Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 82
December 1, 2020
The Magical Pets are BACK!
In October, I released a pair of anthologies, one F/F and one M/M, featuring magical pets. All proceeds benefit OutRight Action International, which fights for the rights of LGBTIQ people across the world.
The anthologies are delightful if I do say so myself, featuring a new Liavek novelette by Pamela Dean, a novelette by myself about a post-apocalyptic cat cafe, and short stories by Yoon Ha Lee, Tate Hallaway (Lyda Morehouse), Aster Glenn Gray, Damkianna, Ellen Million, and many more fantastic writers. Adorable magical creatures include an amphibious cat who can teleport from one body of water to another, a winged Bichon Frise, a flying cat who transports love letters, a set of spirit creatures straight out of a Miyazaki movie, a talking matchmaking squirrel, and many more.
Unfortunately, the anthologies ran afoul of a truly idiotic Amazon rule saying that anthologies must be labeled with the exact word "collection" and not "anthology." A sequence of bureaucratic idiocies later, the anthologies-I-mean-COLLECTIONS had to be pulled from the store and one of them had to be republished by someone else.
But, happy ending, they're back now. I know some of you meant to review them and couldn't; now you can! And if you meant to buy them, now you can do that too! Please broadcast this far and wide. It's a good cause and I promise you won't regret reading them.
Some injured animals get rescued and there are some ghost characters, but there is no animal death and everyone gets a happy ending.
The books will be released wide in three months. We're still working on paper editions. Please email or message me if you want a review copy or a non-Kindle format.
Her Magical Pet: Benefit F/F Story Collection[image error]
[image error] [image error]
His Magical Pet: Benefit M/M Story Collection[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
The anthologies are delightful if I do say so myself, featuring a new Liavek novelette by Pamela Dean, a novelette by myself about a post-apocalyptic cat cafe, and short stories by Yoon Ha Lee, Tate Hallaway (Lyda Morehouse), Aster Glenn Gray, Damkianna, Ellen Million, and many more fantastic writers. Adorable magical creatures include an amphibious cat who can teleport from one body of water to another, a winged Bichon Frise, a flying cat who transports love letters, a set of spirit creatures straight out of a Miyazaki movie, a talking matchmaking squirrel, and many more.
Unfortunately, the anthologies ran afoul of a truly idiotic Amazon rule saying that anthologies must be labeled with the exact word "collection" and not "anthology." A sequence of bureaucratic idiocies later, the anthologies-I-mean-COLLECTIONS had to be pulled from the store and one of them had to be republished by someone else.
But, happy ending, they're back now. I know some of you meant to review them and couldn't; now you can! And if you meant to buy them, now you can do that too! Please broadcast this far and wide. It's a good cause and I promise you won't regret reading them.
Some injured animals get rescued and there are some ghost characters, but there is no animal death and everyone gets a happy ending.
The books will be released wide in three months. We're still working on paper editions. Please email or message me if you want a review copy or a non-Kindle format.
Her Magical Pet: Benefit F/F Story Collection[image error]
[image error] [image error]
His Magical Pet: Benefit M/M Story Collection[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
November 25, 2020
Black Box
Black Box, directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, is a Twilight Zone-esque work of contemporary science fiction with elements of horror, suspense, and family drama.
Before the movie begins, a car crash shattered a happy family of three, killing the mother and leaving the father with severe damage to both short and long-term memory. We pick up several months later, when Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) is doing his best to care for his adorable daughter Ava (Amanda Christine), but due to the extent of his amnesia, it's more like the other way around. He can no longer work up to his former standard as a photographer, he has no memories of his beloved wife, and he needs a ton of post-it reminders and his daughter's help just to make it through a day.
Desperate, he seeks the help of a doctor with an experimental technique that may be able to unlock his memory. And then things get weird...
The main characters are really likable and have a lovely rapport with each other, the scary bits are nicely scary, the suspenseful bits are really tense, the screenplay is clever and nicely constructed, and the whole movie is very satisfying. All the actors in the almost entirely Black cast are excellent, but Mamadou Athie carries the movie on his shoulders and is especially impressive.
For the horror non-fans, the horror aspect is that the memory technique puts Nolan into his memories, but weird stuff starts to invade them. It's creepy/unsettling/scary rather than gory.
Cut for massive spoilers for the entire movie.
( Read more... )
Free on Amazon Prime. At least it definitely is in the US.
Black Box[image error]
[image error] [image error]
Spoilers OK in comments. If you haven't seen it and want to, don't read the comments.
comments
Before the movie begins, a car crash shattered a happy family of three, killing the mother and leaving the father with severe damage to both short and long-term memory. We pick up several months later, when Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) is doing his best to care for his adorable daughter Ava (Amanda Christine), but due to the extent of his amnesia, it's more like the other way around. He can no longer work up to his former standard as a photographer, he has no memories of his beloved wife, and he needs a ton of post-it reminders and his daughter's help just to make it through a day.
Desperate, he seeks the help of a doctor with an experimental technique that may be able to unlock his memory. And then things get weird...
The main characters are really likable and have a lovely rapport with each other, the scary bits are nicely scary, the suspenseful bits are really tense, the screenplay is clever and nicely constructed, and the whole movie is very satisfying. All the actors in the almost entirely Black cast are excellent, but Mamadou Athie carries the movie on his shoulders and is especially impressive.
For the horror non-fans, the horror aspect is that the memory technique puts Nolan into his memories, but weird stuff starts to invade them. It's creepy/unsettling/scary rather than gory.
Cut for massive spoilers for the entire movie.
( Read more... )
Free on Amazon Prime. At least it definitely is in the US.
Black Box[image error]
[image error] [image error]
Spoilers OK in comments. If you haven't seen it and want to, don't read the comments.
comments
November 24, 2020
Fast Color
If you watch just one movie I review this year, I recommend this one. Unless you're into horror, in which case I recommend adding His House and Us - sorry, they're all so fantastic that I can't choose between them.
It's about three generations of Black women with psychic powers in a world that's been hit by an apocalypse which is not plague, and yet will seem familiar in that life has been both profoundly affected, and is still ordinary; people still listen to music, and do chores, and get in fights with their moms. Fast Color is simultaneously thoughtful science fiction, a deeply satisfying low-key superpower movie with very likable characters, and a moving family drama about generational trauma and healing. The acting is fantastic, it's beautiful to look at, and it will heal your heart.
The story begins when Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, pictured in my icon) arrives in a motel with a look in her eyes like hell's on her heels. She hurriedly checks in after a brief negotiation over water, which establishes two things: this isn't quite our world, but a near-future one in which a severe drought has been going on long enough for everyone to get used to dealing with it, and that she is both desperate and broke. Once she's in her room, we learn that she has out-of-control psychic powers, and that she's not just fleeing from people who want to capture her, but from herself and her past.
The past, of course, always finds you. After some adventures which I won't spoil, she ends up back in her ancestral home, with her own mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney, of the late lamented (if only by me) The Passage), who she never knew. All three of them have powers, which are of a sort I've never quite seen before in fiction. The way they're filmed is absolutely beautiful, very original, and yet satisfyingly familiar in that they have ALL my favorite tropes about psychic powers. This would be a great fandom for psychic power-related hurt-comfort, for instance.
One of my favorite subgenres is people with superpowers just living their lives; lighting fires with a flick of their fingers to cook their lunch, trying to raise their kids when their kids are telekinetic and the wider world hates and fears them, airing family grievances over the dinner table until it gets so heated that a plate explodes. X-Men comics were great for having bits and stories like that in the downtime between saving the world. And now I have an entire movie about it. There's a big-picture aspect as well, but even in the big action sequences, it's still all about character and community and relationships, not explosions.
I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find it on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
I saw it too late to request it for Yuletide myself, but a couple other people did. Hopefully some fic will appear.
