So. August. A mostly uneventful month.<\/p>\n
My parents spent a week or two of it vacationing in Scotland, leaving me on my lonesome, and I decided to live it up by catching a cold. I’m feeling a lot better, even if I still haven’t completely shaken the cough, but I spent the Saturday night before their return huddled under a blanket watching the live-stream of the Hugo Awards. <\/p>\n
You can read more about that — the Awards, not the blanket — well, pretty much anywhere. This year got a mite contentious, so it was really nice to see fandom step up for diversity, good writing, and for generally not behaving like an asshole.<\/p>\n
Anyway, when I haven’t been sick, I’ve still be writing. The issue of Andromeda Spaceways<\/a> with my story “When Jane Was Nine” ame in the mail in August, and I’ve just this week seen the cover art for the issue of Mythic Delirium<\/a> that will include my story “Directions.” I’ll post more about those when the issues are available online for sale, both of which will hopefully be before the year’s out. I have a number of other flash pieces I’m in the process of either writing or submitting, and a longer story I need to go back to at some point and revise, but the short-lived streak I had at the beginning of the year of selling stories (three of them!) seems to have slowed into a steady pattern of rejection. But we’ll see.<\/p>\n In August, I read two books, which sadly doubled my recent average. They were Counting Heads<\/i> by David Marusek, which had long been on my to-read list but moved up after Kelly Link recommended it on Twitter, and Fearful Symmetries<\/i>, a horror anthology I picked up at Readercon in July. I enjoyed them both.<\/p>\n In August, I saw eight movies:<\/p>\n Mission Impossible<\/i> was probably the best of these, though I’m not sure there was a true stinker in the mix. Silver Streak<\/i> is kind of dated, weirdly paced, and actually less funny than I expected for the iconic first pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. But it’s okay. The Guest<\/i> is violent and stylized — it feels like a pastiche of ’80s movies without actually being one — but also a lot of fun. I didn’t love A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night<\/i>, but I’ve never really seen anything like it — it bills itself as “the first Iranian vampire Western” — and I can see why so many people have loved it. U.N.C.L.E.<\/i> was a surprising amount of fun. There’s no reason for it to exist, but its leads are good, it’s funny, and there are some really decent action set-pieces. Seeking a Friend<\/i> is a weird mix of comedy and drama that doesn’t always work — it gets very dark, then very broad — but it’s remarkably sweet and touching thanks to its own two leads. And Grabbers<\/i>…well, that was suggested by Heather<\/a>, who watched it with me over Twitter, and it was also good fun. A smartly goofy horror comedy.<\/p>\n In July, I read thirty-five short stories, a whole bunch from the aforementioned Fearful Symmetries<\/i>. Favorites included:<\/p>\n And in August I listened to some music:<\/p>\n\n
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