L.S. Johnson's Blog, page 15

35 minutes

There was a thread online about villains and tropes relating to such and it prompted me to think of this moment, though I think of it fairly often as it is. I’m old enough that I first read Watchmen when it was in (gasp) issues, this new thing from DC; it came out right when I was starting to look past the oft-predictable adventures of my Marvel and DC staples towards indie comics, the darker X-Men stuff, and soon this new imprint called Vertigo . . . heady times, I tell ya.

I still get resi...

counting paws

We have had a sudden feline addition to our household, which has thrown my life into disarray. Right now we are in the introduction stage, which means divvying up the house and a lot of work with doors and treats and reassurance. I seem to have been reduced to a lap, constantly occupied by one cat or another looking to feel safe. It’s making for a frustrating January, though we’ve been wanting to take this little one in for some time, and we are the better for winning his trust at last.

In t...

golden years

It is the bitch of getting old that you have to experience your cultural bedrock slowly moving down, down, buried by layers of strata, voices becoming muffled and then silenced.

Or in this case, just silenced.

I don’t have the hero-worship of Bowie that I know a lot of people have. Another bitch of getting old is recognizing the failures of the giants of your youth, understanding how problematic they are. How problematic we all are.

But the output, the career—before that, I am awestruck, bew...

Strangelet is out

and oh my, look at that cover. The theme is “Women Writing Women: Transformations” which is another way of saying SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Very proud to be a part of this.

end of the year, 2015

I spent my holidays among snowy redwoods and Ponderosa pines, and reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series well into the night. There was something childishly gratifying about sneaking off to read about men tearing each other apart with their bare hands. Gratifying, too, to see how far he’s come as a writer – the prose inRed Country is far more polished than that ofThe Blade Itself, and the POVs in the latter are far more clunky than those graceful interludes in The Heroes– as it gives me...

wattpad

so as some of you may know, i have a few older pieces up on wattpad now – and the real pleasure of watching autocorrect change that to “wattled” every time i type it. it’s an unusualplace, that wattled – i mean wattpad