Fast Color[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
It's about three generations of Black women with psychic powers in a world that's been hit by an apocalypse which is not plague, and yet will seem familiar in that life has been both profoundly affected, and is still ordinary; people still listen to music, and do chores, and get in fights with their moms. Fast Color is simultaneously thoughtful science fiction, a deeply satisfying low-key superpower movie with very likable characters, and a moving family drama about generational trauma and healing. The acting is fantastic, it's beautiful to look at, and it will heal your heart.
The story begins when Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, pictured in my icon) arrives in a motel with a look in her eyes like hell's on her heels. She hurriedly checks in after a brief negotiation over water, which establishes two things: this isn't quite our world, but a near-future one in which a severe drought has been going on long enough for everyone to get used to dealing with it, and that she is both desperate and broke. Once she's in her room, we learn that she has out-of-control psychic powers, and that she's not just fleeing from people who want to capture her, but from herself and her past.
The past, of course, always finds you. After some adventures which I won't spoil, she ends up back in her ancestral home, with her own mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney, of the late lamented (if only by me) The Passage), who she never knew. All three of them have powers, which are of a sort I've never quite seen before in fiction. The way they're filmed is absolutely beautiful, very original, and yet satisfyingly familiar in that they have ALL my favorite tropes about psychic powers. This would be a great fandom for psychic power-related hurt-comfort, for instance.
One of my favorite subgenres is people with superpowers just living their lives; lighting fires with a flick of their fingers to cook their lunch, trying to raise their kids when their kids are telekinetic and the wider world hates and fears them, airing family grievances over the dinner table until it gets so heated that a plate explodes. X-Men comics were great for having bits and stories like that in the downtime between saving the world. And now I have an entire movie about it. There's a big-picture aspect as well, but even in the big action sequences, it's still all about character and community and relationships, not explosions.
I can't recommend this highly enough. You can find it on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
I saw it too late to request it for Yuletide myself, but a couple other people did. Hopefully some fic will appear.
Fast Color[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
November 22, 2020
Quintessential Moving Mood
Realizing that the book you packed two days ago, which is now at the bottom of a heavy sealed box beneath a stack of other heavy sealed boxes, is what you need to write the Yuletide Treat you just got a brilliant idea for.
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November 21, 2020
Packing
I am SO GLAD I Marie Kondo'd my place last year. I am losing my mind trying to pack up an apartment I've lived in for twelve years with wall-to-wall bookcases and 47 years' worth of random stuff DURING A RAGING PANDEMIC, and that is a year AFTER I sorted through a large portion of it and gave away what I didn't want. Also, in case you missed it, yesterday someone set my welcome mat on fire and comment consensus is that said someone was trying to curse me. Or possibly exorcise me. Hard to say.
It's normal that this is taking forever, right?
At least my cats are happy. Boxes, boxes everywhere!
comments
It's normal that this is taking forever, right?
At least my cats are happy. Boxes, boxes everywhere!
comments
November 20, 2020
Texts you do not want to receive
From my neighbor:
"Were you perchance burning sage outside your door? There's some still lit out there."
I bolted out and discovered the landing (atop a flight of stairs) completely filled with smoke, and the neighbor apologetically explaining that he had to stamp it out because it had set the welcome mat on fire.
Needless to say, I had not been burning sage.
So, apparently someone walked up a flight of stairs, set a bunch of sage on fire, and took off. What the actual fuck.
comments
"Were you perchance burning sage outside your door? There's some still lit out there."
I bolted out and discovered the landing (atop a flight of stairs) completely filled with smoke, and the neighbor apologetically explaining that he had to stamp it out because it had set the welcome mat on fire.
Needless to say, I had not been burning sage.
So, apparently someone walked up a flight of stairs, set a bunch of sage on fire, and took off. What the actual fuck.
comments
November 16, 2020
My next adventure
I'm moving to a small house or cabin somewhere with trees and, ideally, snow, driving distance from LA, where I can garden and keep chickens. Exact location to be determined but most likely in the San Bernadino mountains; top choice is currently Idyllwild.
I've given notice to my landlord, and will be out by December 31 and hopefully sooner. I will move into my parents' cabin for the winter, spend some time investigating possibilities, and move into my new home in the spring, in time to start a garden and raise some chicks.
