The State of the Ficcery: February 2021

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Word Count for February: 35,643

Media: Lagging behind the rest of world, I've discovered podcasts (that I like!).

I binged Season 1 & Season 2 of the Magnus Archives and loved it. Season 3 got a little convoluted for me (I couldn't keep all the threads in my head) and I stopped after a couple of episodes but if you like supernatural/horror, it's great.

I also found In GAD We Trust podcast from The Invisible Event. GAD meaning Golden Age Detective Fiction, which is the era I most like. And I've listened to a couple of episodes and enjoyed the host's discussions in small doses. It's very much a man giving you his opinion on things but he's got a relatively nice voice and he's talking about books I like and he doesn't sound like a total douche most of the time and in small doses, it's good. I don't like some of the voices of his pals so it's not a complete love.

I listened to a podcast of Natalie Haynes doing a comedy routine about Sophocles in her Stand up for the Classics and it was hilarious. I'd like to listen to more of her. She's really funny. One of those fast talkers.

I tried 20 minutes of the French TV series Balthazar but it was too heterosexual for me.

Learning: I am doing an online class by FutureLearn about classic detective fiction. It's good. The first week has been "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which I enjoyed. The next two weeks are The Sign of Four, which I'm not very keen on, but we'll see. Better than Valley of Fear or "The Seven Gables."

Reading: 2 books farther on my All of Agatha Christie quest. 4 books for the bingo which I'll post about tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon Minor and I have a family book club session sponsored by his school about one of the books.

I had a lot of DNF's. Too many to list. I got a 'bundle' of mystery/thrillers from my library and sent back 5 of the 6 at once.

Writing: I finished my werewolf The Old Guard AU, and I did another quick Omegaverse fic for The Old Guard, too. 2 poems, a chocolate wrapper one and a ballad by Inky Quill, my porcupine OC. I'm going back to the exercises in Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled. I did some fics using cards from an Edward Gorey deck called The Unhelpful Doorknob. And celebrated smallhobbit's 1000th work on AO3.

I really don't know what's next in fic. I'm ahead of my word count goals so I could take it easy if I wanted.

Personal: Lots of crafts. 2 puzzles and my puzzle tower is growing due to poor impulse control and very kind friends. I tried some new dishes: cauliflower, baked cabbage, scallops. Trying to get the boys more used to trying new things. The big thing is school is starting for Minisclus the week of March 15 and for Minor the week of March 29. They'll go 2 days a week. So lot's of schedule changes and gathering of supplies. I get a couple weeks reprieve from soccer but that will start, too.

Comments

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I hope going back to school goes smoothly for them.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! I am only a little worried about Minisculus on the bus by himself, the rest is just tedious but not worrisome.

[smallhobbit]

Impressive number of words, yet again.

I like bits of The Sign of Four - it could certainly have been worse.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you!

Yes, it's a choice :)

[luthienberen]

Congrats on lots of enjoyable ficcing! I hope your FutureLearn course is suitably fascinating and sleuth worthy ;).
Good luck with back to school for the boys x

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you, thank you!

[garonne]

I listened all the way through to Season 5 of the Magnus Archives. I really enjoyed it, but the latter seasons definitely are quite different from the earlier ones! More complicated plot and less horror anthology. I loved the overarching plot and character development, but I did kinda miss the spooky anthology one-independent-story-each-week feel of the earlier seasons.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Glad you enjoyed them! Yes, I was at the point that I needed a cheat sheet to keep everyone clear in my head so I just stopped after the first couple of episodes of Season 3. But great cast and writing and effects.

I have come to realize your and my sensibilities overlap in areas where I don't really have anyone else who enjoys what I enjoy (if that makes sense). So I appreciate you recommending things that I would never come across on my own.

[garonne]

I have come to realize your and my sensibilities overlap in areas where I don't really have anyone else who enjoys what I enjoy (if that makes sense).

Yes, I know exactly what you mean! Actually just a few days ago I finished a book and thought "I wonder if stonepicnicking_okapi would enjoy this?" Though actually I had no idea if you would *g* I think I thought of you because it was a novel loosely associated with a horror podcast, and I remembered you reading the novel Alice isn't Dead. (The book in question was Thirteen Storeys by the writer behind the Magnus Archives, by the way. I enjoyed it, even though it did not quite have that old-school MR James spooky feeling I had been hoping for. It had a rather more modern feel.)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Cool. It's good to be understood that way.

Ah, and I have a square on my book bingo for 'Number in the Title' so that will work nicely. I have to get through a few more on my TBR pile first but I've copied it into my Grand List. He wrote the Magnus Archives, too, so he is at least grounded in the old stuff.

I don't know how much you know/like Japanese fiction but I read the first story in Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edogawa Rampo (translated in English) called "The Human Chair" and he absolutely nailed the kind of horror I like. Very Poe. Very chilling. If the rest of the anthology is similar, I'm going to have to sleep with the lights on :)

[garonne]

Aha, thanks for the rec!

Yeah, to be honest I only read/listen to horror in the morning or afternoon *g*