Hello! Hope you're all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend. The end of March has crept up on me faster than a Tory MP fleeing to a lucrative City job, so no mini-essay this month.
That said, if you're looking to kill some time with something more interesting than Twitter this month, I'll point you to the recent first issue of
which has some great pieces in it, including a
on K. J. Bishop's wonderfully strange New Weird novel
The Etched City
and a
by Gwen C. Katz about the death of the sun in science fiction.
Writing News
Issue 18 of
came out this month and includes my fantasy story "Small Passengers". It's a (perhaps uncharacteristically) nice one for me, featuring a magical tattooist and a moment of connection in a dispiriting world. It'll be made free to read on the AWW website at some future point, but you can
of the issue if you want to read it now.
Also out now is the
anthology from Inkd Publishing, which features my fantasy murder mystery novelette "Light as Air". This one is less nice. I'm quite proud of it.
What I've been reading
A friend recently recommended Olga Ravn's
, a charmingly odd novel about a workplace revolt in a spacefaring future. Told elliptically, in snippets of personal accounts from various different POVs, it focuses on individual perspectives, the forging and fracturing of human -- and inhuman -- connections as the employees encounter strange objects and violent power structures.
What I've been watching
Last week I went to see
, a very affectionate parody of the '90s show which attempts to summarise its seven seasons in 70 minutes. If you're not a Buffy aficionado, it's probably utterly incomprehensible, but if (like me) you have never quite recovered from loving it, it's a great laugh.
What I've been listening to
Beloved mid-aughts indie-pop purveyors
reformed recently and finally brought one of their comeback shows to Cardiff for Wales Goes Pop. Thrilled to report they've still got it. Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba...
That's all from me for now. 'Til next month.
JL