Project Whup Daniel has had a setback in that it took two frickin’ weeks to get my bike back from the shop after it started going clunk clunk clunk. Last time I brought it in they got kind of titchy when I rang up to find out if it was done after the 2-3 days they’d promised, and it took them a week; this time I waited for two fucking weeks for what they said would take two days, and when I went in, the bike was in the back…
We return for our adventures in Shanghai! Evelyn’s player wishes it to be known that she did, in fact, spontaenously combust at the sight of Ared Fey’s new shorn, hair-cut look. She also spent the first week of her journey drinking heavily, then took herself to the Captain to unburden her soul. The Captain, you understand, is French, and Evelyn does not speak French, but that didn’t stop her. Her referred her to the ship’s doctor, and the ship’s doctor referred her to the curly-mustachioed barman, who was very willing…
ANNOUNCEMENT 1: I will be GUEST OF HONO(U)R at Octocon in Cork, Ireland, along with the inestimable Adrian Tchaikovsky, over October 3-4, 2026! This is an excellent excuse to visit Ireland, right? :D (Seriously, it is: Octocon is an intimate, cozy little convention where you really get to spend time with everybody, and I’d LOVE to see people there!) ANNOUNCEMENT 2: Speaking of cozy! I have just signed the contract for A PINT OF MURDER, a new cozy mystery set in Ireland! I’ll be writing under the name Cate Malone…
Recent Reads: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks – someone recommended this to me, IDEK who, but I’m grateful to them for it: it’s surreal and fantastic and a thrumming good read. The premise is roughly that the moral equivalent of the East India Company has built a railroad connecting Moscow to Bejing, through the walled-off wasteland of Siberia, which has long-since become a surreal expanse of inexplicable and encroaching magical change that threatens everything normal beyond the Walls. The Train is the only thing that can…
Picoreview: Countdown – this was clearly not ever going to be very good, but having Jensen Ackles in it doesn’t manage to bring it up as much as I hoped. Countdown is an Amazon Prime vehicle for Ackles, and I can remember for about five nanoseconds at a time that it’s called Countdown: I keep calling it Crossroads, for obvious reasons (those reasons being “Jensen Ackles is in it”). It’s about a Very Handsome Man Who Is Tired Of Shaving and who is Kind Of An Asshole But Has Reasons…