Aug 28 2024

Smalltown Tales by Iain McCaig

I am genuinely vexed that this is the first time that I, a pop culture maximalist, have ever heard of Iain McCaig. Ofc, as I was just discussing with another Learned League Llama yesterday, my mind dwells more on story than on details, but it still seems bizarre to me that this name has never stuck in my brain as being well worth noticing, the way so many other artists’ and storytellers’ have. Have I just never encountered him before, or at least not in a context where his name was ever given?

Regardless, I love how the back bio of this book describes Mr McCaig as someone who encourages people to draw and tell stories, because that is 100% what I felt like doing after finishing this book. Between this, Zoje Stage’s Dear Hanna and Tim Hutchings’ A Collection Of Improving Exercises, I am starting to want to get back into sketching again. My art has definitely fallen by the wayside this summer — and who has time! Not me! — but the gorgeous pencil and charcoal works in this book remind me of how much I enjoy drawing, even tho my art is nowhere near the level of this author’s.

Pencil and charcoal aren’t the only mediums he uses tho. Inks, pastels and watercolors are all applied to excellent effect here, along with other techniques that I couldn’t necessarily pinpoint. But whether drawing mermaids, aliens, dinosaurs or ghosts, all the work is phenomenal, with an uncanny eye for light, especially, that sets his work apart. Even his grotesque drawings are possessed of an uncanny beauty, the kind of majesty that compels the gaze and refuses to let you look away.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/28/smalltown-tales-by-iain-mccaig/

Aug 27 2024

Red Tundra by Mike Pohjola

a story for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. With illustrations by Krzysztof Bieniawski, Gabriel de Goes Figueiredo and Maichol Quinto.

Not only did I manage to snag a copy of this adventure on Free RPG Day 2024, I also had the good luck to have someone run it for me so I could get a better feel for the game! I’ve always loved the World Of Darkness titles, whether giggling over people’s Vampire: The Masquerade stories, getting to actually play in a Changeling: The Dreaming LARP, or watching the brilliant treatment of Mage: The Ascension by Mikaela Sims. It’s just so hard nowadays to find people who want to play anything but D&D. Yes, I know I was super spoiled in being able to play multiple systems twice weekly throughout my mid-twenties to -thirties. And scheduling games nowadays is hard enough without building a learning curve into the process. I just get a little wistful sometimes, wishing I could RP something that isn’t high fantasy, as much fun as that is with my usual gaming circles (and yes, I know I’m lucky in that I have more than zero of those!)

Which is all to say that when the one guy stepped up and offered to run this adventure for me and another forlorn soul at Game Kastle College Park on Free RPG Day, we were overjoyed. Neither of us players were familiar with the game itself but our Storyteller was well prepared, even bringing reusable character sheets then showing us how to use clear tape and whiteboard markers to make our own! While those sheets were copied directly from the Red Tundra booklet, he also had handy player aids on the basic mechanics of W:tA for us, that were super useful when we were making decisions over the course of the game. I’m not sure where he got them from, tho they did look pretty official. I couldn’t find anything like them on the publisher’s website, alas. Perhaps they came in a download packet specific to STs for the event? Regardless, I rather wish Red Tundra was available as a download from Renegade Game Studios too — for free or otherwise — as other publishers do with their Free RPG Day offerings.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/27/red-tundra-by-mike-pohjola/

Aug 26 2024

An Honest Woman: A Memoir Of Love And Sex Work by Charlotte Shane

Being a complicated woman who tries to deal with myself honestly, it wasn’t a surprise to me that a lot of what Charlotte Shane has to say in her memoir about sex work is stuff I’ve already thought about. Honestly, it’s stuff that most, if not all, thoughtful non-sex-worker-exclusionary feminists have grappled with too. At the heart of the issue, ofc, is the role of marriage in a patriarchal society, and how the concepts of sex and fidelity are deeply bound to it within those structures.

