Gonna sit outside and finish this book while I drink tea. I managed to get today‘s run in (at 4:00 instead of first thing), but I ain‘t good for much else tonight. Fingers crossed whatever bug I picked up has about run its course.

Jackie Lau romcom + more excellent Fiasco gelato. (I‘ve had it for a few days, which is why there‘s so little left. It‘s DELICIOUS, people.)

Now I‘ve read 1.5 of her books, I think I can say Lau‘s gonna be one of those romance writers where I like the characters as individuals but I never invest in them as a couple. Oh well. Natalie and her family are interesting enough that I‘ll still finish this.

I think I can squeeze #friyayintro in before I fall asleep.

1. I got some good writing done, I read two 5-star books in a row, and I fell for a delightful culinary drama from Taiwan.

2. Sleep a lot and read stuff and watch the abovementioned drama. Casey‘s got puppy school, too.

Today was UNPLEASANT, as predicted. It took me until about 11:30 to fully wake up, and I felt crappy alllllll day. Now I‘m headed to bed at 9:00.

Still, I managed to revise stuff and hit my FitBit goals and do some #audiocooking come suppertime. Spicy sausage & tofu scramble with greens makes for a great standby, especially since my Superstore had sausages for super cheap today. I got 28 for $2.70. Should keep me going for a while!

It‘s one of those mornings where I CANNOT wake up, so I had a second cup of coffee in my mug that lies. No results so far. Hopefully the caffeine‘s just biding its time.

I want to say a few things about this anthology, but I can‘t make the words go in the right order. It‘s good. Way better than I expected, given [a probably simple idea I can‘t make come out in a coherent fashion. Today‘s gonna be awful. Maybe I have a cold?].

I basically want to quote this entire book.

Thursday night book stack. I dipped into THE BOOK OF NEGROES yesterday evening and to be honest, I‘m not sure Hill‘s syntax and I are gonna get along, but it‘s one of my May Must-Reads and I want to give it a proper go. Fingers crossed I fall so hard for it I can‘t believe I ever had any doubts.

Sometimes I make fancy meals and sometimes I just plunk a bunch of my favourite Japanese rice seasoning on basmati.

Then I eat it while I read engaging musical nonfiction. This book is doing it for me in a big, big way, y‘all. Warner‘s take on Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan has got me thinking critically about how I react to music now vs when I was a teenager.

I don‘t think I‘ve ever done a #thursdaysurvey before.

1. Hot weather. Bring on the 40° afternoons!

2. I dunno. I‘m excited for Annabeth Albert‘s next Alaska book, but that‘s out in late spring, not in summer.

3. Cherries!!!!! I also like to drink Tsingtao when it gets really hot.

4. The air temperature hit 42.2 in 1936, while humidex climbed to 48 in 2007. That was a durned good summer.

5. Y‘all know tagging people makes me anxious.

It was miserable yesterday and it‘s supposed to be miserable again tomorrow, but Casey and I had a great #audiowalk today! He sniffed a million things and met an Irish Setter puppy named Rover.

DAMN, y‘all. I had the time of my frickin life reading about Kingsley having the time of HIS frickin life infiltrating a sex cult. Young King is hilarious and sweet and super willing to sleep with anyone (except Nazis. Dude‘s got standards.) The result is the most delightful piece of erotica ever.

Things do take a more melancholy turn in the back half, but everything fits beautifully—with LOTS of meat for established Original Sinners fans. ❤️❤️❤️

I always struggle to review the books that hit me just right, which is why I‘ve sat on REVERB for days. I can‘t stop thinking about it as an affecting romance between two cool people, as a glorious smorgasbord of MOMENTS, and as the culmination of an amazing series about a found family of queer rock stars.

It‘s that last one I keep coming back to. REVERB is definitely Mish and David‘s story, but their romance is all tied up with their feelings ⬇️

Damn you, ebook discounts! I got a kick out of Jackie Lau‘s second Chin-Williams romance, so OF COURSE I had to nab the first one when I saw it was on for $0.99. (It‘s one of those romance series you can read in any order.)

Yet another breakfast reading session that made me wish I could keep at it allllllll day. THE CHATEAU is simply the most delightful piece of erotica I‘ve ever read. I‘ve got 40% left and there‘s a good chance I‘ll finish it in one sitting once I‘m free to do so.

I think I‘m gonna drink one Queer Beer with every queer book I read for the next little bit (ie, until I‘ve drunk the whole 6-pack.)

I took an #audiowalk through the aspen parkland to get the rest of my daily exercise in. I‘ve now hit all my Fitbit goals except calories burned, and I know those‘ll tick over before the end of the day.

