Friday, April 29, 2022

Quick Sips 04/29/2022

Well everything is speeding right along this year, isn't it? At least it seems like there's a bit of a relentless tide of things to do and deadlines to hit these days. I did turn in my latest Locus column (what's that, my fifth already?), and I'm working on finalizing my We're Here intro/editorial. I've got some award jury things to start poking at (for the Eugie Foster) and there's convention programming surveys galore! I'm definitely on programming at this year's WisCon (I'll try to share my schedule sometime soon) and hopefully will be on programming at ChiCon 8 (I have filled out the long questionnaire thing). Meanwhile I booked the hotel for WisCon and need to get on that for ChiCon.

Plus, you know, being on an LGBTQ+ non-profit board as we navigate our president resigning as we move into our busiest time of the year and try to launch new programs and secure grant funding. It's a bit of a lot but I'm mostly hanging in there. It's not leaving me time to get back to novels, which was part of the hope for the year, but so it goes. I can say that I've very proud of what I've managed to do so far this year. Still very tired and burned out. But it's different, and also I'm getting paid a bit more.

And I am doing better about writing and submitting poetry. Not like stellar but I think since August I've submitted 40 times. Which isn't too bad. 2 acceptances (one already out at Eye to the Telescope and one forthcoming yet from I-can't-remember-if-I'm-not-supposed-to-say). 11 currently out on submission. So 27 rejections. Not as good an acceptance rate as my poetry used to have, but getting back into the process is important. I'm also waiting on word on the one story I have out on sub right now, that has been held for a while now and I am bracing to have shake free.

In media, Matt and I finished the first series of The Sister Boniface Mysteries and they were good. Kinda unsure at times what they were doing with the hallucinations but still good. More procedural, which we like, and less likely to bury the gays. Lots better than Father Brown, which is mostly just passable (better in later series about queer issues, certainly). Anyway, with that done we're rewatching the first two series of Vera (might rewatch them all, who knows) because they weren't on BritBox originally but they are now? Whatever, I'm not arguing because Vera! Been a while since we've seen these very early episodes, though.

I'm also playing some video game again, in the form of Chrono Trigger, which is mostly fun. The mechanic is very simple but still challenging. The main issue I have is also something that makes the game interesting, which is that there aren't any random encounters. All the battles happen in the environments of the game, which is neat. However, once you've done them once they lose a bit of that interest and they reload every time you move out of the area/screen so navigating some places is just annoying as hell. That said, the story is all right and the characters interesting. Not an easy game and one that doesn't seem to encourage level grinding. I'm liking it.

In reading, I'm now going through Cable between Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught, and it's more hidden backstory. But not poorly done. And there's a sequel to The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (Askani'son) which has the same creative team and is pretty solid so far. I'm not all the way through it, but I do appreciate it. I haven't really covered too much ground since last time, though. Cable is a character I appreciate a bit more now than I did back when I was younger. Not just because as a character he's pretty old (though I'm sure that was part of it), but because I couldn't get past the original version of the character in my head. He's not just that gruff violent guy from before New Mutants ended. He's come a long way and is much more complicated, and I quite like his relationship not only with his parents (who are younger than him) but also Domino, who makes a good partner.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll try and catch up on things I owe and otherwise I'll hang in there, as I can. Cheers!

---

Support Quick Sip Reviews on Patreon


No comments:

Post a Comment