New and Finished

I'm assuming most of you that are into fandom type things or fic-writing of any sort are familiar with Yuletide, but the new vintage promo images are really great and I couldn't help myself. Plus, I know several of you are newly back to fandom in general or have been thinking about Yuletide this year, so consider this a good reason to go check out it out.



I have finished Gideon the Ninth and feel as though I may never again read something so perfectly written for me. I mean, when I read Wicked Saints earlier this year I felt like it'd reached into my little goth heart and found the high fantasy novel that I'd never hoped to ask for. I feel like Gideon the Ninth has done the same thing but for SFF. Gideon the Ninth would be at home in the Warhammer 40K universe in a world where none of the Warhammer lore mattered and if the characters weren't all grumpy old men. (That's only slightly unfair to the WH universe, but not much.)

I've also finished watching the last season of Hap & Leonard. I read that they're not making a fourth season which honestly, it's probably okay. I mean, it'd be nice to go out on a bit of a sweeter note than the third season did, but I can see why it's not getting more attention. It's a hard show to be writing in a climate like ours and while the show tried it's best to address some really sensitive subjects, there's no getting around how bad really not necessary a show like that is. There are plenty of ways to write really lovely male friendship stories without setting them in so depressing a setting. That said, I enjoyed it for what it was, most especially James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams work as Hap & Leonard. They were great.

Accidentally, I started watching Speechless on Hulu yesterday afternoon and now I'm over halfway done with the first season. I don't keep up with many sitcoms - Brooklyn 99, Superstore The Good Place being the only two I where I actually watch new episodes almost as soon as they air. I got out of the practice when we stopped watching cable. But, after finishing last week's episode of Superstore Hulu's auto-play feature started playing the first episode of Speechless when I got up to get a drink. I'd seen some gifs/screenshots of it on Tumblr, touting it's inclusivity, but I hadn't ever seen any of it for myself. And none of the stuff I'd seen for it ever included the fact that Minnie Driver (whom I love) plays the mom. So, Minnie Driver got my attention then I realized John Ross Bowie is the dad (whom I also love) and then I just sort of fell in love with the whole thing. I think I read that the series is done now? which is really too bad. I'm sorry I'm so late to it.

Matt and I had to wait a couple of hours while our cat Finn was at the groomers this afternoon, so we spent an hour and a half at the bookstore. I picked up the new Felicia Day book, which was on the 20% table. I'm about 60 pages into it. It's a quick read because there's a lot of places for activities (which I'm not doing). It's all about unlocking your creativity and releasing anxiety about making new things, which isn't something I need specifically but I think it'll be good for Matt to look at after I go back to work on Tuesday. I told him I'd finish reading it and then hand it over for him to actually mark up as he does the activities. I started reading Wayward Son last night and got a few chapters in, but I'm going to put it off so I can finish this as quickly as possible.