Quote by verbal
Holly is wonderful, a thriller, nothing supernatural so far

Some of my favourite King back in the day fit this. The Body (aka Stand By Me) and Shawshank Redemption are both non-supernatural. Maybe I need to try some of his later stuff to break out of my reading rut. I kind of burned out on him at one point and haven't read anything since other than the Dark Tower series.

It is the penultimate day of the work week, the day holy to the great god (or superhero if you swing that way) Thor. So happy Thor's Day, all you peeps.

I've put some Tobermory Grotto on in the coffee pot. Teas are English Breakfast and Sunday Tea.

English baritone folk-pop singer Roger Whittaker was a very popular in my family and I remain fond of his work for that reason even if i don't listen to him much anymore. He passed away recently at 87.

Probably his best known original song is "The Last Farewell".

Petrol still, though I might go electric if I ever need to replace it. That said, the guy who serviced it last year says I should get a lot more years out of it so hopefully it lasts until I move away.

Water the lawn or just rely on the rain?

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning!!! Hope you have a wonderful day ahead.

For coffee, there's some dark roast Nicaraguan from Las Chicas. I've put Red Rose and Earl Grey in the teapots. Cold drinks are mixed up, though I notice they are going down more slowly as Fall finally sets in. Marshmallows and hot chocolate are ordered.

Toying with a story and setting but no idea where to go yet. Probably keep writing and see what happens. So far I've got dinosaur-like predators, a group of refugees who are part of a religious group called the Seveners, and a badass woman with a bolt-action .30-06. I'm thinking this will be a weird Western-fantasy a la King's The Gunslinger but we'll see.

Hot air balloon. At least I'm in a basket. Hanging from the bottom of what is basically a big kite would likely be lethal for me.

Annuals or perennials?

Quote by gillianleeza
He loves super spicy things, so it must be extremely hot.

There's hot and then there's OMGWTF MY MOUTH IS ABLAZE!!!! I haven't that very often. The beef stirfry we had at a roadside restaurant in Szechuan province China, though. Holy hell, the so-called Szechuan cuisine here has nothing on the real thing. Also had yak for dinner one night (there's an ethnic Tibetan enclave in the area where we were) and it was no slouch on the heat, either.

Our government keeps edging closer and closer to adding at least basic dental care to our medicare system but progress is slow. It's only finally happening because the current government is being kept in power by support from the New Democrats who are the party that originated medicare in the first place. My work's health insurance is good for basics but doesn't do much for implants and that sort of thing.

Nice weather here, too, finally. Was a bit meh the last couple days. At least the summer heat is gone, though we didn't get it too bad this year. I shudder at what I was hearing from the US. My heat tolerance is low at the best of times.

Quote by verbal
I might be writing a book.

About the horrors haunting someone with a dead person's bone in their jaw? 😉

Israeli metal band Scardust is led by a powerful singer named Noa Gruman, who also directs the Hellscore choir which sings on their work and works with other bands as well. Their latest single came out today.

I think I've posted lists like this from AP before. Certainly, some of the markets have turned up on their lists multiple times (e.g. Escape Pod, which publishes both print and podcasts with separate arms for s-f, fantasy, and horror). Lots of options here. Got a mystery to sell? Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. A fan of a certain overdone vampire? Dracula Beyond Stoker may be your place. Speculative fiction romance? Heartlines Spec (has the added bonus of being Canadian 😉). So have a look. Maybe there's a place on here for your next story.

https://authorspublish.com/30-magazines-paying-for-genre-fiction/

Scar - Star

Of those two, Tesla but truth be told, I'd rather a small ICE like my Civic (2L 4).

Stargaze at the literal stars or stargaze at the Hollywood variety?

Quote by verbal
Pulling four impacted molars!

Ouch. My son had one done and it was bad enough. I had my wisdom teeth out at 19 but the only other tooth I've had removed was a broken one.

Scam - Scan

What is it with teeth in your family? Vibes to your youngest.

Good morning. Whipping up a pot of Tobermory Flowerpot Island for the coffee drinkers. There's Assam and Red Rose teas as well. Cold drinks looking good.

