Last Week's Update
Very short post this week. Really, it’s just housekeeping. I had some other thoughts: some big thoughts, some sad thoughts but I didn’t really feel like sharing those so you get a list instead.
Breakable Things was nominated for a British Fantasy Award.
Breakable Things was also nominated for a World Fantasy Award. (The news arrived within a week of each other, and there is no small part of me that is a little stunned by it. I keep thinking I need to move very slowly in case the gods realize there’d be an error in the simulation and rescind the good fortune.)
The Dead Takes the A Train, the novel that I co-wrote with Richard Kadrey, earned starred reviews from Publisher Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. if Kirkus gives us a starred review, I’m going to bid you farewell because a piano is absolutely dropping on my head. There is no way the universe will allow one person so much good fortune without taking something away.
Speaking of The Dead Takes the A Train, please add it to your Goodreads to-read shelves. The site is Fury Road, but it remains a significant part of the book industry. A lot of websites base their ‘most anticipated’ list on things like GR’s to-read numbers. It’s kind of like the situationship version of pre-ordering a book; you don’t need to invest as much but it’s sure an indication of interest.
This feature by Powell’s might have made me disproportionately happy. I fell head over heels for the bookstore the first time I visited and wanted so badly to have my name up there on their wall of signatures one day. Anyway, to be acknowledged as such, it’s a bit startling in the best way.
I’m going to this event at Powerhouse Arena on August 1st, and I am so excited. It has Nightfire authors Liz Kerin and Nat Cassidy in conversation. If you spent any time on this blog, you’ll know I’m upsettingly into Cassidy’s Nestlings, and I’d just started on Kerin’s Night Edge, which has the best opening line I’ve read in a long time.
There is Puppy Yoga in NYC. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. Oh my god, why didn’t any of you tell me about this?!
I went to The Great Gatsby: Immersive Experience which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, I loved the relentless ambition of the show. It is Sleep No More mixed together with Broadway and it had the performers singing, dancing, acting, engaging the crowd, and also trying to crowd control for dear life. Did they completely succeed at their ambitions? It was beautiful. Imperfect but beautiful. The actors tried so hard and the sets were frankly quite gorgeous. On the other, it did feel disjointed in places and I don’t know how I feel about the characters insisting we follow them. I’d have liked something more nonlinear. That said, I hope the production sticks around for another few years so they can polish it up. I think there’s a lot of potential there and would like to go back again to see what I missed. (Confession: I loathed The Great Gatsby. I did love Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful, though, which I’ve decided is the real authoritative text.)
Also, a good friend got abandoned by the performers in the first half and I’m still kinda mad about it. Do I think it was intentional? No. Do I think it could be prevented with better accessibility processes in place? Yes.
I watched Hadestown. I think I held my breath for three hours straight and I am still light-headed today. It is everything people said it was. (Although them raising a glass to Orpheus at the end of the show made me raise my eyebrows. Like, if you know, you know. Poor Orpheus really got the short end of the stick after the end of the myth. Woof.)
A dear friend started their own techwear line, and I think all of you need to check out the robokitty line.
Wow. That went longer than I thought it would.
As always, a cat photo to end the missive.
