The Night (Short Story Thing) a.k.a. Nonsense.

So I've been reading a ridiculous amount of SuperBat fanfiction. I just love them so much and hate those god damn Syner films. I will fight you about it. The characters are just so OOC in them that I can't read fanfic where they use it as starting point. I just like my boys to be BFF/or Lovers. Happy Pride month. The whole Justice League is Bi in my head.

The Night

Things had been going bad for a while. Their wins were just scraping  by and more of the League was stepping away. She didn't want to admit it but they were back to the standard core. The Government had managed to scare away the less established supers.

For the core, it was too late to stand down. They had been doing this stuff for 10 years, she wouldn't know how to quit. Even pregnancy, the guilt of putting her baby in danger hadn't made her stay dominant for the first months she had known. She had only stopped when she starting showing with the helpful headline of "Is Atomic Girl getting fat?"

The older she got the more she hated that press name. When she had been 15 and The Atomic, girl was of course added because she didn't hide that she presented female. She wondered how old she would she have to be till people updated her to woman or at maybe back to The Atomic. It's didn't help that her teammates had ironically started calling her it so it had stuck.

Right now she did feel very like a girl, like a child, which was pretty bad considering she had a three year. A three old that didn't call her mum, less the government freak out about super children. They had no control of they destinies. 14 and a street kid, the government had no threats for her. But now she had a family, a family that was slowly going missing.

Members were quitting the League, but they were members who stopped coming in and answering to messages. Her gut told her they was something up. She knew that the Organisation had more secret identity than the league did, back when the Organisation had been ally, instead of a poaching threat. They hadn't said it, but they wanted the league to stop. Three years and one Leaguer turns villian, then the rest of the team couldn't be trust. He had only been there a few months. He was still a rookie. They had said they hadn't held it against them, but she knew they had.

They were hosit and only called them for big things like Aliens or armies of robots. The league just wasn't as attractive, they weren't the pretty porgan they had been as teenagers. They had been Best Friends, the Core, now she keep secrets from them all. She hadn't even told him that her powers were in flux. She lost them and then they came back screaming. She had terrible feeling that it would mean her end. Something had to be causing it. She just didn't have the time to find out what.

The Organisation was on to her. She knew they had finally figured her out. She made sure to be quiet, nothing flashy, just a boring office job, that had turn government and then she was working for them. How could she have said no to that offer? It would have strange to do in this economy. Had they known then, or had they clued up?

She disappeared a lot, but she was meant to be working from home and she did get her work in. How could they know? She had thought she had been so careful, but then 14 year old make mistakes, had they tracked her through her path before she knew that she had something to fear.

She was Fucked. She knew that. Crime went on and the Organisation did not want them solving it any more. They were up to something.

She heard loud crash, the sound of a building falling. She sighed and turned to the window. Robots again? She went for her uniform, knowing her powers interfered with electronics brilliantly but the truth was she knew she couldn't stay out of the fight. That what the Organisation had over her. She couldn't stop.

She would wish that wasn't true, when she realise the trap that she and the Core had just walked into. It was the end of the league. It was the end of them. The headlines would vary from crude to tragic. Conspiracy theories would be the only explanation anyone had. No one thinking about what the world had just lost.

***

Yeah, that's just nonsense. Literally all telling, never even established where the character was. Probably should be in first person. From a project that probably never get off the ground. Mainly because I think it should be a comic that I draw. 7 years later and that's not happened passed costume design. I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo next month, guess which genre I'm writing. It's quite shocking for me.

Wicked, Eurovision a.k.a. The Queer Agenda

Hello Losers, I went to Edinburgh yesterday to see the musical Wicked (finally). Yes, the original Disney's Frozen. Seriously, why does no one call out Disney for copying Wicked, evil character is now good, pointless love interest and attempt at sisterhood and friendship. I said attempt because Frozen really fails at that angle, with it pointless love interest (I mean Ana is dead because she needs a man) and continuing with the annoying sidekick.

When are we getting the Wicked film, we're had a film musical about Slave owner and undermines the talent/skill of the actual people he exploited, also cheating as sub-plot. IMDb says 20 December 2019, but we know never to trust IMDB. Wiki also says that date, it's from 2016.

It's the first time I've seen Wicked, I've listened to the full soundtrack so roughly know the storyline and Twists. It was good, performance. I could do without the Love Triangle. I get the choice for story telling reasons and agree you needed another character there. I just wish we had media where Friendships carried the story, instead of always relaying on Romantic Love. Use other types of Love.

Didn't get hang around Edinburgh much though due my parents not getting how Tech works. My dad actually called the Apple hotline where the help person told my parents that serial number of the phone was on the back of the phone when it's not. It's on the inside, you need to be able to get into the phone to get that number. He meant that IMB number, so I get annoyed at this guy, it obviously bad training, but I'm trying to do something while my father is annoying me with a stupid phone thing that I've already told him he should try and get a new cable for as all the ones in the house are broken in some way or not cable of transferring data. I'm not shouting at this guy, my tone is annoyed, because I don't like phones and he's straight wrong, I want to hang up. I'm also saying Apple sucks, which my dad shouts at me for, like the phone guy cares what I think of the company he works for. It's not like he has high ranking job. Who calls help call lines anymore? You just google it. My Dad is literally 60 though.