I will have a flock of six hens. I don't want a noisy rooster. Six will be more than enough eggs, and a small enough flock that I can cram them all into document boxes and flee with them and the cats if/when I have to evacuate due to fire - which I intend to do if a fire gets even the slightest bit close, whether there's an evac order or not. I am taking no chances.
I still love Los Angeles, but that makes it really sad to live here right now. A vaccine is coming, but between slow distribution and refusal to take it, I think it'll probably be a year before it's safe to do most fun city things, and several more before the city economically recovers. In the meantime, everything work-related that I do is completely online, and everything I've been enjoying most lately is really difficult to do where I am. I think living in a more rural area, but close enough that I can easily drive to LA for a day or weekend whenever I feel like it, will be perfect for me.
If you have any suggestions, advice, or commentary, feel free! I welcome knowledge about Idyllwild, other places in the San Bernadino mountains, or other places you think I might want to consider. I also welcome thoughts on gardening in a shorter growing season and/or high altitude.
I require: trees, natural beauty, good internet access, not too many people, not currently on fire, no more than a five-hour drive from LA (ie, south of Yosemite), not insanely expensive, and with a reasonable number of locals who are not Nazis, fascists, or anti-maskers. (Some Trumpers are inevitable - I got a death threat from one in my own neighborhood in LA - I just don't want everyone to be a Trumper but me, or for there to be a local, active, and aggressive anti-mask or fascist contingent.)
I prefer: snow.
Not interested in: Ojai (not enough trees), Santa Barbara (too urban), Santa Clarita (too suburban AND not enough trees), Mariposa (too close to my parents - I want more of a feeling of solitude).
comments
I've given notice to my landlord, and will be out by December 31 and hopefully sooner. I will move into my parents' cabin for the winter, spend some time investigating possibilities, and move into my new home in the spring, in time to start a garden and raise some chicks.
I will have a flock of six hens. I don't want a noisy rooster. Six will be more than enough eggs, and a small enough flock that I can cram them all into document boxes and flee with them and the cats if/when I have to evacuate due to fire - which I intend to do if a fire gets even the slightest bit close, whether there's an evac order or not. I am taking no chances.
I still love Los Angeles, but that makes it really sad to live here right now. A vaccine is coming, but between slow distribution and refusal to take it, I think it'll probably be a year before it's safe to do most fun city things, and several more before the city economically recovers. In the meantime, everything work-related that I do is completely online, and everything I've been enjoying most lately is really difficult to do where I am. I think living in a more rural area, but close enough that I can easily drive to LA for a day or weekend whenever I feel like it, will be perfect for me.
If you have any suggestions, advice, or commentary, feel free! I welcome knowledge about Idyllwild, other places in the San Bernadino mountains, or other places you think I might want to consider. I also welcome thoughts on gardening in a shorter growing season and/or high altitude.
I require: trees, natural beauty, good internet access, not too many people, not currently on fire, no more than a five-hour drive from LA (ie, south of Yosemite), not insanely expensive, and with a reasonable number of locals who are not Nazis, fascists, or anti-maskers. (Some Trumpers are inevitable - I got a death threat from one in my own neighborhood in LA - I just don't want everyone to be a Trumper but me, or for there to be a local, active, and aggressive anti-mask or fascist contingent.)
I prefer: snow.
Not interested in: Ojai (not enough trees), Santa Barbara (too urban), Santa Clarita (too suburban AND not enough trees), Mariposa (too close to my parents - I want more of a feeling of solitude).
comments
November 12, 2020
Only Ever Yours, by Louise O'Neill
The books which were able to break my reading block all shared a compelling, propulsive, page-turning quality, including this one. That is how I came to read what is possibly the single bleakest book I've ever read. It's very very good and I'm glad I read it, but... be warned.
Only Ever Yours is more of a satire/allegory of sexism, misogyny, beauty culture, and the maddeningly contradictory things we tell teenage girls and then judge for failing to do perfectly than a dystopia that could really happen. But consider it on any basis other than "is this a plausible extrapolation of the future," which it clearly isn't supposed to be, and it's horrifyingly realistic on its own terms.
