TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE October/25 - Out the other side, alive.
And also, links, books, and-PREORDER EVERFROST TPB NOW, PLEASE!
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2021 -- beyond.
Changed.
Okay, I’ve spent a week in my new teaching role. I love it. The focus of the week has been creative writing, and film analysis, and I felt completely in my element for both.
I’ll admit, there’s a healthy amount of trepidation about completely changing my dayjob this far along into my career. I have a job and a role I know I am good at. I can phone it in and survive, I can push myself and excel, and there’s not quite an element of easy [I never make anything easy for myself], but there was definitely an element of safety about it all. You do something for 18 years, you should be pretty comfortable in that role.
But the lure of teaching English and Literature was strong. The desire to only handle content I’m really passionate about was strong. The other elements of: a new teaching system, new data and processes, a new school and staff, and very different students [age and ability] were all things that have the shine of scary that anything new does.
And yet, I weighed it all up and decided it was worth it, so I’ve taken the plunge. Just 8 hours into this new teaching role and I knew it was for me. Heck, I think I knew it after 4. There’s a kind of satisfaction that comes from pushing yourself, into an unknown, and realising you were right: the preparation and consideration I put into this role were right, I love it and I think can become very good at it.
I have the rest of this year to teach out, just a few weeks, and then I should get the chance to start planning for next year, and beyond. This is where I should be given enough rope, and that’s what I'm looking forward to. Not just a challenge, but a decree: go and explore. This is where I want to do my best work.
Now, shaking up an 18 year career should be enough for me, I should give it my focus, I should understand that I will be overwhelmed and as such should give myself a break and just focus on two things: the new job, and my mental health.
I am trying, I promise.
But I’m also still slightly keeping the grind alive. I received a rejection on a pitch from a publisher I’m still trying to crack, but they also had some nice feedback. So I’m currently polishing the next pitch - it’s actually a story I’ve been keen on telling for over half a decade, so I’m seeing what shine is in it and what I can do now to make it even better.
When I first pitched this story, I had but only a few publishers at which I had the in of being able to pitch text-only submissions. That scope has expanded, and my passion for the project hasn’t declined, so I’ll see what I can come up with in the next fortnight, or so. The world is there, I just need to ensure my story matters the most within it. This is often the fun and exploratory phase, where I ask loads of questions into my notebook, so I’ll do my best to tinker and enjoy it.
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Using StoryGraph now.
I’ve used GoodReads for...ever? That’s the place I track my reading. But I’m bouncing out of there purely because it is owned by Amazon and their shady employment practises leave, well, everything to be desired, so I’ll just do the one thing I can to make any kind of stand on this - I’ll stop using their products.
I’ve spoken before about not buying from Amazon. I think they’re a mammoth capitalist piece of shit. Here’s a decent summary of why!
I’ll hold no sway over them, ever, but we can only do what we can do, so I haven’t bought anything from Amazon in quite a few years. I could look it up and tell you, but I don’t even want to give them the traffic. Alongside this, I’m doing my best to not buy from any of their owned companies, and so also try and support smaller, local businesses. I can afford to do so, and I’m never in that much of a hurry that I need something overnight, so this is my current situation.
GoodReads is Amazon, so it’s out. Instead, I found The StoryGraph and it offers the same things I need - a place to catalogue what I’ve read. That’s really all I’m using this for. I don’t usually engage the social resources of these sites, I don’t do much else, I just have my personal list. Hell, I could do it in a spreadsheet, I suppose. But I do appreciate the suggestions sites like this might put in front of me, so I’ll keep using something.
While The StoryGraph is newer, and so has less people on there, I’m happy just marking off my books read, and curating a To Read pile that is perfect for thinking of gifts for myself, and this place lets me give review rankings to the quarter star, far superior to the GoodReads model.
Okay, that’s enough of that - I think this link works to send you to my profile, you might need to sign in, I don’t know.
But join me over there, if you want. No shade if you don’t.
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ASD&D.
Another week completely missed. My brain consumed by teaching and some writing and what little rest I could find.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
FOREVER WINTER on Kickstarter - this post-apocalyptic comic is huge and looks awesome.
THIRTY-THREE on Kickstarter - this comic about a retired assassin who has some chickens come home to roost looks really good.
FANTASTIC FRIGHTS on Kickstarter - an all ages horror anthology that genuinely looks creepy.
ADVENTURES EVERYWHERE on Kickstarter - an all ages anthology that looks delightful.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
TOO MUCH LIP by Melissa Lucashenko - this Aussie crime/family book is bloody good. I just started the other day, and I’m considering teaching it, so I’m reading it with a highlighter and pencil and seeing what comes up in it. So far, really bloody good. Pulses along like a good crime story should, and it’s laying these roots about the central Bundjalung family from the NSW north coast that are fascinating and really well threaded. Absolutely hooked so far. Whenever I’m itching to get back in a chair and continue a book, I know it’s a winner.
SQUID GAME - I watched the first episode. Yeah, I can see why people would be into this, that’s a good first episode. I do wish I could have watched it not knowing the “twist” of it as that’d be a pretty cool turn. Discover it like the characters do.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
If you’re thinking about preordering the trade paperback collection for EVERFROST, I strongly suggest you do it because it sounds like paper shortages around the world are going to affect how much of anything is printed and I would personally hate for you to miss out.
It lands in December, but you will need to have your order in with your local comic shop by the start of November so they have time to finalise their order numbers and send them up the chain.
To get you excited, here’s a picture of a vinyl soundtrack ad we did in the back of an issue that always makes me smile: