Tag: Dyrk Ashton

May 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

May was a pretty good month for both reading and acquiring reading material. A brief illness over the Memorial Day weekend allowed me more quiet time, and I took advantage of it by binge-reading the excellent Kraken Rider Z books. This was the first time I binge-read a series in at least a decade. Highly recommended.

Acquisitions

Books and magazines purchased in the month of May 2025

  1. Jim Harrison, The Theory and Practice of Rivers (Copper Canyon Press) [2025.05.06] – Purchased from the publisher.
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  3. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
  4. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger [2025.05.09] – Purchased from Books and Mortar in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  5. Soliloquey #2 [2025.05.13] – Purchased from the author at a Grand River Poetry Collective meeting.
  6. Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind (The University of Chicago Press) [2025.05.19] – Purchased from the publisher after reading about it in a comment on a Naked Capitalism post.
  7. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.05.20] – From a Kickstarter campaign run by the publisher.
  8. SJ Kim, This Part is Silent – A Life Between Cultures (And Other Stories) [2025.05.23] – Received from the publisher.
  9. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.05.27]

Reading List

Books read in the month of May 2025

Books

  1. Robin McLean, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems [2025.05.13]
  3. Soliloquy #2 [2025.05.19]
  4. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z [2025.05.24]
  5. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken [2025.05.26]
  6. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems [2025.05.31]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “When the Stars Fell” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  2. Jim C. Hines, “Launch Day Milkshakes” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  3. Kameron Hurley, “The Wake” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  4. Kameron Hurley, “The Sea of Ruin” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
  5. Robin McLean, “Get ’em Young, treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  6. Robin McLean, “True Carnivores”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  7. Robin McLean, “Big Black Man”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
  8. Robin McLean, “Judas Cradle”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  9. Robin McLean, “Cat”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
  10. Robin McLean, “House Full of Feasting”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.04]
  11. Robin McLean, “Cliff Ordeal”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.06]
  12. Robin McLean, “Alpha”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
  13. Jim C. Hines, “The Haunting of Jig’s Ear” (Patreon post) [2025.05.19]
  14. Frey Lylark, “Changeling” (Patreon post by Apex Book Company) [2025.05.20]

 

Weekly Round-up, May 31, 2025

John Winkelman

Baby House Finches in a nest in the middle of a dense fern plant in a hanging basket.

[Baby House Finches in a nest in the middle of a dense fern plant in a hanging basket.]

I was sick over the Memorial Day weekend, so didn’t get out and about as much as I usually do when I have an extra day. Instead, I took care of projects around the homestead, including rearranging the basement to clear the mess created when we had to move everything to install a sump pump and drain tile. I also made progress on the big water runoff remediation project outside, which I hope will eventually make the sump pump redundant.

Zyra and I also planted more vegetables in the garden, which is about a quarter larger than it was last year, thanks to a day of lifting and moving heavy things.

Now that I think about it, much of this spring has involved lifting and moving heavy things.

Reading

While crashed out on the couch this weekend I finished Kraken Rider Z and read all of its sequel Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken. One of the authors, Dyrk Ashton, is a friend I met at ConFusion back in 2015 or 2016. The Kraken Rider books are of the Progression Fantasy subgenre, and are the first of the kind I have read. I liked them! Dyrk and his co-author David Estes are excellent writers and I got the sense that writing the books was a lot of fun. And given the nature of progression fantasy, reading them and experiencing the characters as they levelled up, was quite satisfying.

Writing

My writing is still in a sort of lull, though I did jot down a couple of small piles of words which, when assembled in the right order, might become poem fragments.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Music, Fae
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Science Fiction

Listening

Prince, The Loring Park Sessions 77.

Interesting Links

 

January 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

January was a good month for acquisition, but not a good month for reading.

Acquisitions

Books I acquired in January 2025.

  1. Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Connor (editors), The Map of Lost Places (Apex Book Company) [2025.01.14]
  2. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken (Wraithmarked Creative, LLC) [2025.01.15]
  3. Stephen Leigh, A Fading Sun [2025.01.24]- A gift from the author, received at ConFusion 2025 (inscribed)
  4. Stephen Leigh, A Rising Moon [2025.01.24] – A gift from the author, along with the previous books, received at ConFusion 2025. (inscribed)
  5. J.D. Barker and Christine Daigle, Heavy are the Stones (Hampton Creek Press) [2025.01.25] – Received as part of an ARC giveaway, by the authors, to the attendees of ConFusion 2025.
  6. Brandon Butler (editor), The Science Fiction Tarot (tdotSpec, Inc) [2025.01.25] – An anthology created for a Kickstarter campaign. I picked this up at ConFusion 2025, where Storm Humbert, one of the anthology contributors, had copies for sale. (inscribed)

Reading List

Books

  1. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness [2025.01.27]

January 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

After almost two months, I finally finished Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Wow, was that a slog. A good slog, but a slog nonetheless. Now on to fifteen or twenty shorter, easier reads before attempting something arduous.

