The front door
I made my first meme:
It was a wild ride.
Considering a career change - stay tuned.
Library
Books
Soo recently I was sent a book to review and it was so hard to get through that if I wasn’t reviewing it I would 100% have DNF’d it after about ten pages.
I usually follow a strict mantra of ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say... replace all possible compliments with passive aggressive statements that can’t be taken the wrong way.’
For professionalism reasons I will not be naming the author, title or any identifying features of this book, but boy do I need to get this rant out:
DON’T MAKE THE TENSION OF A 400 PAGE BOOK ABOUT INNER TEENAGE ANGST TURMOIL WHEN IT’S SET IN A VERY INTERESTING DYSTOPIAN WORLD
Whoof, can you tell I’ve been holding that in.
I was able to skip whole chapters of this steaming angst-tome and not miss any action or plot points whatsoever. This is never a good sign. Yes, you may need slower chapters that build on character development or to set up incoming action or whatever. But if you lose the reader’s interest - WHICH THIS BOOK REPEATEDLY AND AGGRESSIVELY DID - you won’t get it back, and you’ll leave your reader (i.e. me, in this instance) feeling betrayed and annoyed because you hoodwinked them into reading a story that hasn’t gone anywhere in fifty pages and I honestly don’t care any more if her friend might betray her or if the boy she likes likes her back.
Take me to where things are happening plz.
And the worst part is that this book would have gone through multiple levels of structural editing, rewriting and proofreading before it arrived at the boring waste of time that I was forced to pass through my eyeballs. That means that it used to be worse! And this is what they chose to leave it at!
…………..
Perhaps I’m being far too harsh - I’ve looked at other people’s reviews and they seemed to love it. Maybe 900-proof teen angst just isn’t relatable to my three-decades-in ass anymore. I thought I could handle it - I was pretty heavily into Twilight during that whole time - so am no stranger to the kind of angst that could make an emo DNF.
TL;DR: sometimes books are bad and you shouldn’t finish them. Unless you’ve committed to reviewing it, in which case it’s the toughest of titties for you my dear.
Notes
Oscar & Alice publication update!
And now the moment a handful of you have been waiting for: the Oscar & Alice cover reveal:
Oh and also pre-orders are open for the ebook.
Tbh seeing my book available for pre-order on Booktopia was one of the top-five life moments I can recall to date, sitting somewhere near ‘First time I saw Mad Max: Fury Road’, ‘That time I had the perfect comeback right away’, and ‘Crashed my motorbike and suffered only a head wound’. So yeah, pretty exciting.
The print book will also soon be available for pre-order, BUT if you want a specially signed copy from yours truly you’ll need to order it specially from my website, which will also be available soon, when I have won the battle with WordPress #prayforme.
Thanks everyone who’s been so supportive of my publishing adventure - it’s definitely helped me see this thing through!
Lounge
TV
Rosehaven—A few people have recommended this show to me, and since I need an emotional-support show after finishing Schitt’s Creek last week *GASP SOB* I tentatively ventured into new territory: Rosehaven. Set in Tasmania and featuring comedians Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola, the premise is that Daniel (McGregor) moves from Melbourne back to his hometown of Rosehaven, Tas to help his mum run her real estate business while she’s recovering from surgery. His best friend Emma (Pacquola), who got married just before he left for Tassie, then shows up in Rosehaven because her husband dumped her on their honeymoon.
AND THEN HIJINKS ENSUE.
The absolute best part of this show, and basically the whole purpose of it, is that Daniel and Emma are best friends who act like bickering siblings. She is chaotic and immature and fun-having, and he is anxious and serious and plays the ‘straight guy’. They bounce of each other constantly, full of sarcasm and jokes and deadpans, and it’s absolutely delightful; a veritable balm for my post-Schitt’s Creek wound.
Watch it on ABC iView and Prime.
Movies
Chicago (2002)—I recently started humming ‘All That Jazz’ and time warped and I found myself watching the Chicago movie. I loved it as a teen and it (surprisingly) holds up as an adult; Orange is the New Black somehow didn’t undo the enjoyment of ‘Cell Block Tango’.
Something I did notice, granted obviously by age and wisdom, is that unlike most enjoyable movies, you wouldn’t want to be any of the characters in this story because they are all objectively bad people. Except for Amos, who has the worst song so he also loses.
Music
Spooky Nintendo Music on YouTube—I can’t to listen to music with lyrics while working, especially when writing, so am always looking out for un-lyricked music to have in the background. To my utter joy I’ve just discovered Spooky Nintendo Music compilations, which is a playlist of all the background music in spooky Nintendo game scenes.
I mentioned a few newsletters ago that I’m fully embracing the Halloween AESTHETIC this year, so here ya go:
And another thing…
Last Thursday was Bi Visibility Day, so here’s a bunch of links for that.
Find more of my stuff on my website: Oddfeather Creative
The Brew is created and sent from the lands of the Gunaikurnai people and I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live and work, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present.