I was smart enough not to start THE CHATEAU by Tiffany Reisz right before bed, but digging in over breakfast was also a colossal mistake. I just wanna read all day, but I‘m obliged to do other things. Boo.

This is what I look at when I #audiorun indoors: a winged mermaid kite I bought on Karangahape Road with some gift money I was forbidden to spend on anything practical. I need a better way to display her.

This morning‘s run went really, really well; a nice surprise after I had to take a week off due to my most hated body part being awful. Fingers crossed this keeps up.

I stopped on top of this hill to read two more chapters of WE OUGHTA KNOW, watch the prairie dogs, and listen to some music. The last few tracks of Led Zeppelin IV started me off, followed by Taylor Swift‘s 1989.

This book is great: scholarly, personal, and highly readable, with lots of responses I can interrogate and argue with. It‘s been a while since I read nonfiction I could approach this way, and I didn‘t realize how much I missed it.

I took a nice, long #audiowalk after I finished reading with my eyeballs. Gotta build up another FitBit streak now I‘m pain-free again.

I have INTENSE VICTORIA DAY PLANS. First I‘m gonna finish REVERB, which I couldn‘t do last night because I got sucked into a Taiwanese culinary dramedy. Once that‘s done, I‘ll tackle more SILVER SPOON. And my love for this series made me realize I hardly ever read musical nonfiction, so I‘m gonna dip into WE OUGHTA KNOW, Andrea Warner‘s look at four seminal Canadian singers from the 90s.

I know it looks like I spent the whole day eating things while I read REVERB, but alas, this was not the case. I passed the 50% mark during my massive supper, though, and I‘m so in love with the book that I‘m pretty sure I‘ll be reading it until 2am.

Tonight‘s beer was Red Roof Lager, which I figured was mostly a gimmick for Salisbury House, our big MB breakfast/burger joint. It‘s actually delicious; citrusy and drinkable, especially with curry.

And here‘s a rare selfie to show off today‘s #audiodying efforts. It‘s nice and blue again, but the dye didn‘t take well on the ends—it never does with my hair, in defiance of all convention—and there‘s one troublesome patch on the back of my head that doesn‘t like to absorb colour either. Luckily it won‘t really show when I wear my hair up, which I‘ve been doing most days in a last-ditch effort to keep the ends from breaking so often.

I took a 5-mile #audiowalk this afternoon, partly for exercise and partly because I needed batteries. The abandoned golf course featured prominently.

My lunchtime attempt to salvage some dodgy eggplant failed. Blah. On to dessert: a meringue disc topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Book on the side, as per usual.

I finally started my MISTBORN reread while I applied my hair dye. None of the selfies I attempted were remotely acceptable, so here‘s a photo of the dye box in lieu of. I love how it turned out last time, but it faded quicker than I wanted it to. I‘m hoping it‘ll have better staying power this time, over the fade-out instead of the red/blonde it went atop before. #audiodying

Standard weekend breakfast with strawberries and queer rock star romance. I‘ve gotta re-dye my hair this morning and do a teensy bit more on my bedroom refurbishment project, but then I plan to WALLOW in this awesome book. It‘s tense and sexy and packed with great found family moments, plus lots of vicarious performance highs. Exactly what I wanted.

It‘s the same old story:

ME: okay; I should be done buying books in May!

KOBO: Jenn Burke‘s latest is on for $0.99, today only.

BOOK SAMPLE: Burke‘s Canadian and I‘m set in Toronto, not Nowheresville, USA! Also, you totally loved the Chaos Station series Burke wrote with Kelly Jensen. Buy me. BUY ME.

ME: aw, damn.

I bought a case of Queer Beer last weekend and deliberately left it untouched until I was ready to start REVERB by Anna Zabo. Book/beer pairings are important, y‘all.

The beer‘s great; fruity, as promised, but not sweet. And I‘m loving the book as of 12% in. It feels so good to be back with the band, and to finally get quality time with Mish! I‘m gonna be heartbroken when it ends and I‘ve gotta say goodbye to Twisted Wishes.

I decided to sample some queer books this weekend, and I‘ve finally got a winner! The first scene of GAME CHANGER by Rachel Reid was so cute I didn‘t hesitate to shell out $2 for the full thing.

The others I tried were AMERICAN DREAMER by Adriana Herrera, which started with WAY too much, “As you know, Bob...” for me, and NEW INK ON LIFE by Jennie Davids, which was my tattoo shop nightmare on the page and thus too anxiety-inducing.

Casey‘s first selfie! He‘s helping me finish the last story in this post-apocalyptic anthology.