Almost all of the books I acquired in January were purchased at, or in anticipation of, ConFusion 2024.

Acquisitions

new Books and Reading Material in the Month of January, 2024

  1. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z (Wraithmarked Creative) [2024.01.03] – I have been a fan of Dyrk Ashton’s work for several years. We are Convention friends, and he is a Righteous Dude.
  2. Jean Davis, Frayed (self-published) [2024.01.19] – purchased from Davis at ConFusion 2024.
  3. Michael J. DeLuca, Night Roll (Stelliform Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  4. Reckoning: Creativity and Coronavirus (Reckoning Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  5. Reckoning #6 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  6. Reckoning #7 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  7. Zack Be (editor), Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology (Calendar of Fools, LLC) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Storm Humbert during a group signing at ConFusion 2024.
  8. Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth [2024.01.21] – Purchased at ConFusion 2024.
  9. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.01.21] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by Apex.

Reading List

Books I read in January 2024

Books

  1. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, translators), Demons [2024.01.26]
  2. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2023.01.29]
  3. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2023.01.30]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “The Girls From the Hood” (Patreon post) [2024.01.15]
  2. Rosamund Lannin, “The Lake House”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.26]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “Coyote Cave” (Patreon post) [2024.01.28]
  4. Eliza Langhans, “A Giants’ Heart”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  5. D. A. Xiaolin Spires, “Fresh and Imminent Taste of Cucumbers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  6. Anthony Ha, “Late Train”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  7. Chloe N. Clark, “Jumpers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  8. Nicole Kimberling, “Sugar-Salt Time: A Love Story”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  9. Felix Kent, “Dynastic Arrangements of the Habsburgs, Washakie Branch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  10. Eric Darby, “The Parking Witch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  11. Gavin J. Grant, “Possum, Not Playing”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  12. Jordan Taylor, “Strange Engines”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  13. Audrey R. Hollis, “How to Be Afraid”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  14. Frances Rowat, “Ink, and Breath, and Spring”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  15. Fred Nadis, “The Giant Jew”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  16. Amber Burke, “In Pictures”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  17. T.S. McAdams, “Duck Circles”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  18. Margo Lanagan, “More Information to Help You Get to Rookwood”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  19. Mary Cool, “The Fruit That Bears the Flowers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  20. Lisa Martin, “Seat Belt On, Falling”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  21. Jeff Benz, “The Stone People”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  22. Nicole Kimberling, “We Should See Less of Each Other”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  23. Michael Byers, “Sibling Rivalry”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]

An Illusion of Normalcy

John Winkelman

Reading material from the week of March 6, 2022

Two years after the office closed, I am back to working downtown two or three days a week. Being able to spend extended hours out of the house has improved my state of mind substantially, though the office, and indeed much of downtown right now, feels comparatively deserted.

This week’s new reading material comes courtesy of two Kickstarter campaigns.

First up is the latest issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which always delivers excellent short fiction.

Next is War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton, in the limited edition hardcover, next to the box which fits the complete hardcover trilogy. I have been a fan of Dyrk’s work since I first met him at ConFusion back in…2016? He had just published the first volume of his Paternus trilogy. The completion of the hard-cover boxed set feels like the end of an era, and I have heard rumors that Ashton is working on something new. Based simply on that rumor, I am already looking forward to reading it.

In reading news, I am still working my way through Seth Dickinson’s The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. I am enjoying it, but wow, is this a long book. I also got an early start in working my way through all of my back issues of Poetry Magazine, starting with issue 207.1, publishing in October 2015. I have 40 more issues after this one, not counting whatever shows up as I work my way through the stack.

In writing news, not a lot to report for this past week. I have been too distracted by the goings-on in Ukraine to be able to focus on creating new work. Like living in a global pandemic, adjusting to the reality of living in World War III will take time, but eventually I will be able to tell stories around a trash fire which will be the only source of light and warmth in the plague-ridden nuclear winter which will surely be our new normal in the coming decade.