galadhir

Well, this is getting real now! The boat of Small Mysteries has both a cover and a blurb:

When a new disability ruins Emily’s life and family turn her out, she finds herself forced into a nomadic life on a narrowboat. With very little money and even less physical stamina, she doesn’t know if she has it in her to forge a whole new future on her own.

In the idyllic surroundings of the British waterways, as she moves from place to place she encounters a series of small mysteries. Can she solve them and find a new purpose for herself in the process? Or must a missing person remain lost and the case of the body in the lock remain unsolved?

Half cozy mystery and half fond ode to the narrowboat life, ‘The Boat of Small Mysteries,’ is a charming tale of resilience and intuition, sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys BBC Four’s Canal Boat Diaries, or the gentle adventures of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books.

~

It's just going through a final editing pass and then it will be ready to be released. Possibly even as soon as next week.

I genuinely can't remember how I used to do this. But I am very excited and a little nervous at the same time.

It's been so long!

I followed a link over to dreamersdare who has created a February 'Stuff I love' challenge to remind us--in this darkest part of the year--that there are still things to enjoy.

And how does this challenge work?

Each week in February, you are challenged to write a themed top ten list, with a focus on different aspects of media.

Week 1 (February 1st-7th): Standalone media (e.g. films, novels, short stories, plays) Week 2 (February 8th-14th): Series (e.g. TV shows, webtoons, comics, web serials) Week 3 (February 15th-21st): Music picks (e.g. bands, artists, songs, music videos) Week 4 (February 22nd-28th): Relationships in our media (e.g. platonic, shippy, familial, canon, fannish)

As it's the 5th of February today, I have a list of standalone media, not listed in order of importance because largely they are all equal in my estimation:

1. Bladerunner (the original and best.) So atmospheric and dreamy. Went into it expecting to love Harrison Ford's character (because Han Solo was the best,) came out of it with a new blorbo in the shape of Roy Batty, and a new background for the next five years of my life in the shape of that Vangelis music.

2. Oh blimey, speaking of plays, there was one play that became a hyperfixation for me before I knew the term hyperfixation, and that was an adaptation of Riddley Walker which was on at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester when I was a student there. I absolutely adored the made-up futuristic dialog of the play--which is set in a post-apocalyptic England that has reverted to savagery. Just gorgeous language - I mean choppy, brutalist, but so new and vital. I would love to see it again some time.

3. Speaking of old, pre-fandom blorbos, I loved Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence largely because in those days (1980s and before) it was vanishingly rare to get any queer content, and MCML was about the obsessive/destructive attraction between a captive in a Japanese POW camp (played by David Bowie) and his captor (played by Riuichi Sakamoto.) There was lots of yearning! But there was also an amazing soundtrack by Riuichi Sakamoto's band the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and that was another big part of the soundscape of my youth.

4. Murderbot--All Systems Red. Enough said. Actually no, I do have something to say. I didn't know there was a word for what I was (asexual/agender/aromantic) until I was in my mid 40s. I had never seen or even conceived of anyone like myself, and I fixated hard on robots and also on other queer people. I recognized my community without knowing why I belonged there. Murderbot combines my love of robots with a character who actually gets what it's like to prefer to be what you are. It is the ace representation I didn't know I needed.

5. Stargate (the movie.) Ancient Egyptians in space? What more do you need. I have a strong love for things that are alien to my own experience, so obviously I was primed to love the villains in this, and that was only cemented by the fact that Ra was so beautiful, Anubis was so handsome, and they had that (Hollywood thinks it's villainous) homoerotic tension between them. Chef's kiss.

6. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin. I'm sure I've talked about this one before. Gorgeous language. Representation of a whole planet where the people are asexual like 90% of the time. Obviously the narrator thinks this is weird, but Genly Ai is a moron, and Therem Harth Rem ir Estraven was a childhood blorbo who I still hug to my heart today.

7. Pirates of the Caribbean (the first movie only.) The movie that launched a thousand fics, and accidentally also launched my professional writing career. I deeply loved Commodore Norrington and as a result I began to research the Age of Sail in 18th Century England. And as a result of that I wrote my first book and got it published. The later movies spoiled this franchise for me but I owe it so much.

8. Lord of the Rings (the book.) Shaped my life. Taught me my morality. Formed my writerly voice and taught me how to describe things. I can't over-emphasise how much this is a load bearing pillar of my personality.

9. The Time Bandits. Another one from my youth. Some of God's dwarven helpers steal the map to all the holes in creation and use them to travel in time stealing valuable things. By accident they also drag a young boy from his bedroom and drag him through time and mythology in a series of whacky adventures. Apart from the truly amazing best giant ever, the thing that stuck with me with this one was the depiction of ancient Greece, which turned it back into a proper ancient culture to me, as opposed to the usual Hollywood depictions.

10. Forerunner Foray by Andre Norton I mentioned my enchantment with things that are alien to me, and this is so alien. It was formative in shaping what I hope for from science fiction, even though what it actually deals with is being possessed by ancient things and cultures. I just love the weird things.

A splendid book meme, from aedh, via naraht copied from tree_and_leaf.

Pick a number to get an answer from me. Or give your own answer to someone else's question. Or just borrow the meme – it would be amazing to see this one get some traction!

1. A book that haunts you

2. A book that was an interesting failure

3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)

4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you

5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold

6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work

7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately

8. A book that feels like it was written just for you

9. A book that reminds you of someone

10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber

11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time

12. A book that came to you at the wrong time

13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that

14. A book balanced on a knife edge

15. A snuffed candle of a book

16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers

17. The one that taught you something about yourself

18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion

19. A book that started a pilgrimage

20. A frigid ice bath of a book

21. A book written into your psyche

22. A warm blanket of a book

23. A book that made you bleed

24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to

25. A book that answered a question you never asked

26. A book you recommend but cannot love

27. A book you love but cannot recommend

28. A book you adore that people are surprised by

29. A book that led you home

30. A book you detest that people are surprised by