Weekly Round-up, December 14, 2024

John Winkelman

The Red Snapper from Mexo resturant.

[The Red Snapper from MeXo.]

As the year winds down the panicked higher-ups at work are distributing the stress to their underlings, which includes Yours Truly. Therefore I have put in some exceptionally long hours this week which has left little time for anything else. I did manage to take my partner out for a nice dinner at MeXo. Highly recommended. Particularly the seafood.

Reading

I am still in the first hundred pages of Doctor Zhivago. I had hoped to be at least halfway through by now, but the day job has not left much time or mental energy for reading works which require focus and concentration.

Writing

Ha!

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Kaiju, Reincarnation
Setting: Subterranean
Genre: Folk Tale

Listening

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, December 7, 2024

John Winkelman

The vacant lot on the corner of 36th Street and Buchanan Avenue.

[The vacant lot on the corner of 36th Street and Buchanan Avenue. ]

This was a quiet week. Some low-level work frustrations kept me distracted from the general state of the world, which was nice. But it also meant I didn’t have a lot of mental space for myself.

Reading

My long read for Dostoevsky December is Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I read a couple of chapters back during my Russian Studies days at Grand Valley State University, somewhere around…1991. And I watched the movie a year or so ago. So now I am finally reading the book.

Writing

Nothing, as usual.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Precursors, Mutants
Setting: Library
Genre: Slipstream

Listening

“Lara’s Theme” from Doctor Zhivago.

Interesting Links

IWSG, December 2024: Is There More?

John Winkelman

The Month of Writing is over, and for the first time since my first attempt at NaNoWriMo in 2013, I did not participate at all. This year has just been too busy and distracting to allow for concentrated creative efforts. I did attend the opening and closing events for the regional group, the West Michigan Author Alliance, but in between, other than cultivating a mild angst about not writing, I did nothing.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for December 2024 is: Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?

I don’t write cliffhangers. I like to wrap things up at the end of a story. Where aesthetics allow I will keep things open-ended to allow for sequels, etc. I have nothing against cliffhangers, they’re just not my style.

 

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November 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

November wasn’t such a great month for reading, mostly due to the existential dread of watching democracy die in the USA. Other than that, things are great!

Acquisitions

Books I acquired in November 2024.

 

  1. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press) [2024.11.01]
  2. Kateřina Čupová (Julie Nováková, translator, Damian Duffy, lettering), R.U.R: The Karel Čapek Classic (Rosarium Publishing) [2024.11.07]
  3. Yuri Herrera (Lisa Dillman, translator), Season of the Swamp (And Other Stories) [2024.11.12]
  4. Evergreen Review Reader 1967 – 1973 (Four Walls Eight Windows) [2024.11.14]
  5. Cheryl S. Ntumy, Songs for the Shadows (Atthis Arts) [2024.11.30]
  6. Ihor Mysiak (Yevheniia Dubrova and Hanna Leliv, translators), The Factory (Atthis Arts) [2024.11.30]

Reading List

Books

Books I read in November 2024.

  1. Elvira Navarro (Christina MacSweeney, translator), A Working Woman [2024.11.12]
  2. Mona Arshi, Somebody Loves You [2024.11.21]
  3. William Gibson, Spook Country [2024.11.27]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “A Game of Goblins” [2024.11.25]

Weekly Round-up, November 30, 2024

John Winkelman

Thai chili peppers, on a plant covered with snow.

[The last of the Thai chili peppers in my back yard, covered with the first snow of the year.]

This was a quiet week, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. My partner and I stayed home and did quiet things like binge-watching season 2 of Physical: 100 on Netflix. If you ever want to feel inspired and humbled at the same time, this is the show for you.

Reading

I finished William Gibson’s Spook Country, which was most excellent, and now am looking at two books for December.

The first is Eva Baltasar‘s Permafrost, a short novel I received a few years ago from my subscription to And Other Stories

The other is Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, which is most assuredly not a short novel. I chose this for Dostoevsky December, because I have read all of the Dostoevsky I have in the house and don’t want to tackle his Writer’s Diary with anything less than an entire season in which to enjoy his wit.

