Escapism so needed atm

My brain is a weird thing these days. It's like I'm running on adrenaline all the time. I literally dream of grocery lists and how hard it's been lately be to get eggs and onions. (Eggs I understand, but onions? So bizarre.) At three in the morning, I'm wide awake and wondering if it's too late to buy a bidet. (Just checked Amazon. I can get one delivered in nine days, but it's pricey. Should I save the money for necessaries later on? Or get one and reduce our family consumption of toilet paper?)

Tucked in between that constant volley of panic, I'm now homeschooling my kids, who persist in framing this whole thing as a super extra long spring break, complete with sleeping in till noon and watching YouTube as much as is humanly possible. (Spoiler: that's a lotta YouTube, people.)

So with all that anxiety swirling, what do I have to say about the old books vs. comics vs. movies vs. games question?

Well, I frame it thusly: of those media, the only one that has even come close to cutting through my panic lately is games.

I think that has something to so with passive entertainment versus immersion. If I'm watching a movie or reading a book or comic, I can set it aside when my mayor or governor comes on with a news conference or my kids need help with the Pythagorean theorem or the Spanish word for beach. But with a good game, you really can't be interrupted by life. The game has objectives and time limits, and those NPCs are counting on you, dangit.

I've been playing a whole lot of Star Wars The Old Republic (an old MMORPG, and I love it to bits) and The Sims 4 on the XBox lately. I see a lot of folks playing Animal Crossing, and I remember playing that one a few years ago and thinking it was lovely and low-key. Stardew Valley is similarly comforting. Sometimes the kids and I all log on to World of Warcraft and go fishing together (virtually, of course).

Mostly, I wish I could thank all game makers for providing this alternate reality, a hundred thousand alternate realities, at a time when actual reality kind of sucks.

And you other creators -- writers and movie makers and artists -- thank you, too. Please keep doing what you do, because as soon as I can get a handle on panic-brain, I will be right back there, inhaling the good you put into the world.

This world needs all the good it can get.

My Consumption: Entertainment not TB

BROM: Lost Gods (a novel with illustrations)

Man, I love some of the topics my fellow bloggers choose.

"Books vs Comics vs Movies vs Games"

Yes, please. I'll take a bushel from column A and a tower from column B and...

It should be no surprise I love books. Hello, author here. Historical fiction, spec-fic, romance, gimme All The Books. Movies, I prefer action flicks but I won't turn down a good sci-fi. Mysteries and magical-realism? Yep, my ass is warming the seat. As for games, I can't call myself a "gamer." I'm more a Cribbage and Quiddler kind of gal. I've never played D&D (Gasp! I know! I think I lose my fantasy-author credentials for that.) Video games? Uh, no. I don't have the skills. Or the patience. Or the dexterity.

Now, comics...comics....~rubs hands with glee~

My love of comics/graphic novels comes from the evolution of learning to read. As ankle-biters, we start with picture books. Big pretty pictures and a dozen or so words per page. Comics have more pictures and about the same number of words on the page. I went from The Littlest Raindrop to Archie to Classics Illustrated. My Flash Gordon (the movie) comic survived traveling the world and my childhood. Asterix & Obelix taught me German. Monstress shares a shelf with Sandman and Snow, Glass, Apples. I really want to build out my mythology collection with more non-Western sources. (If you have suggestions, drop them in the Comments, please!)

I'm the fangirl who keeps checking my favorite webcomics to see if/when they're going to end up in paperback. So yeah, you could say I like comics. I am in awe of the talent of the artists, the colorists, and the letterers. My not-so-secret author wish is to collaborate on a graphic novel series. (Yo, Universe, puttin' it out there!)

Then there's the middle ground between the novel and the graphic novel: the illustrated novel. Has the word count of a novel, but way fewer pictures than a comic. Regardless, the illustrations are amazing. The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits and The Child Thief are glaring across my living room at The Fairy Bible.

So, uh, there you go.

Hope you all are staying healthy, washing your hands, and practicing physical distancing. We like our readers and want you to hang around for a long time.

Which Should Jeffe Vote For?

Our topic here at the SFF Seven this week is: books vs movies vs games vs comics.

I suppose that, with everyone hanging out at home, social distancing all responsibly, we've all been indulging in our media of choice.

For me it's books and movies. I tried comics - grudgingly - and they just never quite grabbed me. In college a couple of my artist friends set to convincing me to love graphic novels. I still have the copy of Maus by Art Spiegelman that one gave me. I found the combination of drawings and stories powerful. One of my roommates took me out for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant as a bribe for me to sit and read a graphic novel. (One of the Dark Knights? I don't remember.) I enjoyed it, yes, and groked why he loved it. (Plus, the crab Rangoon was amazing.) But it never led to me picking up more.

Much later in life, I acquired the Sandman Box Set by Neil Gaiman, which I also love. At least, I love the first book, Preludes & Nocturnes. I confess - with a fair amount of chagrin - that I've never gotten around to reading the rest. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that... I haven't felt compelled. I've found it takes a while to wrap my brain into reading text that weaves around images. I enjoy it, but I love plain reading more.

