Will E 124C 41+

I got a silly number of sword and sorcery, heroic fantasy, etc. books in the mail today and yesterday.

Blogging again. This time about Henry Kuttner’s sword and sorcery hero Elak. Conan he ain’t! open.substack.com/pub/williame...

On the one hand, I have written 911 words today. On the other, it’s past noon and I have only gotten out of bed long enough to feed one of my cats.

I have been buying a lot of sword and sorcery anthologies on eBay for, um, research. One of them is currently at the post office in a town called Drain, OR. What a name for a town!

I thought my cat was confronting me demanding breakfast but then she lay down on top of me which is sweet but which will decidedly not lead to a quicker feeding.

BABY IT’S 5:46AM I MUST BE BLOGGING

About to sacrifice myself on an altar of donuts.

Book with a shirtless swordsman on the cover.

Map of Atlantis

In today’s mail: a fan-produced 1985 collection of Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis sword and sorcery stories from Weird Tales 1938-1941. No. 492 of 500 issued. No ISBN. Typewriter-looking text is throughout the whole volume.

I regret to inform you I am listening to the same power metal band I have for the past 20 years instead of working on my writing projects.

Christopher Conn Askew

Christopher Conn Askew (www.instagram.com/sekretcity/)

I blogged about Margaret St. Clair’s 1963 witchy post-apocalyptic science fiction novel Sign of the Labrys. Blessed be! open.substack.com/pub/williame...

I think I am going to try to get back into blogging about science fiction and fantasy. Unless I am overcome with a need to lie bed all day tomorrow, I should have out a new post about a novel by Margaret St. Clair who is one of my favorite mid-century SF/F authors.

A drawing inspired by the novel "Titus Groan" by Mervyn Peake. Titus at his christianing, laying in the open book of ritual and staring up at the viewer with purple eyes

Titus Groan, Heir of Gormenghast

On some kind of inward journey or something. Today I skipped Quaker meeting to sleep all day, read 50 pages of a novel, and listen to 1 hour of an audiobook. On Friday I was triple booked and opted to do none of the above in favor of staying in to read.

We got pie at work today because the president of the board was born on Leap Day.

Evening read—witchy post-apocalyptic cult classic Sign of the Labrys by Margaret St. Clair. St. Clair is one of my favorite short story writers in mid-century SF/F but I haven’t gone deep on her novels. Really liking this one so far.

Why does reading—my great passion—make me sleepy?

Lunch. 🥗🗡️🌻

My cat just swatted over my (fortunately capped) bottle of San Pellegrino water and fled in alarm when it fell down and made a noise.

Ordered this this morning in large part to read your story.

Rereading The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Weirder and more charged with sexual violence than I remembered.

Kierkegaard anthology paired with salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Table setting at my friends’ house tonight

I won at Monopoly tonight fellas!

Sadly my vocabulary has not improved because even when I look up the hoary language he deploys it doesn’t stick with me for lack of repetition. Not convinced he actually wanted the reader to know what all the words mean.

Not sure if this constitutes everything CAS wrote but is certainly enough that I really feel like I’ve dosed something.

Nearing the end of volume four of The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith on Audible. I’ve been going through the volumes at an unsteady pace since 2024. One volume left after this. Lots of huh that was funny or man that was bleak and always a lot of yeah that was weird.

You ever feel like it’s approximately one hour later than you want it to be?

New to my home library: a 1906 Friends’ Book Store edition of Barclay’s Apology (more properly An Apology For The True Christian Divinity Being An Explanation And Vindication Of The Principles And Doctrines Of The People Called Quakers). In pretty pristine condition for a 120 year old book.

Blessed by my friend and neighbor who came over with very little notice at 7AM this morning to help me capture my cat for a teeth cleaning appointment.

Keep having vague memories from childhood of an episode from a later G.I. Joe series where G.I. Joe and Cobra team up to fight against drugs. Real or not real?