#397 - Squeeherent

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

Tom and Veronica draw the lines on whether they favor Alix E. Harrow or Tamsyn Muir (because they are both awesome). Tom has some new new writing coming out, and we have our first impressions of Howl's Moving Castle and why we missed out on it in our own childhoods.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/397-squ...
https://soundcloud.com/swordandlaser/...
http://swordandlaser.com/home/2020/11...

[Jan]

The Queen's Gambit is soooo good! And I don't even play chess

[terpkristin]

A coworker literally just told me about that this morning.

[Tamahome]

Can't Veronica be on Zoom from the delivery room?

[Trike]

Tamahome wrote: "Can't Veronica be on Zoom from the delivery room?"

Delivery Zoom!

#trendsetter #workingmom

[Tamahome]

#deliveryzoom

[Trike]

This popped up on my YouTube feed just now and I think V should do this with New Moderator...

“Portrait of Lotte, 0 to 20 years”: https://youtu.be/yfqpqiTMUEg

[terpkristin]

What was the name of the anthology? I’m still listening so no more comments but that anthology sounds fun. Yay, Tom! Finally good news in 2020.

[Mark]

terpkristin wrote: "What was the name of the anthology? I’m still listening so no more comments but that anthology sounds fun. Yay, Tom! Finally good news in 2020."

Quick Draw!: Fast and Funny Fiction
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MC7XHJM/...

I already ordered my copy

[Trike]

Quick Draw preordered. What a bargain!

[Jan]

terpkristin wrote: "A coworker literally just told me about that this morning."

The show is just great. The acting, the writing, the COSTUMES! I can really recommend "The Queen's Gambit" to everyone!

As for Veronica's pause: We will celebrate the 400 when Veronica is back, right?

[Iain]

Any similarities with C. S. Lewis are unsurprising as Diana Wynne Jones studied English at St Anne's College in Oxford, where she attended lectures by both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien before graduating in 1956.

The book is from a very British tradition

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Howl's Moving Castle (the movie) is on Netflix outside North America. As are most of the Studio Ghibli movies.

[Tamahome]

I've probably said this elsewhere. If you have HBO on cable, you can get the HBO Max app on your phone (which has Howl's Moving Castle) and login with your cable account. Usually there's a way to stream from phone to tv, like if you have a Chromecast or Roku, or some kind of casting builtin to the tv.

[terpkristin]

Mark wrote: "terpkristin wrote: "What was the name of the anthology? I’m still listening so no more comments but that anthology sounds fun. Yay, Tom! Finally good news in 2020."

Quick Draw!: Fast and Funny Fic..."

Thank you!!! Ordering imminently. :D

[Tamahome]

Is this the cover?

[Jan]

I am sure Tom's is better but I tried:

"So, we have received your manuscript and --- well --- we have some issues."

The woman on the other side of the desk was staring at the manuscript and then up again.

"In your draft there is a world-wide pandemic and the US president, who - by the way - is a TV star, does nothing about it and instead celebrates himself using a strange technology that apparently everyone is using instead of talking to each other. He then becomes victim of the disease but it doesn't change his behavior in any way and when he's voted out of office he talks about voter fraud...? I mean, who is gonna believe something like this? It's totally implausable..."

She paused for a moment.

"And where are the rocket packs? Don't you think we should have rocket packs by then?!"

[Trike]

Jan wrote: "I am sure Tom's is better but I tried:

"So, we have received your manuscript and --- well --- we have some issues."

The woman on the other side of the desk was staring at the manuscript and then..."

I will be very disappointed if at least one book about Trump's presidency isn't titled "You Can't Make This Shit Up".

— Trike (@Trike) November 8, 2020

[Mark]

Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump by Shannon Wheeler

Sh*t Trump Says: MAGA Edition

Sh*t Trump said as read by former U.S. Presidents

...

[terpkristin]

Jan wrote: ""And where are the rocket packs? Don't you think we should have rocket packs by then?!""



(Source: https://xkcd.com/864/)

[John (Taloni)]

All this talk of who to eat and NOBODY suggested Eric Roberts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr5gk...

[Mark]

Quick Draw!: Fast and Funny Fiction, which includes stories by Tom Merritt, has landed. Amazon link is up in Message 9.

[John (Taloni)]

Who's reading the anthology? I'm about halfway through and it's pretty good so far. It's living up to its name: Stories about Flash length or slightly longer, all done with humor. There's room for so many authors that there's plenty I've never heard of, some I've heard of but have no interest otherwise reading, along with some authors I know and love. Whatever category they fall into, all the stories so far have been good. Definitely worth a read! The first one is a gut buster and is maybe fifty words.

Tom's first story is at about the 20% mark. It's a sly take on alien contact as well as (view spoiler)[ the need for a certain well known beverage. (hide spoiler)]

And if peeps want, we can play "spot the typo!" Tom's story has one that made me doubletake. It's...sandwiched...in between other words.