In this horrendous post-apocalyptic world, frieda is a teenage girl being raised with other girls in a nightmarish school which is supposed to teach them to be perfect and beautiful so they can be given to men. It goes to every possible length to brainwash them to ensure that they won't ever rebel, let alone band together to do so, or even be kind to each other. There's no rebellion to overthrow the system, but there are some small and personal ones, in a world where choosing not to be cruel is a rebellion in itself.
The lack of capital letters on the girls' names (boys get them) is probably the least of the relentless detailing of how this society (our society, exaggerated) crushes girls and women, and prods and pushes them to crush themselves and each other. They must maintain a designated weight, but eat in a cafeteria where the Fatgirl Buffet always waits as a public temptation. Audio tapes play all night telling them they're worthless if they're not thin and perfect. They have regular sessions where they're told to critique each others' bodies. Even the flowers (as artificial as everything in this setting) have mirrors in their centers.
In the middle of all this horror is frieda, desperately grasping for love and acceptance, isabel, destroying herself for reasons frieda doesn't understand, and megan, who understands the rules and plays by them as hard as she can. All three of them are heartbreakingly human in a system designed to strip them of humanity.
Here are two excellent short fanfics, both distinctly more cheerful than the novel.
I'm the New Blue-Blood, by![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
atheilen
. megan carves out a life for herself after the book.
We All Have Our Favorites, by
scioscribe
. A very satisfying and even comforting fix-it, though fix-it in the context of the book is still incredibly dark.
Only Ever Yours[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
Only Ever Yours is more of a satire/allegory of sexism, misogyny, beauty culture, and the maddeningly contradictory things we tell teenage girls and then judge for failing to do perfectly than a dystopia that could really happen. But consider it on any basis other than "is this a plausible extrapolation of the future," which it clearly isn't supposed to be, and it's horrifyingly realistic on its own terms.
In this horrendous post-apocalyptic world, frieda is a teenage girl being raised with other girls in a nightmarish school which is supposed to teach them to be perfect and beautiful so they can be given to men. It goes to every possible length to brainwash them to ensure that they won't ever rebel, let alone band together to do so, or even be kind to each other. There's no rebellion to overthrow the system, but there are some small and personal ones, in a world where choosing not to be cruel is a rebellion in itself.
The lack of capital letters on the girls' names (boys get them) is probably the least of the relentless detailing of how this society (our society, exaggerated) crushes girls and women, and prods and pushes them to crush themselves and each other. They must maintain a designated weight, but eat in a cafeteria where the Fatgirl Buffet always waits as a public temptation. Audio tapes play all night telling them they're worthless if they're not thin and perfect. They have regular sessions where they're told to critique each others' bodies. Even the flowers (as artificial as everything in this setting) have mirrors in their centers.
In the middle of all this horror is frieda, desperately grasping for love and acceptance, isabel, destroying herself for reasons frieda doesn't understand, and megan, who understands the rules and plays by them as hard as she can. All three of them are heartbreakingly human in a system designed to strip them of humanity.
Here are two excellent short fanfics, both distinctly more cheerful than the novel.
I'm the New Blue-Blood, by
atheilen
. megan carves out a life for herself after the book.We All Have Our Favorites, by
scioscribe
. A very satisfying and even comforting fix-it, though fix-it in the context of the book is still incredibly dark. Only Ever Yours[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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November 11, 2020
The Red House
Based on the poster featuring a sexy dame and an ominous house, I thought this Edward G. Robinson film from 1949 would be a noir with Gothic elements, or possibly the other way around. It did have parts that were Gothic and parts that were noir. It had a lot more parts of a lot more genres too. In fact, it was about nine different genres tossed in pieces into a bucket, then shaken vigorously.
It started out with a nicely ominous score by Miklos Rocza and Gothic-like photography. It then instantly dove into a pastoral family drama with Edward G. Robinson as Pete, a grumpy salt of the earth farmer with one leg, his pleasant salt of the earth sister (who I thought was his wife for about half the movie), their 18-year-old niece/adopted daughter Meg, and the high school boy she's dating who is inexplicably named Nath (rhymes with lath), having an extremely awkward dinner.