Ms Shane examines these concepts through the lens of her own time as a sex worker, and what led her to choose it as a profession. Unsurprisingly, there is a terrible father in her background. More intriguingly is the relatively good luck she’s had with men otherwise, from the boys she befriended and messed around with in high school, to the clientele she cultivated (or blocked when they behaved badly) as her career grew and changed from cam girl to exotic masseuse to escort.

Tho she’s undoubtedly undergone some unpleasant encounters with awful men, what’s most striking about her account is how the stories from her professional life mirror the love lives of modern women who don’t have purely transactional relationships with men. While she doesn’t congratulate herself on how she’s at least made money off of experiences that have left most women with, at best, bittersweet memories — she does an excellent job of evading anything even remotely close to smugness throughout, thank goodness — it’s impossible to read her book and not feel like women who aren’t sex workers too easily give away their time and care and emotions to men who just aren’t worth it.

At the heart of this injustice is the assumption that emotional labor is something that women should provide for the men in their lives regardless of what they receive in return. In her memoir, Ms Shane is clear-eyed about what she gets out of the company of the men she chooses to spend time with, before and after embarking on her career path. It’s honestly refreshing. Relationships should always have give and take, and even when both parties aren’t sure of what they really want, they should always strive to treat each other fairly, as the author and most of her men in this book do.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/26/an-honest-woman-a-memoir-of-love-and-sex-work-by-charlotte-shane/

Aug 23 2024

Tantalizing Tales — August 2024 — Part Two

We have a bumper issue for the second part of our monthly roundup this August, beginning with a book that I did get to read this month but didn’t feel quite merited an entire post of its own.

Yahgz Vol 2: The Gwash War by Art Baltazar of Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy fame was another vivid, humorous installment of the children’s graphic novel series. A lot of stuff happens in it as our intrepid heroes traverse the planet, hoping to save the capital city from their mortal enemies. Even as some of them attempt to hold the vengeful Gwash at bay, the others seek out twin objects that could hold the secret to stopping the Gwash for good.

Despite the abundant plot, I felt that this installment felt far more like a bridge from the interesting first volume to whatever is planned for Book 3. Mr Baltazar’s art is kinetic, fun and cartoony, but so much is crammed into this book that none of it feels important as anything more than a means to an end. I’ll definitely be interested in seeing where he goes in the next volume: hopefully, it will have enough meaningful content for me to be able to devote an entire review to!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/23/tantalizing-tales-august-2024-part-two/

Aug 22 2024

Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning

I cannot be the only person who has the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song run through their head every time they come across the words of this title. Tho as I write this review, I’m listening to the horror-movie-soundtrack oeuvre of Isabel LaRosa, while shivering slightly in the unseasonable (and thankfully temporary) chill of local weather. While I’m glad it’ll warm up again soon, the weather and music combine to make the perfect atmosphere for this excellent spooky season read.

After being cancelled for an injudicious tweet — one that’s received a backlash so bad, it’s cost our primary narrator her job, her fiance and her savings — the sitcom actress most famed for her role as the perennially peppy Willow checks into Camp Castaway. The remote retreat for adults advertises itself as a place for people to unplug from all their electronics while getting back to nature and undergoing a little group therapy in the process. Attendees are encouraged to assume aliases upon arrival. Our narrator, having been too panicked and overwhelmed to read through all the promotional material her agent pressed on her before getting there, unthinkingly chooses Willow as her alter ego.

This is kind of a Freudian slip, because in many ways the actress does aspire to be more like Willow. But she’s also hiding secrets that she’s starting to believe might not be worth keeping buried any more. Ironically, she’s in a place filled with secrets, and not just because the other campers all carry guilty burdens of their own. Camp Castaway has its own sordid history, that Willow starts to piece together after a series of unsettling events begins to befall them. Another camper vanishes after telling the rest of the group the local legend of the murderous Knock-Knock Nancy, and Willow finds a creepy doll’s head in her cabin, with a threatening note tucked inside. There couldn’t actually be a vengeful spirit haunting the woods around Camp Castaway, could there? But when the bodies start piling up, and the heads literally start rolling, Willow and her new friends will have to do everything in their power to defeat a ghostly killer and survive.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/22/heads-will-roll-by-josh-winning/

Aug 21 2024

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones

One of the weird things about reading an author’s entire body of work from the start of their oeuvre, especially if you’ve already cherry picked parts of it as a lifelong avid reader, is that you can see the themes develop throughout the creator’s lifetime and echo back and forth through the books. Dogsbody, for example, feels very much like the precursor for The Game, tho feels far more successful as a novel. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I revisit the latter book, but for now Dogsbody impresses me as being superior, tho definitely still not without its flaws.

The story revolves around the luminary inhabiting the star Sirius, who’s known throughout the novel by the name of his star. Hot-headed Sirius is convicted of murder and, perhaps more gravely, of losing the weapon he used to kill his fellow luminary — both charges which he denies. The Zoi, as it’s known, has fallen to Earth, a planet belonging to the minor luminary Sol. As Sirius’ punishment, he’s sentenced to be reborn as a mortal on Earth. If he can retrieve the Zoi during his mortal incarnation’s lifetime, then he’ll be reinstituted as a luminary. But if he dies, he dies.

After the trial, Sirius awakens in the body of a newborn puppy. The vexed owner of his purebred mother decides to toss the majority of the mongrel litter into the river. Sirius is rescued downstream by Kathleen, an Irish girl who’s been sent to live with her distant English relatives. Mr Duffield, her uncle, is kind but oblivious, while his wife Duffie resents Kathleen with a burning passion. The Duffield’s youngest son Robin tries to be an ally, but the older son Basil is casually disdainful of her in the way of all self-absorbed teenagers.

Kathleen is determined to keep Leo for her own, begging Duffie to let her have him in exchange for doing most of the housework. As Sirius grows and bonds with Kathleen, he gradually becomes more aware of why he’s on Earth and what he must do, even as forces work against both his and Kathleen’s happiness. Will he be able to retrieve the Zoi and save Kathleen from a life of drudgery and abuse?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/21/dogsbody-by-diana-wynne-jones/

Aug 20 2024

Tower, Vol 1 by Camrus Johnson & Kelsey Barnhart

with art by ChrisCross and Loyiso Mkize, and colors by Andrew Dalhouse.

Imagine waking up in the middle of a video game, and not a fun one with multiple save points and animal friends either. Okay, so there are animal companions to be found in the titular Tower where the game takes place, but our contestants don’t find that out for a while (and these companions really aren’t the cute and cuddly kind.) In the meantime, the players all have to figure out how to survive and win whatever this competition is, even as many of them hope that this really is just a video game, and that when they kill another contestant it’s not actually for real.

That’s what happens to Casandra, Kimi and Mac, the three main viewpoint characters of this comic book series. Casandra is so disoriented at waking up under such strange circumstances that she isn’t even able to grab a weapon before running from her starting zone to find answers. She attempts to make allies by defusing fights, eventually recruiting a small team to travel together through the computer-generated maze of the tower that they’re trapped in. But as they each slowly begin to remember how they got here, distrust and the desire to win unravel whatever fragile bonds they’ve built, even as killers in the guise of computer errors stalk the hallways, destroying contestants for their own mysterious purposes.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/20/tower-vol-1-by-camrus-johnson-kelsey-barnhart/

Aug 19 2024

The Duchess Of Kokora by Nikhil Prabala (EXCERPT)

We have another great excerpt for you, readers, with a YA fantasy perfect for fans of Bridgerton and The Selection! Ngl, as soon as I read this, I knew I had to cram it into my already overstuffed work schedule, but since I still haven’t yet found the time, here’s a taster for the rest of you!

