, the protagonist, is already damn strong, strong enough to beat or stalemate the second most powerful adversary in any given arc, and we never see him train to get better. His growth comes from gradually growing more comfortable with the idea of fighting for a purpose. Not just for himself. Not just for his own gratification. Not just for his own ego. But for others, for his friends, for his community. And it's a slow journey, as the character is such a closed-off individual when we first encounter him. But over these first two seasons, he makes a mighty amount of progress towards learning to let down his walls and be part of a community. I'm looking forward to what they do next.
As far as reads from the last two months, it's been quite the mixed bag. Most have been new titles to me, but there were a few rereads as well.
Necromancer Eric Carter returns following the events of Fire Season. With LA still recovering from the inferno his actions caused, he finds himself dealing with a new problem his knack makes him particularly qualified to handle: exploding ghosts. The question is will he be able to contain this problem, or will his luck finally run out?
I've had this book on the backburner since it came out, and it finally got to the top of the TBR pile. In Gareth's latest SF adventure, we find ourselves in a new universe, but one which still remains Powell's trademark qualities of wit, humor, and humankind still finding a way to survive despite our foolishness. Earth is gone; humankind is on the brink of extinction. And the only person who might be able to solace everyone is...an archeologist?
This wonderful, and at times heart wrenching romp, may now be my favorite book by Powell. I know he has a lot of projects in the works and presently has plans to move away from SF in the near future. However, I hope he doesn't do so permanently, especially given how wonderful a standalone novel like this is.
"Chris Mankowski's last day on the job, two in the afternoon, two hours to go, he got a call to dispose of a bomb."
I've dipped in and out of Elmore Leonard's work over the years, but Freaky Deaky has got to be among his best. Certainly, it's got one of his best opening lines. I knew since reading that for the first time years ago that I'd eventually pick up this book. I wasn't disappointed. Leonard's legendary ear of dialogue is on full display here as he lets his characters speak for themselves and show who they are by what they do. I'm not sure what others I'll pick up in future, but this one will live rent-free in my head from now on.
Naturally after binging and reminding the Apple TV series, I was going to eventually pick up Mick Herron's books. And there's a lot to admire. His cinematic way of writing, sharp ear for dialogue, and close attention to POV is undeniable. It makes sense why these books have made the jump to TV so easily, and with next-to-no filler added. However, I do have to say, the show made a few...improvements, that I think built on what he already provided.
The plot, of course, needed no padding, but some of the other characters and narrative choices were indeed better. For example, most of the stuff dealing with the kidnapping, in the book, is from the victim's POV...which with a handful of exceptions, caused the narrative to drag a little. The show, however, remedied this by introducing Alan Black and his three far-right stooges sooner to flesh them out more. Also, the small detail of bringing Strewen in sooner to the narrative, so there's almost a sense of relief at his eventual fare was a masterstroke. On a final note...Jackson Lamb is much funnier in the show than in the book, but that input down to Gary Old man's fantastic performance and charm. Despite these flaws though, I still plan to read the rest of the Slough House books. They're solid page-turners.
My first reread since April and my third reread of this delightful book, John Scalzi's KPS still stands up three years after it's publication. Jamie Grey has to be one of my favorite contemporary literature narrators, equally funny and endearingly warm hearted. Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I just come back to this book and enjoy myself all over again.
Tony Messenger is one of STL's top journalists, and certainly one of the prides of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's bullpen, given his status as a Pulitzer Prize-winner. In fact, it was one of the articles that won him that prize that lead him to write this book.
The subject: jail board bonds. Not exactly the sexiest sounding topic, but hear me out. What is a jail board bond? It's a bill that certain county municipality charges anyone who has the misfortune of spending time in their jail. What's their primary purpose? To act as a backdoor tax to fund the pensions for sheriffs and other employees of a municipal law enforcement office. Why do they exist? Because the counties that have them don't bring in enough tax revenue to pay for the pensions. Not because of population issues, but simply impractically low tax rates. Why? Because raising taxes is bad politics and worse policy. And who ends up paying for them more often than they should? Poor folks in rural under-taxed counties, barely making a living, who can't afford to pay off any fines incurred through traffic violations, court costs, or misdemeanor offenses.
Reading this book pissed me off so much, I can't even begin to describe the rage. The reporting was sound, the writing clear, but the subject matter simply enraged me. It brought out the anger I have towards our society that has been absolutely sold the bill of goods that you can have low taxes with food public services. It's crap. The answer to fixing this problem is to raise taxes and fund sheriffs pensions. But of course, in these rural counties, everyone has so thoroughly swallowed the guff of how taxes are bad and are always bad, that such simply Occam's razor solutions are impossible to implement.
Still, I'm glad to have read it, even if it left me furious.
I'd never read an novel by Axie Oh. I bought this book purely because the cover leaped out at me as being interesting. And, while I admit that the tropes of YA fiction sometimes make me laugh involuntary (hence why I don't read much of it these days), I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's Final Fantasy × Shadow and Bone × Castle in the Sky. Crisply paced and clearly written with a savage knife twist of an ending that left me cursing Oh's name for the sequel to be out already. If you enjoy stories informed by folklore from Korea and slow burn romances, you will enjoy this book.
Another comfort reread on my part and just in time too. I saw recently the first major trailer for the PHM film with Ryan Reynolds as Ryland Grace, and I can't wait to see it in theaters. If you have not read Project Hail Mary yet, do yourself and favor and do so. The way in which Weir handles flashbacks, with the change from present tense to past tense, is a subtle but of writing craft genius. It may jar you at first, if you're used to reading narratives written in a single contiguous tense, but you'll quickly adapt. Also, his wit and humor, which allow him to clearly explain complicated scientific concepts most people lacking calculus wouldn't understand, is as present here as it was in both The Martian and Artemis. This is one of those sci-fi books that even non-hardcore readers of the genre will absolutely love.
Weir, Scalzi, and Edward Ashton have got to be three of the leading lights of accessible, gateway science fiction, and I hope they all continue to write for years to come.
If you came back after my long silence to read this, I just want to say thank you. Hopefully, in future, I'll be able to keep writing more on this blog at my more typical pace. I also hope that, whatever it is your struggling with at the moment, considering the state of things, you find a means of overcoming, no matter how long it takes. Life is difficult enough. The least we can do is give each other a little encouragement and give ourselves a little patience and grace. Hang in there, Funny People. We'll get through this, somehow.
— IMC 🙃
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