Y‘all, I‘d be shocked to learn Ellen Kushner‘s SWORDSPOINT wasn‘t an influence on BURNING BRIGHT. The parallels leap out throughout this twisty-turny tale of queer folks roped into a political scheme-fest, but BURNING BRIGHT is also very much its own thing. Scott concerns herself with gaming and info tech; with what art might look like in the distant future; with change when stasis can no longer satisfy. It‘s a slow read but a damned good one. ⬇️

Friday afternoon plans. I‘m gonna finish the comic, then wallow in queer fiction on this Victoria Day long weekend. I‘ve got BURNING BRIGHT to finish, a couple of samples to try, and Anna Zabo‘s latest. ❤️❤️❤️

This week‘s library haul. I went in to pick up KID GLOVES and SILVER SPOON VOL 1, then nabbed THE BLACK GOD‘S DRUMS because it happened to be in the New Books section. Somebody‘d misfiled it under Nonfiction.

It‘s #bookandbeer time! I started BURNING BRIGHT about six months ago and drifted away from it for no good reason. Now I‘m gonna see if I can sink back in.

The beer is The Last Strawberry by Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks out of Richmond, BC, and it‘s quite tasty despite its headless state. It‘s like a fruit beer and a regular beer had a delicious baby; ie, it tastes a bit like kombucha but not a LOT like kombucha, as your average fruit beer does.

I had my take on Nigella Lawson‘s take on Keralan fish curry tonight, with vol 3 of XXXHOLIC on the side.

Nalini Singh‘s latest is all about what makes a marriage work. The leads both believe in their connection, but they‘re under pressure from overinvolved family members and surrounded by examples of torrid romances that soured after the I Do‘s. I loved watching them figure out what they needed to do to carve out their personal HEA, and you‘d better believe I teared up at the end. Singh isn‘t always a winner for me, but she nails it with this one.

I love it when people buy expensive notebooks, use two or three pages (when they use them at all), and donate them to the thrift store so I can nab ‘em for $2. My current journal is an Alice Moleskine from the British Library‘s collection. It has excellent endpapers, and it came with playing card suits stickers as well as the usual Moleskine quality control stuff.

Pain day reading with coffee and companion. It‘s kind of cold out, but I lost a chunk of the morning and I want to get some time outdoors before the thunderstorms hit this afternoon. #caseyplusbooks

For nearly forty pages, I thought DAYS BY MOONLIGHT was the sort of FMALF I simply can‘t connect with: distanced, abstract, dispassionate. Then, all at once, it opened itself up to me and I fell in love on every level with this delightful, horrifying dive into the riches (and poverties) of the human spirit.

The LAYERS here, y‘all! Alexis delves into complex relationships, between individuals and between concepts. He considers key issues like ⬇️

Yeah; I was in the wrong mood for the SF novella, so I finished my poetry collection, read another volume of XXXHOLIC, and started Nalini Singh‘s latest contemporary while I played fetch with Casey and drank more tea.

Tuesday afternoon book stack. I might be in the wrong mood for THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, but I want to give it a shot before I return it unread.

I made it to the abandoned golf course for the first time this year! I‘ve been anxious as all hell today, so I desperately needed some exercise in a nice, green place. #audiowalk

It hit 25 here today! I did basically everything outside, including read more of this strange and wonderful book while I ate a tasty Kind bar Shoppers was clearing out.

Lunchtime poetry with tea, lemon sour cream tart, and coconut wafers. Subtle, under-the-table photobomb by Casey.

Now I‘ll see if I can sink into DAYS BY MOONLIGHT, with some help from my red shadow. #caseyplusbooks

Gonna do some outdoor reading with tea in my excellent new hummingbird mug by Coast Salish artist Wayland Johnny Jr. It‘s from the same collection as the moon mug I bought back in February. I was soooo torn between the two and later regretted not getting both (I had a gift card), but McNally Robinson was sold out by my next trip there. Guess they found this one in some dark corner of the stockroom.

Breakfast with my daily short story.

After I ate I made pie filling, took Casey to puppy school, and bought tart crusts to save some time. (I make great pastry, but there‘s lots of chilling involved and... yeah.) Now Casey needs a walk, after which I MIGHT decide to make today a rest day. I‘ll see how tired I am.

It‘s WARM today, friends! For real!

I ended up hanging around outside a strip mall, waiting for people, so I read the tagged book on my phone while I drank a sparkly lemon iced tea. (I thought about going to Starbucks, but this was only $1.10 on clearance at the local Safeway.)

Captain Marvel was a clue in today‘s crossword! So were the X-Men. I was IN MY ELEMENT!