The front door
Hello and welcome to The Brew.
I spent much of today hungover while travelling on a train, so here is a lil ditty of commemoration:
The rain from the train is unlikely to wane.
~ from my forthcoming title, Send Halp
Library
Books That I Should Be Reading Right Now But Am Not Because The Slump Is Real And Owes Me Big
Future Girl by Asphyxia
Why should I be reading it?
This was the pick for queer book club, which is meeting next weekend to discuss
Why aren’t I reading it?
I’m a bit off YA stories at the moment, plus general reading slumpness
Likelihood of me finishing it in time?
7/10 - don’t wanna let my book club down!
Saving Time by Jenny Odell
Why should I be reading it?
I’m reviewing it
Why aren’t I reading it?
Although it is completely fascinating, it’s like too interesting, and I become so absorbed in it that I cannot read it quickly, and it’s a very long book, so I really need to clean my mental desk before I can give it the attention it deserves to be reviewed properly
Likelihood of me finishing it soon?
*crying face* I don’t knoooooooowww
Royals by Tegan Bennett Daylight
Why should I be reading it?
I’m reviewing this book before its release in May
Why aren’t I reading it?
I read the first few chapters and, although it’s an interesting concept and so far is well-executed, I was not immediately grabbed, and haven’t been able to push myself to persevere with it yet
Likelihood of me finishing it in time?
8/10 - it’s not out until May and I just need to kick this slump in the rear before then!
Notes
Yarram Story Fest
I am very pleased to make known that I will be part of Yarram Storyfest again this year, this time as both a panel host AND co-hosting a masterclass, with an author whose work I have deeply admired for years, no less!
Read more about the program here.
Lounge
TV
Agent Carter (2015-16)—One of Marvel’s earlier ongoing series, about Agent Peggy Carter after she is left to live sans-Captain America in post-war New York, where she works as an agent in the Strategic Scientific Reserve.
As it’s the US in the forties, Ms Carter, despite being an experienced and competent agent with both Pluck and Gumption, not to mention determination, training, strategic experience, combat experience, etc. etc., is treated like a secretary while the terrible men in her office constantly belittle and underestimate and under-utilise her skills.
I understand that a large part of the narrative tension here is that she’s a woman in a man’s world and still manages to regularly kick butt and get things done, you feel a bit like you’re being
beaten
over
the
head
with
it
in about every second scene. But this show was also made in 2015-16, so I guess the point needed to be sternly and repeatedly made in this pre-#metoo time? Idk.
Anyway, Howard Stark (TOOL at large) has some of his nastiest inventions stolen and sold on the black market, and instead of being useful, the US govt thinks he’s treasonous and selling weapons of mass maiming and destruction to the enemy (mainly Russia, but also anywhere non-US) rather than letting the US use them rampantly as they please, like a good little citizen.
Stark recruits Peggy to help clear his name, skips the country to go be rich and consequence-free somewhere else for a while, and leaves his butler, Jarvis, to help her.
The mystery is afoot, people get beat up, explosions explode, etc. It’s a fun spy thriller with all the Marvel trappings, plus the added of weirdness of Jarvis, who I can’t help but think of as Vision, which is canonically somewhat accurate, but not relevant in this part of the story and timeline, so is really just distracting.
I haven’t finished it yet, but am enjoying the series so far. I would like Howard Stark to be punched in the face a bit more, but I’m not holding my breath for it.
Crafting
Tamarack jacket—If you’ve been within a hundred pixels of my Instagram in the last week you will have been bombarded with images of a sewing project that I launched into after several years of build up.
I've saved many a quilted jacket on Pinterest over the years, but could never find one that I really liked. Something I did find though were examples of jackets made from Grainline Studio’s Tamarack sewing pattern. So I bought a copy of it, spent big at Spotlight, and spent my Easter weekend making one.
It took me three full days, but it came out very well and I rediscovered the sewing skills I forgot I had, plus added a few new ones to the repertoire. I once heard that sewing your own clothes can be addictive, to which I scoffed like a Musketeer. Well now I have egg on my scoff, for all I want to do is buy lovely cotton blends and turn them into comfortable garments that actually fit. I enjoy reading sewing patterns! What is happening!
And maybe if I spent less time sewing and more time reading, I would have finished that list of books by now.
Beware my fate, for where the sewing works, the book slump lurks.
~ also from my upcoming title, Send Halp
And another thing…
Find more of my writing 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.