What’s up with Jotham?
It’s Fall time, and I’m loving the cooling weather, leaves changing colors, and drinking a beverage around the fire pit! This year it also feels like things are getting back to normal with events. It has been a busy month since we last chatted. There was the Printer’s Row Lit Fest. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.
The Sci-Fi Family Day (Discovery World, Milwaukee, WI. This was a lot of fun. I was invited by fellow author M. Ainihi to join her booth (Mary and I have had tables near each other for a few cons). At this Sci-Fi con there were LEGO creators, robots, and we got to explore the museum!
On October 8th, spent the day in Chesterton, IN at the Chesterton Art Center with Georgia Geis (atomic_number14) where she has several pieces in the Mark My Words Show!👏🏽🎉
The exhibit runs until November 29th, so go check all the great art work out, and the large exhibit of Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr letterpress work.
While Georgia was busy in the gallery, X and I decided to take a little walkabout, and to my pleasant surprise I found a record shop (Read more about this below) And more exciting news I have been invited as a guest to MarsCon 2023 (January 13- 15th). I was just sent the email about the panels I can be apart of. So excited and cannot wait to share more.Virginia Beach here I come!
Lastly, I haven’t mentioned much about the Rabbit Hole of Research Podcast because it’s kind of in a holding pattern. The first episode was recorded and research done for the next couple, but it’s been hard finding the time to get things recorded. I’m hopeful in the next couple months can work out a schedule to get this put together.
It’s going to happen!
Okay, that’s it for now, but you can always email or follow me online for real time tracking and to see what craft beers I’m drinking (find me on Untappd @jomega22). As always thank you for your continued support and email or follow me online if you want to say hi! Keep reading to see what I’ve been keeping myself entertained with!
What am I Reading and Listening to:
Comics: Saga:
Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Overall premise: Saga is an epic space opera/fantasy comic book series created by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples, published monthly by Image Comics. The series is heavily influenced by Star Wars, and based on ideas Vaughan conceived both as a child and as a parent. It depicts two lovers from long-warring extraterrestrial races, Alana and Marko, fleeing authorities from both sides of a galactic war as they struggle to care for their newborn daughter, Hazel, who occasionally narrates the series.
I love reading this series, Brian K Vaughan is one of my favorite comic writers and Fiona Staples artwork is magnificent. Volume 9 wrapped up with issue #54, and a promise of future issues after a short break. Well, the short break was a couple years, and i actually forgot about the series until I was on Hoopla, and saw SAGA #55 (Volume 10 55-60).
I think everyone should go start at the beginning of this series, It is fantastic! And you can Read the First Issue Here or find it at your library, local bookstore, or other buying options at IMAGE Comics.
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******** Fiction / Indie-Fiction:
Shawn Burgess (Indie): Ghosts of Grief Hollow
I have mentioned Shawn’s work in other newsletters (Check out the author interview here), but I am excited to read Shawn’s sequel to his debut novel The Tear Collector (Now the Tears of Grief Hollow). Please go show some support and preorder Shawn’s book!
Back copy excerpt for ‘Ghosts of Grief Hollow’: “All small towns have secrets, but most small-town secrets don’t try to kill you…
Reeling from a string of brutal murders in the small Appalachian town of Harper Pass, Brooks Raker and friends try to put the horrors of the summer behind them but soon realize their nightmare is far from over. The evil they thought they vanquished remains as unburied as their dead friends.
With the unsettling return of Margo Combs and rumors of a mysterious woman inhabiting the woods, the Markland X Crew is bracing for horrors that are sure to test their will to survive. Even old alliances can’t be counted on to save them this time as Detective Holt is consumed with his own set of problems.
Assuming the mantle of Interim Police Chief, Detective Holt attempts to leave the tragic events of the summer behind, but an unusual disappearance, strange happenings in Grief Hollow, and a horrifying discovery threaten to pull him back into the darkness.
With time running out to fend off disaster, is the emergence of a critical new ally enough to spare the town from its fate, or are some curses too strong not to be sated with blood?”
If you haven’t read Tears of Grief Hallow (Book One) go add it to your TBR-list and get ready for Ghosts of Grief Hollow (Shawn’s website)
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Fiction (Traditional)
Yevgeny Zamyatin : We
I have always loved the subversive utopia/dystopia genre (1984, Fahrenheit 451, Player Piano, Matched, Hunger Games, Divergent, Brave New World, etc), and when I learned about ‘We’ I had to read it. Also, I am currently editing/working with my agent on a dystopia novel, but more on that later. Go check out ‘We’
Back copy excerpt for “We”
”The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia
Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.”
Check out this novel that gave birth to the Subversive Utopia / Dystopia genre.
Non-Fiction:
No New Non-Fiction reads this month.
******* Music/Podcasts: No new Podcast to report: Still catching up on them all! But on the Music Front I discovered a new Record Store in Chesterton, IN, Trusty Spot Records. As I mentioned above I was at the Chesterton Art Center for an art opening featuring several of Georgia’s (atomicnumber14) prints. As Georgia was doing her art thing, I took a walk around downtown Chesterton and found a record shop. Y’all know I love records and I couldn’t resits the large jazz drop they put out. Check out my haul below! I’ll be going back (they ship also, so go check out their website). And just like the Terminator, “I’ll be back!”
Okay, that’s where I’m at. I’ll try to update y’all every month on books, comics, and music (podcasts) that I’ve been digging! I’ll try to add some indie author reads! Email me and let me know what you’ve been into and what I should check out! Or follow me online for more realtime updates: Jotham’s Social Links
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