The genre abruptly switches back to Gothic, as Nath declares that he'll take a shortcut through the woods and Robinson tells him that no one who goes through the woods ever returns!!!
Nath says, "A tree's a tree."
In my favorite bit of the entire movie, Robinson says, "You won't save yourself from the screams in the night! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS FOR A SCREAM TO FOLLOW YOU?!"
Naturally, Nath takes this as a challenge and marches into the woods. There are indeed screams.... or are they just the wind? He gets lost over and over... but it's night. There's a house somewhere in the woods, which he can't seem to find and which Robinson implied was cursed. Are Meg's supposedly dead parents imprisoned in it, or actually dead and haunting it??? This part, a nicely directed and scored "supernatural or not" Gothic was my favorite genre of the movie, and I kind of wish it had stuck with it.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
I can't say this was actually good but it was entertaining. All that stuff happened in an hour and forty minutes!
The Red House[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
It started out with a nicely ominous score by Miklos Rocza and Gothic-like photography. It then instantly dove into a pastoral family drama with Edward G. Robinson as Pete, a grumpy salt of the earth farmer with one leg, his pleasant salt of the earth sister (who I thought was his wife for about half the movie), their 18-year-old niece/adopted daughter Meg, and the high school boy she's dating who is inexplicably named Nath (rhymes with lath), having an extremely awkward dinner.
The genre abruptly switches back to Gothic, as Nath declares that he'll take a shortcut through the woods and Robinson tells him that no one who goes through the woods ever returns!!!
Nath says, "A tree's a tree."
In my favorite bit of the entire movie, Robinson says, "You won't save yourself from the screams in the night! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS FOR A SCREAM TO FOLLOW YOU?!"
Naturally, Nath takes this as a challenge and marches into the woods. There are indeed screams.... or are they just the wind? He gets lost over and over... but it's night. There's a house somewhere in the woods, which he can't seem to find and which Robinson implied was cursed. Are Meg's supposedly dead parents imprisoned in it, or actually dead and haunting it??? This part, a nicely directed and scored "supernatural or not" Gothic was my favorite genre of the movie, and I kind of wish it had stuck with it.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
I can't say this was actually good but it was entertaining. All that stuff happened in an hour and forty minutes!
The Red House[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
November 10, 2020
New Icons?
Can I have a volunteer or few to make me some new icons?
I would like...
1. A cozy cabin in the woods.
2. A couple movie icons, at least one in B&W. Possible images: Louise Brooks, original Blade Runner (especially Roy and Pris), Sunset Boulevard with "It's the pictures that got small," something with a noir femme fatale, MANT! HALF MAN, HALF ANT, ALL TERROR! from Matinee, one of the gorgeous images from Baahubali, etc.
3. The text "save the world" over the Fast Color poster or this image: https://www.wuwm.com/post/fast-color-celebrates-supermom-who-literally-moves-heaven-and-earth#stream/0
4. A F/F icon or two. Maybe a tender moment between some of the women from X-Men comics?
5. "Nazis Fuck Off" over Captain America punching Hitler.
6. Anything else you think I could use.
comments
I would like...
1. A cozy cabin in the woods.
2. A couple movie icons, at least one in B&W. Possible images: Louise Brooks, original Blade Runner (especially Roy and Pris), Sunset Boulevard with "It's the pictures that got small," something with a noir femme fatale, MANT! HALF MAN, HALF ANT, ALL TERROR! from Matinee, one of the gorgeous images from Baahubali, etc.
3. The text "save the world" over the Fast Color poster or this image: https://www.wuwm.com/post/fast-color-celebrates-supermom-who-literally-moves-heaven-and-earth#stream/0
4. A F/F icon or two. Maybe a tender moment between some of the women from X-Men comics?
5. "Nazis Fuck Off" over Captain America punching Hitler.
6. Anything else you think I could use.
comments