Later.

Quote by DenimAngel
I have Beignets for a special Sunday treat .

Ape pounces. To hell with bananas, beignets are my favourite food starting with "b". 😉

Quote by DenimAngel
APE tell the marshmallow dealer that he can have 4 boxes of cookies for every 4 cases of marshmallows.. he has a liking for marshmallow chocolate chip cookies .

Sounds fair. I'll see what he says.

Canadian alternative band Metric, fronted by the wonderful singer-songwriter Emily Haines, has a new album looming and there's a couple singles out.

A little cafe music. I've talked about Laufey in the music thread, but her "Live from Home" performances are perfect for a cafe setting, just her and her guitar. This may be my favourite new song of 2023, at least so far.

And this performance of "From the Start", another terrific song from her new album, features a special guest: Her twin sister Junia on violin. Their mother is a violinist as was their maternal grandfather so music is very much in the family.

Seal - Seam

Coffee, we got coffee.

Hmmm. How about some Fire-Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe? Good stuff from London's main local roastery. With that are teapots filled to the tippy-top with Scottish Breakfast and Russian Caravan. Washed the pitchers and refreshed the iced tea and lemonade, though I note they seem to be going down more slowly now. Soda supply is inventoried and restocked.

Hot chocolate season is likely not far off so I'll need to renegotiate the marshmallow supply contract. He's bargaining hard this year but with the quantity we (meaning Sara) use, I think I can get his price down.

Grabs a couple dinos and puts on a green tea.

I've probably raved about First to Eleven on here before. Incredibly talented Gen Z (except the bass player, their former music teacher, who is a millennial) cover band from Erie, Pennsylvania. The three young members (vocals, guitar, drums) also form the indie rock band Concrete Castles where they perform their own compositions. Anyhow, they release a new cover every week and this week it is "Life is a Highway", originally written and performed by Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane. Except they credit Rascal Flatts, who covered it for the movie Cars😕. In any case, F211's cover is solid and actually sounds a lot like Cochrane's original in the end.😋

Quote by verbal
Undiscovered species of dinosaur, Ape?

Yeah, probably. It'll just be a mashup of known ones. Mendallasaurus Imaginarius, eh.

Meal - Veal (which could be a meal)

Hot tub, I think.

Electric bike or electric scooter?

New Scamp? I'm in! Bring on the monkeys and other cute animals.

Good morning, animals, humans, and anything else lurking. Coffee is Tobermory Grotto. There's Irish Breakfast and Sunday Tea in the teapots. Cold beverages are refreshed.

I want a dinosaur in my next story (sorry, Sara, not a cute, friendly one) and I can't find one that fits my parameters, damn it. With so many new species over the past couple decades, you'd think there'd be something. I mean, I could pull a Jurassic Park and distort an existing species (the dilophosaurus and raptors in the original both have issues relative to reality) but I'd rather "keep it real".

I have a vision for a setting right now. A vast forested plain wracked by almost ceaseless storms. Rain in summer, snow in winter, but seemingly perpetually stormy. Why is it like this? Who would live there and why? What stories could I get out of this? Inquiring minds want to know.

Quote by verbal
DEAD PEOPLE’S BONES IN MY JAW,

Meat - Mean

Quote by gillianleeza
It is very quiet here. Not sure why.

Me, neither. Even in terms of stories, there's been only been a dozen since July and nothing over 1000 words since the Bear's last story on July 18. Only one story (again, the Bear) has cracked 100 views since the last comp. The forums have been quiet for a while, too, with only a handful of regulars posting and mostly in social and game threads.

Has me wondering about my writing plans. Is a 4000-5000 word story even going to fly on here anymore? Because that tends to be my minimum for any serious work. Even 2000 might be stretching from what I see.

Ape not happy but ape also not sure what to do. I already link to the site, at least my stories page, from most of my other forum sites and discuss both my writing and occasionally that of others on other sites. I'm off the big platforms, though, and only frequent other forum sites, most of them not terribly much bigger.

Anyhow, there's my rant du jour, I guess.