Because it's not that I don't read at all. I've read 41 books so far in 2020, and I've read all or part of all the 2019 SFWA Nebula Finalists for Novels. (I'm still reading as I have until the 31st.)

Games... I just have never gotten into them. I don't know why. Could be for the same reason as graphic novels? I'd rather have text than images. Even with movies, I think I don't appreciate them visually like many film buffs do.

In fact, this is where you all can help me. I have no idea which game writer to vote for in the Nebulas, and have no way of deciding. Which should I vote for from these?

Best Game Writing 

Outer Wilds by Kelsey Beachum, published by Mobius Digital
The Outer Worlds by Leonard Boyarsky, Kate Dollarhyde, Paul Kirsch, Chris L’Etoile, Daniel McPhee, Carrie Patel, Nitai Poddar, Marc Soskin, and Megan Starks, published by Obsidian Entertainment
The Magician’s Workshop by Kate Heartfield, published by Choice of Games
Disco Elysium by Robert Kurvitz, published by ZA/UM
Fate Accessibility Toolkit by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, published by Evil Hat Productions

Feel free to offer suggestions in the other categories, too. Cheers to you all!

The Little Things

At chez Too Many Cats, we're concentrating on the little things. Repotting plants, some of which have stowaways. (That's a frog in that pitcher plant. This is a problem because the pitcher plant will kill the frogs. We rescued this one, even though he didn't much want to be rescued.)  We're playing with felines, cooking, wiping down all the doorknobs and heavily used surfaces with disinfectants every day. We're taking more walks. The whole neighborhood is, it seems. I've seen more of my neighbors in the past few weeks than I've seen since moving in here over a year ago. The friendly quotient has gone way up. Everyone waves or calls hello, simply glad to have the access to other people, I suspect. We cross the street when we see one another coming so we can all keep that distance we're supposed to keep. 

And I write. At the moment, it's The Never Ending Synopsis from Hell. It's for a book that's finished. An agent has requested the full. Yay. It was a bit of a shocker because I hadn't realized I was subbing the MS when I participated in a workshop my local RWA chapter put on awhile ago. We sent in our first three pages of a story and it was critiqued by an editor or an agent. I honestly thought that was the end of it. So it surprised me a bit when I got an email asking for the full. Sure. No problem! I have the book right here -- aaand no synopsis. Woo. So that's what's on my mind. Little things. Story summaries. Frogs being digested by carnivorous plants. And, of course, here's what's on my lap. My coworker doesn't respect my personal space, much less social distancing.

Books to the rescue!

(from my backyard)

The day started off like any other day; the sun rose and the coffee brewed as the household began to wake. But that’s where the normalcy ended. There weren’t any eggs for breakfast which meant a trip to the store…which meant disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer…which meant venturing out into the pandemic.

Our world has changed. 

Science fiction writers imagine countless possibilities to countless disasters, but, at least for me, we never expect to live out one of those possibilities. And now we’re living one, COVID-19, that had been written by some and predicted by few. 

Our world has changed, and it’s dumping stats, announcements, warnings, and news stories on us. Schools are moving to distance learning for months, social distancing is our reality, stores are closed, restaurants and cafes are curb-side only. We’re overloaded. 

(overloaded is never good, even if it's just flour)

Though, it’s not all negative. There are clips of Italian opera being sung from balconies, choruses of neighbors joining their voices together from safe distances, and instrumental solos serenading the evening air. We’re human, and we’re defiant. 

We’re fighting back, together. We’re learning how to take care of one another and I believe we’ll be better because of it. That’s the heart of science fiction, battling against the odds and clinging to the aspects that make us human. Together. 

(Ullr standing on the edge of the bank)

If you feel as if you’re standing on the edge, know that you’re not alone, even if no one if physically at your side. And if your walls are closing in and you need an escape…books can be a rescue. They can take you far, far away, or they can take you back in time. Books can take you anywhere you want to go.

Right now, epic fantasy is really hitting the spot for me. Take me away into the trees and mountains where the fearsome are giant trolls or dark mages and not invisible viruses. Do you need a book rescue? Drop a comment and I can make some suggestions.

Remember, you're not alone. Narnia’s in the wardrobe, Hogwarts is just a letter away, and you can spin the Wheel of Time for hours on end!  

Trying to think about the good

Things that are on my mind:

- It's spring and the bluebonnets are out.

- This distance learning thing my kids are doing rocks. They were done with all school work before lunch time, and that was even with sleeping in till 8. Boom.

- Same with their music lessons, which they are doing right now via Zoom. I can hear them playing (one plays bass, the other piano), and it's just deeply comforting, even when they get notes wrong.

- The strawberry plant that I was afraid wouldn't make it through winter is growing eight strawberries! 

- I bought a ladybug house for the ladybugs I ordered. I hope they like it. (We have an aphid problem, and my milkweed plants are struggling.)

 

- Okay, yes, I read the news. I know what's out there. It's horrific. And it's exactly why the thing that is not on my mind right now is writing. Having written a post-apocalyptic series and now being faced with an apocalypse in process, I just can't. 

