natsinator

Well I already slightly fell off the bandwagon on these but lol what is life other than climbing out of the hole which resembles the grave but isn't.

Posting Update
Two things to report since we last spoke :)

The Words, Graven In the Wall With a Nail, Were Still Legible in 1848 - 3,052 words

In my quest to write my least popular fic ever, I've combined Poplan+Konev (unpopular combination of characters) with an absolutely unhinged title. It's sitting at 20 hits which even for the logh tag is a spectacularly pathetic showing lmao. I knew this would happen and yet I did it anyway. It was my Galactic Santas gift, which makes it the second year I've written a Poplan/Konev fic 🤔 Anyway it was fun for me to write-- Poplan is a very easy voice for me-- though I think I got Konev wrong. Graffiti, and the idea of leaving a mark on a place to memorialize some kind of relationship or feeling, is kinda a motif for me. Yan and Sylva do it in ItSoH + my short story 'A Thousand Lifetimes Away' is like About That. There may be more but I'm drawing a blank haha.

Serpent's Mouth, Serpent's Teeth - Chapter Twenty-One - Matthew 5:29-30 - 5,203 words

The thematic crux of this chapter, connecting Reuenthal's eyes and Oberstein's, is one that I've been mulling over for aaaages. Probably more than a year. I jumped at the chance to put it here because I needed something to "say" with this chapter beyond communicating the bare essentials of the plot, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I did it. I give myself permission to, if I figure out how to express it better, write this idea again in the future. This isn't a bad chapter at all-- I like a lot of things about it-- it just doesn't feel as emotionally weighty as I'd like. idk.

General Writing Update
Not that much to report other than that I haven't been souper productive, and also I'm in the throes of the feeling "please please oh lord let me be finished with SMST". but the only way out is through! anyway I re-outlined the back half of the novel, which I think was very helpful b/c it cleared up a bunch of things that were like "this needs to happen but I only know the events and not their motivations", so now I think everything has a fairly logical progression. The one bummer is that I am going to have to go back and retcon a bunch of dates from LOFTT b/c I gave myself too much space that I cannot physically fill. lol.

anyway!

Media
I finished three books in the space since I last updated you.

The Iliad - Homer - tr Robert Fitzgerald

I liked it a lot. Probably the best Iliad translation I've read-- very "clean" feeling idk. It's blank verse and not rhymed which is kinda a bummer (I'm a sucker for rhyme) but I think it's extremely readable and easy to pick up. Probably the translation I'll consult for reference.

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka - tr. Susan Bernovsky

It was a gnawing shame in my life that I had never gotten around to reading any Kafka before, so I decided to correct that gap. My opinion: I get the hype but I think I'll have to find another longer book by Kafka to get "him" rather than just getting the one book that gets assigned in hs lit classes lol.

Shubeik Lubeik - Deena Mohamed - tr. from Arabic by the author

Really good! Probably my favorite of this set if I'm being honest. It's been a while since I've read a graphic novel and this one really hit. Made me cry lol. But that's because I'm honestly a sucker for certain types of targeted sentimentality lol. But 'targeted' is the best word to describe this one I think-- like the author knows exactly what she's trying to do, and she goes for it with laser focus. It's right on the border of heavy handed, but I think the writing is very good and the art is beautiful. The one real ding I have is that the author has insisted on a bunch of little 'translator's notes' which... are incredibly condescending in tone lol. But overall a strong strong recommend on this one.

I'm currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'll report back next time.

Life Update
Spent 2 grand to take a community college course for reasons that sound dumb if I articulate them, so I shan't. Work continues to suck. I had my physical today and the doctor said my foot hurts because I'm anxious, which is a new one. There's a reason I didn't go to a doctor for a decade lol. I think I failed to schedule a follow-up but whatever.

Anyway I'm trying to not spend money, since i had that aforementioned big expense, but I really need a new pair of shoes (every pair I own is falling apart [🎵and tearing at the seams heaven forbid you end up alone and don't know whyyyyyy🎵]). I feel like i should Invest in a nice pair that will last but oh my god. I hate spending money lol.

I haven't been on top of things recently. Sad!

What's On the Docket?