Writing

Not much to report. No brain capacity available for writing.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Apocalypse, Cyborgs
Setting: Academia
Genre: Steampunk

Listening

Rob Zombie, “Dragula”. ‘Tis the season.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, November 23, 2024

John Winkelman

A golden cord, in a pile, to which is attached a gold medallion, on which is inscribed the words "Poetry Advocate".

[ A medallion, awarded by the Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids. ]

This past Sunday I visited the main branch of the Grand Rapids Public Library to attend Grand Rapids: A Poetry City, an event created by Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Christine Stephens-Krieger. At the end of the event Christine called up a few people from the audience and presented them with medallions. Much to my surprise, one of those people was me!

Stephens-Krieger has many plans for the three years of her term, including a couple in which I am involved. I have talked previously about the Grand River Poetry Collective and An Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids. The Poetry Collective has several books in progress, and another Oral History project is underway, which might even be completed by the end of 2025. So, exciting times.

Reading

I finished Somebody Loves You, and have started on William Gibson’s excellent Spook Country. Somehow the Blue Ant books seem appropriate, here in late 2024.

Writing

A pass at the first couple of paragraphs of the re-write of Cacophonous. Nothing much else.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Environment, Super Powers
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Horror

Weekly Round-up, November 16, 2024

John Winkelman

Well my head is in a slightly better place this week than it was last week. Not that things are good. No, things are not good at all. Trump was re-elected, despite being a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein. Or really, because he is a Friend of Epstein. After all, he is very popular with conservative Christians. Its re-election was no real surprise; this type of outcome has been inevitable since Reagan’s second term, and accelerated by Citizen’s United.

Reading

Reading went a little better this week than last week. I finished Elvira Navarro’s A Working Woman, which was beautiful and strange. Now I am reading Mona Arshi’s Somebody Loves You, which sits in the boundary between novel and prose poem.

Writing

I have put some more thought into The Book, and taken down some notes around setting and character traits, but the story itself still eludes me. I suspect that what was originally intended as a re-write will instead be a re-draft.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Politics, Death
Setting: Subterranean
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, “Something About John Coltrane”, from the album Journey in Satchidananda.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, November 2, 2024

John Winkelman

Looking north along the Grand River.

[ The view north along the Grand River. ]

What would have been a productive week turned out not to be after I had an attack of what felt like bad allergies, after the outside temperature here hit 80 degrees earlier this week. Now that more seasonable weather is back I feel better, but have no energy or drive to do anything.

Reading

Slowly working my way through Elvira Navarro‘s A Working Woman. Not making much progress because my brain is mush.

Writing

No writing this week. Barely even any journaling. Between the looming election and the illness my brain is mush.

And I find myself remarkably unmotivated for the Month of Writing. I certainly am not going to hit 50,000 words. I made a goal of a completed first draft of a book I started two years ago, but I don’t think I will even have the focus to complete the ~20,000 words necessary to do so.

Maybe I just need to take this year off.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Evolution, Artificial Intelligence
Setting: Ship
Genre: Science Fiction

Listening

The Gyuto Monks, Freedom Chants From the Roof of the World. I have listened to the album possibly more than any other.

Interesting Links

October 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

October was quite busy so I didn’t read as much as I would have liked. But what I did read was most excellent!

Acquisitions

Books acquired in the month of October 2024.

  1. Morgan Talty, Fire Exit (And Other Stories) [2024.10.02]
  2. Michael J. DeLuca, The Jaguar Mask (Stelliform Press) [2024.10.06]
  3. Dave Klecha and Tobias J. Buckell, The Runes of Engagement (Tachyon Publications) [2024.10.06]

Reading List

Books

Books I read in October 2024.

  1. Jorge Luis Borges – Conversations [2024.10.10]
  2. Dave Klecha and Tobias J. Buckell, The Runes of Engagement [2024.10.14]
  3. Jack Ridl, All At Once [2024.10.17]
  4. Norah Lange, Notes from Childhood [2024.10.25]