So I didn't get to go Prince Street with its giant shop versions. The Primark is four massive floors.

Of course, I am watching EUROVISION, the gayest night of the year where the whole of Europe (and several other places not actually in Europe) battle through music and video effects that must look weird in person. China isn't officially watching this year due to Tattoos and two guys holding hands a.k.a. it's too gay for them.

Stage invading, didn't hear/understand what he said but it sounded political. I'm sure there will be stories about it. Hella, a security risk. Stage invading happens too much in Eurovision. We came 24th of 26 countries. It sounds better if you include the semi-finals, that we by-pass due to money.

So Israel won, next year is going to be awkward. You don't know how aware people are of what their country's government is doing but Jerusalem is real complicated and I'm not the person to track that. I will say that Eurovision winner does not have to host the contest in their capital city so it being held doesn't mean that Europe agrees that it's their capital. It's also been host in Jerusalem a few times. I do think it going to take some of the fun out of Eurovision, like that time Russia hosted, with all their homophobic policy and invading Ukraine.

UK has some fucked up policy and joined up with America in things they shouldn't have. In terms of song criticize, it was decent. I don't love it, but I'm not angry about the song winning. Eurovision is not meant to be political (it almost always is. We only really had one song this year). I'm going to bed, we're see what happens next year or whatever.

Book Review: Unnatural Creatures, stories chosen by Neil Gaiman

Such cute monster on the this cover.
 

THE SUNBIRD

THE MANTICORE

THE WEREWOLF

THE GRIFFIN

Welcome to a menagerie unlike any other, where stories let AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL and occasionally TERRIFYING creatures roam free in your mind.

This is Neil Gaiman's selection of his favourite stories featuring beasts from myth, fable and imagination. Creatures extraordinary, exotic, extinct, living, dead and undead prowl the pages of this book.

BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL IF YOU INSIST ON OPENING IT. 

This is quite a long anthology, but it also contains a few re-publish stories but it writers that audiences are unlikely to be familiar with due to a lot of them being dead or just real old. The illustrations that each story has are pretty good and the formating works well.

Intro by Neil Gaiman, 5/5 stars for being a introduction.

1.
by Gahan Wilson: This was a fun creepy idea, where a stain antagonizes rich people. There's more to the story but I'm not explaining it (well). The way its incorporated into the actual text is cool. 4/5 Stars for poor butlers.


2.The Cartographer Wasps and The Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu: This one was weird, but also great. It's like a politician fable with insects . 4/5 stars for short lives of Bees.

3.The Griffin and The Minor Canon by Frank R.Stockton: This is a story says to be a bad person. Unless people treat you terrible. This writer is dead and this story must have appeared somewhere.   4/5 stars for Tiny Griffins.

4.Ozioma The Wicked by Nnedi Okorafor: A young Nigerian girl can speak to snakes and her community hate her for it until she usefully. 4/5 stars for Brest like waves.

5. Sunbird by Neil Gaiman: This reminds me of that the ep of Angel with the werewolf. It doesn't have a werewolf in it. A society of trying rare foods go after the last thing they haven't tried. 4/5 stars for two feathers.

6. The Sage of Theare by Diana Wynne Jones: This is another story by a dead writer and has character that appears in other works. The creature is an water dragon or something. Is a god a creature? This is a saga of short story, it was good. 4/5 stars for steaming gods.

7. Gabriel - Ernest by Saki: I think this is a story I've read before, but I thought the ending was different. Maybe Mandela effect or I've combined in my head with something else. If anyone wants to tell me what "He had suffered bittern in his study" means, feel free. This is a werewolf story which would have been a spoiler is wasn't so obvious what it was to a modern reader. 4/5 stars for missing sheep.

8. The Cockatoucan by E. Nesbit:I own a collection of Nesbit's stories, mainly because I liked her name and it has a skull on the cover. This is basically Alice in Underland nonsense. Basically, random magic and skinny people are bitter. 4/5 stars for missed omnibuses.

9. Moveable Beast by Maria Dahvana Headley: I liked this story. Set in somewhere in America I guess, called Bastardville so fun. The "villain" is immediately unlikable. Because if someone asked for you to smile (and they're not taking a picture) they're a dick. Also Scottish connection which is fun and fitting. 4/5 stars for Ice Cream insults.

10.The Flight of The Horse by Larry Niven: This involves time travelling to find a horse with a twist so fun. Also another dead writer. 3/5 stars for made gems.