- So I started writing a fantasy. So far, my characters are wandering in forests and doing a lot of self-care. I know that fiction is about torturing characters, but I just can't hurt these guys. They're weird and complicated and good and human. And we all deserve to be looked after and cared for. 

Even fictional characters and ladybugs.

Be good to you.  

On My Mind: Let the Process Break

This week, what's on my mind is change. Large, sweeping, long-overdue change. The kind that comes from the complete and total failure of an administration, an industry, and a national individualistic mind-set.

Once upon a corporate life, in the heyday of "do more with less," I had my weekly status meeting with my boss. We were dusting off the ashes of surviving the latest layoffs and trying to squeeze everybody else's "Priority 1" into our already overbooked schedules. I showed her my "escalations" list and her face went blank. Two heartbeats later, she took my hand, looked me dead in the eye and said,

"Let the process break."

Wut? My overworked brain didn't grok what she was saying. Was she setting me up to fail? Was she putting me on the firing list? (She wasn't.)

"No one knows how badly things are broken if you keep bending over backwards to fix them. 

Stop. 

Let things break. 

Projects will either get scrapped because they weren't really that important

 or they'll be properly resourced."

Twenty-ish years later and I still think of that moment, that lesson, that sanity-saving insight.

This week, I'm wondering if we, as a nation, can see how continuously and consistently screwed over we are by industry and politics that real change, beneficial change, will come from it. For example, is our healthcare industry broken enough now that for-profit health will be replaced by actual care? We're good, sort of, with the actual care providers: the nurses, the doctors, the orderlies, the environmental services. But the insurers? The administrators? The bloated bureaucracy feeding off our human problems? Have we learned our lessons yet? Or will we have to see the tens of thousands of dollars charged by insurance companies for a COVID-19 patient being treated by an "out of network" ER doc? How about the privilege of being charged a couple grand for being denied a test? Oh, then there are the lab bills because the tests are being processed by facilities who didn't pre-negotiate a contract with the insurer. And don't think for one moment the inflated cost of the PPEs that are in such staggering short supply isn't going to show up a patient's bill. Hospital stays are over $15k/night before beds ran out; tack on ICU, ventilator, and the battery of drugs they hope will work and you're over $20k/night, easy. That's if you're lucky enough to be "chosen to live." Better hope your insurer allows the doctor to sedate you if you draw the short straw, since you can't breathe and are drowning in your own blood and fluids.

Gods forbid you survive the worst of this because now you have a pre-existing condition and a government that's bound and determined to make sure you aren't entitled to healthcare because someone will actually have to treat you...which means less money in the pockets of the industry CEOs and stockholders. You can get in line behind the mass shooting survivors, coal miners, cancer patients, military, civilian DOD injured in the line of duty, and 50% of the non-senior citizenry.

And if you don't have insurance? Bankruptcy is your only option. (No, suicide won't help you; your bills get passed on to your family.) Congrats, you get to lose everything! Hope you're not looking to the government to help with that homelessness problem. What's that? Scar tissue on your lungs? Can't breathe without aid? You want welfare? Are you kidding? You think you're some multinational corporation entitled to government bailouts? Bootstraps, boyo!

Is 30k dead from a pandemic enough to prove that the healthcare industry is broken? Will it take 300k dead to make the shift? 3 million? 30 million? What's the magic number that makes us as a nation say, "enough"? What is the number that finally frightens the politicians into doing what's right for the people instead of the corporations? The motivation has got to be fear because ethics isn't working and neither is shame.

Sadly, I don't think we've reached the tipping point. I don't think the tragedy is real to enough of us to affect change. Not yet. Not enough to last through November, certainly.

Don't let this screed make you horribly depressed, I hope it makes you angry. Angry enough that whenever you can push for change, you push. HARD.

Finding the Good in a Changing World

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is whatever is on our minds. With pretty much the entire world in sparkling isolation, there's really only one thing on our minds: COVID-19.

We're also exhausted of thinking and talking and reading about it!

So, I'm asking everyone - what good things have come out of this massive change? I want to hear about how your lives have altered in positive ways.

For us, the biggest change has been that David has been at home with me. My daily routine is very much the same, since I work from home anyway.

Yesterday, though, David and I took a very long walk. We enjoyed the spring sunshine, waved to neighbors from a safe distance, and we marveled at how it felt like we had more time in the day. "It's like the whole world is on vacation," David commented, and I agreed that it does feel that way. Of course there are people working hard to keep us all healthy, fed, and safe - but for most of us, we're hanging at home with family. I've been baking bread - which I haven't done in years - and even made pizza crust from scratch, which I don't think I've ever done. We're getting creative with meals, and being thankful for our home and the garden.

What I've missed most is that I can't attend the wonderful yoga classes at my fave place Yoga Source. Then today, I was able to attend my first online class with them! I figured out how to connect my laptop to our large-screen TV, and we streamed the Zoom meeting. David even did the class with me, which he's never done IRL. Tomorrow my mom is going to "attend" the Yin Yoga class with me, from her home in Tucson. I figure that, doing this from home, I can attend classes five days a week, which is tons more than I seem to fit in when I have to drive back and forth.

What about all of you? What's something positive you've been doing that wasn't part of your life "before"?