Queer romance is front and center, with tension at every turn, as a young noblewoman’s pursuit of true love takes a far-reaching turn that could have consequences for more than just her own kingdom. The Duchess of Kokora, Phera Ylir Mdana herself, has entered the marriage games of the neighboring kingdom of Ryene. But she’s not there to woo the dashing Prince Dominic. Her true objective? To win back one of the other contestants, Lady Rocelle Virae — Phera’s true love and ex-fiancee. Love proves to be a game like any other when Phera must not only mend matters with her childhood sweetheart, but conceal her true intentions in order to earn votes and stay in the competition.

As long-brewing political tensions simmer beneath the surface, the playful veneer of the competition begins to crack. Phera, Dominic and Rocelle soon find themselves united in a desperate bid to prevent a duel that threatens the integrity of the kingdom, the stability of the continent, and any hope of a happily ever after.

Read on for an excerpt that will likely endear the charming Duchess to you as much as it has to me!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/19/the-duchess-of-kokora-by-nikhil-prabala-excerpt/

Aug 16 2024

Reborn by Abraham Rodriguez

On the one hand, I’m happy for the interest in poetry that the viral success of Rupi Kaur has brought mainstream. On the other, well, you get the feeling that everyone feels that they can write poetry now.

And yes, to a certain extent, everyone can write poetry. But too often writers confuse epigraphs with epigrams, and churn out the former while utterly convinced that they’re producing the latter. Abraham Rodriguez is a talented performer and a writer with plenty of potential who has also, alas, fallen victim to this mindset. There are some really good poems in this second collection of his, but there are also several baffling choices in the shorter works that speak, I believe, to his relative youth (he’s 24!) and perhaps to a need for a more rigorous cutting process, if not outright rethinking of the shape of the finished book.

Honestly, as I was reading this collection, I kept feeling less like it was a completed entity and more like the blueprint for what could be a really impressive memoir or novel in verse. The progression of the poems goes from Mr Rodriguez’s childhood; his struggles with the church and the abuse he suffered; the pleasures and heartbreak of sex and romance, and his experiences in Hollywood, as well as the body image issues he suffered as someone who must, of necessity, trade on his looks to succeed. He writes on all these subjects with honesty and raw emotion, so there’s no doubting the creative core that lies at the heart of this endeavor. But while this collection works just fine altogether, too few of the poems are capable of standing alone. “Welcome to the closet” and “Counting my calories” are fortunately some of the stronger pieces. “Whose fault is that?” and “We take turns”, on the other hand, aren’t anywhere near as clever as they’re trying to be.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/16/reborn-by-abraham-rodriguez/

Aug 15 2024

A Phone Call Away by Rich Douek & Russell Mark Olson

Interestingly, the cover only credits the artist as Russell Olson, perhaps due to space and legibility issues. Full credit to this creative team for one of the best crime comics I’ve ever read, tho! And, given the sheer amount of crime fiction I read, that is saying a lot!

A Phone Call Away is the story of the Walker family, who survived the unimaginable to turn their grief into a fight for kids worldwide. Fourteen years ago, Emma and Andrew Walker were your typical young couple with a six year-old kid, Mandy. When Mandy was kidnapped and her mutilated body found a week later, the Walkers were catapulted into the national spotlight. Seizing the opportunity, the Walkers used the attention to build not only their careers but a charitable foundation named after their late daughter. After several years, they also had another child, Meghan, whose upbringing has been documented on their wildly popular reality TV show, Second Chances.

So when they go to wake Meghan on the morning of her sixth birthday and find her gone, it’s the worst kind of deja vu. Someone has clearly broken in and taken her, but who? As the cracks in their picture-perfect facade begin to widen, a group of people still affected by — if not downright obsessed with — what happened to Mandy fourteen years ago converge in order to uncover the truth… and hopefully save a little girl’s life in the process.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/15/a-phone-call-away-by-rich-douek-russell-mark-olson/