11.Prismatica by Samuel R. Delaney: This your usual quest story, with trickster and princesses. It was long enough to have chapters. There's also a unicorn and a thing in a box. 3/5 stars for my nearest and dearest friends.

12.The Manticore, The Mermaid, and Me by Megan Kurashige: This one is weird. We're back to stories that were written for this book, which two stories ago but feels long. This plays with known hoaxes or are they hoaxes. I would have liked better description of the creatures. The idea was cool. 4/5 stars for museum pass.

13.The Compleat Werewolf by Anthony Boucher: This is 80 pages long and some what mature. It was clearly written for an adult audience, not that really matters since this is YA aimed anthology. It just weird having a protagonist that is a hairy German Professor, obsessing over an ex-student. The earliest publication date I can find for this is1969, though I wonder if it was earlier than (that cause it was 1942). 4/5 stars for Communist Allegory.

14.The Smile on the Face by Nalo Hopkinson: This involves trees and negative body image. I wasn't aware of the myth this was based on, which is cool. 4/5 stars for cherry pits. (TW: Sexual Assault).

15.Or All the Seas with Oysters by Avram Davidson: Beware of bicycles. This was a cool idea from 1958. 4/5 stars for pins.

16.Come Lady Death by Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn writer brings us a story about death, so fun. Also a party. I like the idea, but it's can 4/5 stars for bad wine.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for monster encounters. I like the diversity with the writers and the creatures they bring with them. Out of the 16 story, only 2 were unique to this collection, but it does show a big variety for authors to discover that older and were my first time reading them most of them so I get the effect to show older work to a younger generation. It was a pretty cool collection, with solid stories. I would recommend if like monsters and short stories or if you want to discover some new, old writers to check out.

2018 Goals: Creating Happy

Happy 2018, I'm back again with goals for the year. Hopefully, I'll have better sticking to them than last year.

1. Actually read a book a week. So I want to read at least 52 books this year at least. This is is similar to my 52 books a year goal I've done in the past, which was the equtive to a book a week. I think this will make me happy and less stressed.
2. Finish 12 series. I only finished 2 and I have too many started.
3. Buy less, read more of my own books. I have unread 674 books documented and I should take more than 15 books a year out of that chunk. Hell, at least 20. I have a TBR of 36 specific books that I own and would like to read this year so hopefully I do that.
4. Sort of that Netgalley situation. I think I need to limit the number of books I'm requesting.
5. Published a Video a Week (actually aiming for two). I want to keep my BookTube channel alive and instead of dead months. 
6. Keep going with the Silent Protagonist and Before & After series. I think just generally do more reviews of what ever feel like.
7. Film seconds of my day. See what happens. Post it month by month I think. I've technically already missed a day but we see how it goods.
8. Write. God damn it write. Pretty self explanatory. I would like to finish a novel, but I keep putting that it and it's not happening. I just want to stretch that muscle.
9. Write a Review a Week. I pretty much do this and may as well Stress myself and encourage me not to leave books in Book Limbo for months. 
10. Start Writing my blog constantly. Going back to actual doing Saturday posts every week like I'm meant to on. Short or long on nonsense or proper topics. Fiction or non-fiction. Just writing to a deadline. In this case is more about quantity than quality.
11. Bullet Journal. This is mainly from wanting to keep tack of some of my week/daily goals. Also track health weirdness and other stuff. Also keep the journaling thing going somehow. 
12. Pain. Why? Actually try to find out why pain. Why are my nerves screaming at me? why numb? Why tired? WHy?
13. Be happy. Somehow. I don't want to explain this. You explain it.

I have other less practical general goals that most people should do anyway, be more healthy, spread less money on dumb things I don't need. As family we have to lose weight and two of use are having surgery so they have to do it. There's demanding stuff there but I'm not doing anything else with any structure. I just need to find a live the way I want.

Also maybe study dead bodies. Maybe.

Book Review: The Long Drop by Denise Mina

Murder and Glasgow go well together.

William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Peter Manuel has them. But Peter Manuel is a liar. 

William Watt is an ordinary businessman, a fool, a social climber.

Peter Manuel is a famous Liar, a rapist, a criminal. He claims he can get hold of the gun used to murder Watt's Family. 

One December night in 1957, Watt meets Manuel in a Glasgow Bar to find out what he knows. 

I probably wouldn't be reviewing this book, if I wasn't doing the British Book Challenge which I see as reviewing every book by a British Author I read.

This book is weird fictionalised version of real event that happened. It weirdly formatted. I honestly don't how to review this or what to say about it.

This book is set in Glasgow, I listen to the Audiobook version, it was 7 hours long with a narrator with Scottish Accent, that did different types of Scottish Accents. That's the main reason I listened to it.

I looked up the real case when I read this book, but can no longer remember anything. I look up a lot a murder cases. It decent setting as well for a crime story as a lot shit was going down in Glasgow at this time.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for police driving. If you're interested in Denise Mina, this is probably a bad place to start. It was written fine, but not much of a story really.