Reading: I can’t bring myself to finish the last few dozen pages of The Shadow Prowler. It has gone from its so bad its good to just plain bad and I am not sure what turned the switch for me.
Just finished reading Apocalypse World and I think Vincent has raised the bar from where he left it with Dogs in the Vineyard in terms of RPG text writing. The as-matter-of-fact way he communicates procedures, techniques and setting is stunning.
Planning: Off to Vermont to see my beautiful cousin Dara marry her dashing gentleman, Steve. It’ll be nice to get gussied up with Janaki two weekends in a row.
Writing/Creating: Hit 750words.com with discipline and it feels pretty damned good. I am writing something about a religion that worships an owl god-totem and the girls who kill monsters in its name. Good times.
And you?
Githyanki Diaspora 
Reading: Slowly re-reading Istvan Csiscery-Ronay’s THE SEVEN BEAUTIES OF SCIENCE FICTION and dipping a toe into Samuel Delany’s DRIFTGLASS.
Planning: Doing some historical and mythographic research for a story idea. It’s about self-despising Norse dwarves rebuilding the Spear of Destiny for Hitler, and the hangdog band of faeries, led by the illegitimate son of Lancelot and a greenhag, the Allies send to stop them.
Writing/Creating: Wrote my Forces of Geek column, and a bit of trim for the above.
John, that story idea sounds Way Cool for a one-shot con scenario.
Just write it, man.
Reading: “The Walrus and the Warwolf”, which is an astonishing trainwreck. We’ll see if it holds my interest much longer. Apparently the man had a _60_ book series planned, but people stopped wanting to read them around book 4, and he stopped writing them at book 10.
Planning: Giving my parents the tour of Ann Arbor, which is complicated by my Dad having hurt his back and not being up for much walking.
Writing/Creating: Playing a lot of banjo, getting funky in the kitchen. (Not at the same time, though.)
60 book series?!
I started it but couldn’t settle itno a groove but will give it another go later. It is certainly a trainwreck but I don’t mind that as long as its a delicious trainwreck.
Funky in the kitchen!
Mneh. I made it two-thirds of the way through and then bogged down. The plot had reached kind of a stopping point, and I just wasn’t that interested anymore. I had “The Lies of Locke Lamora” sitting on my shelf, whispering something about “well-crafted prose” and decided to read that instead.
Reading: “Songs of the Dying Earth” by various folk. Some of the short stories are cracking evocations of Vance, while others are… less so.
Planning: convention scenarios for Mouse Guard at a bunch of cons in England and at 10-10-10 in NYC: vanilla Mouse Guard, Old Testament Israelites, and a Mythic Russia-inspired one.
I need to read more Vance.
Reading: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, going to use it for my R-map for my Mu game. Only 40 pages in, already a nice big map.
Creating: Mixing some audio to create mood in my game.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo R-map for MU…that is sexy.
Let me know how that goes. I’m fascinated.
Reading: Adventure Burner. Waiting on my roommate to finish reading the 3rd book in the Sasha series, which I’m super excited to get into.
Planning: Hitting up the city on the weekend. Upping my workout on pushups and rotator cuff exercises.
Writing: Some BW adventures to run on short notice.
Yay Adbu!
Thoughts?
Sasha series?
What kind of push-up work-outs are you doing?
Adbu- pretty awesome. Would recommend as the FIRST supplement to grab for BW if you’re going to grab one. It’s a little hard to follow the organization, but really interesting.
Sasha- waiting on my roommate to loan me the 3rd book still.
Pushups- doing “rolling” pushups, sometimes called “kung fu pushups” or “judo pushups”. Really works the anterior serratus (ow). Slowly incorporating “flipping pushups” where you pushup, flip your arm over so you’re now facing upward, flip over again, do a push up, repeat. Pretty intense on shoulders/wrists and you need to go slow.
Reading: Un Lun Dun, which is the first China Miéville I’ve ever read. Not sure what to think of it — normally, I like YA fiction, but this just seems to… I dunno. Try too hard? It’s good enough to read through, I’ll give it that. Not every book I pick up is.
Planning: Exalted tomorrow! The Monsoon Festival in the City of the Steel Lotus, the Goddess of Joyful Abandon, and three teenage Exalts. What could go wrong?
Writing: Nothing really amazing. Just stuff to keep the pen wet. Judd, that 750 Words website is awesome – thanks for passing that along. Points + Achievement badges + former WoWist = inducement to write
Oooh, see, I haven’t stuck to it enough to get badges. Now I’m motivated to do so. Neat.
I really enjoyed Un Lun Dun. Hope it shapes up for ya.
It did! Looking back, it was the whole “Oh, here’s the Shwazzy, cue epic adventure” part that was leaving me cold. The switchup kicked it over from Meh to Yeah! for me. More C. Miéville on the way. I should thank him for teaching me alt codes, too.
Reading: I finished Hellcats & Hockeysticks, A Taste for Murder, and The Dresden Files: Your Story. I’m currently reading Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity. Delicious. Worth the 11 year wait because it just isn’t the book it would have been 11 years ago.
Watching: We’ve seen Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs The World in theaters. We saw the Julie Andrews Cinderella, which had the largest television audience in the world when it was first aired. Interesting to compare it to the Brandy version.
Planning: Physical therapy for knee tomorrow. Calling up lawyers to deal with co-guardianship and estate administratrix matters. Paperwork / spreadsheets for same. Apartment cleaning. Pruning shelves to make space for GenCon loot. Preparing for PiCon.
Writing / Creating: My zine for Alarums & Excursions #420, and write ups from GenCon, DexCon, Dreamation…
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigoi for a nifty witch/vampire owl connection.
Thanks, Zak. I will check that out once I have a moment.