"Peter Stormare Gives Update on ‘Constantine 2’; Keanu Reeves Reportedly Unhappy with Script" by Meagan Navarro (very similar articles seen on a number of other entertainment news sites).

"'But to do a sequel, the studios want to have, you know, cars flying in the air. They want to have people doing flip-flops and fighting action scenes,' Stormare said."

I think I agree with Keanu. We already have the John Wick franchise. IT IS AWESOME. But we don't need the Keanu-as-Constantine franchise to turn into another John Wick franchise.

I hope they resolve this soon because I am DROOLING at the chance to see Stormare play Lucifer again.

I actually completely forgot about the French Open until last night. I just don't really follow tennis anymore. Though I tuned into today, watched Carlos Alcaraz and Francis Tiafoe play some good tennis, and apparently this event is now streaming on Max, which means I can watch it during my commute and in the gym as well.
Next weekend, on the other hand, I'm hoping to have a date. If the guy's schedule allows for it, anyway. Hopefully my sinuses will have quieted a little by then. They were pretty bad this weekend. I started work on my new song anyway, but I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to stick with my current choice.
When I finished yesterday's episode of Doctor Who, I immediately texted my sister to tell her I had done so. ( She promptly started texting back about... )

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Happy Pride month y'all


🤌🤌🤌

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I am looking for queer owned businesses that sell fun pride buttons for lesbians and/or dykes (I identify with both labels).

I had ordered some earlier in May but it's looking like the seller is going thru something (their website is down) and I haven't heard from them since. Honestly if they ended up needing the money it's fine but I'm still buttonless lol.

I'll be going to a local pride on the 6th and there will hopefully be some fun things to pick up but - if you have anyone in mind def drop a link please!

An author contacted me recently to ask if I'd read his first book and review it on my YouTube channel - and I thought, why not?

The Lich Before the Darkness by Timothy Stormcrow is a fun ride, set in a world very like our own, but where supernatural creatures (eg vampires, werewolves, revenants, etc) are fairly common and living in the open.

The main protagonist, Aisling, is recruited to join a government department tasked with investigating supernatural issues and helping people solve problems they're having either with being or interacting with supernatural creatures.

The book largely follows Aisling in her training and first few missions, with other sections following Maeve, a recent revenant setting up a monster-hunting business, and Eric, a young man with strange powers that have a significant impact on future events.

The writing is generally good (barring some persistent surface issues with punctuation and a few scattered typos), I liked the characters, there's a lot of really good descriptive detail and, overall, it was an entertaining read. There's some good setup for the story continuing in future volumes, and I largely enjoyed it.

It does have some worldbuilding issues, though, and the plot cohesion is a bit lacking. It takes over half the book to get to the main plot events, where the three different narrative threads converge - and then that doesn't really go anywhere and everything fractures again and goes back to largely episodic sections that don't connect.

It kept me engaged throughout, though, and I'd be interested to read more - especially since this first book ended very abruptly, almost mid-scene.

An exciting and busy month, looking back! Although with less to show for it than I'd like

Fics:
you shall drip rubies, precious rubies - Bellatrix/Rodolphus, rated M

Crafting::
I finished the blanket! I need to make a post dedicated to it with the few progress pictures I have. It was actually quite easy to put together in the end after all the putting off I did.
I’ve managed to get myself two new blanket projects, though, one (crocheted) for my best friends baby due in October, and another for my other cousin, who has sensory issues and thought she wouldn’t appreciate a yarn blanket, but she’s tested her sister’s and now she’d like one for her birthday in September

Read:
The Folk Tales of Scotland

Other::
I got a job! I had my interview at the start of the month and the last three weeks have been full of paperwork and training and prep. My DBS certificate came through this morning which is the final stage - they just need to verify it and I can start working. It’s part time, and client based, so it won’t be super regular, but because of the nature of it (I don’t know why I’m being vague, but I am), I can also find private clients and supplement my working hours that way.

Word count for the month is about 8.6K, bringing my total for 5 months to 50K, so I'm on target for this year's goal.

whatif_au bingo continues to provide inspiration: Sports square -  First Match of the Season (Hamlet/Julius Caesar); Regency - The Unexpected Invitation (The Hobbit); Crack - Madness, and Very Little Method (Hamlet - paperclip AU).  The last was also written for ushobwri New Frontiers challenge.

Also for the New Frontiers challenge, I wrote A Thrill of Hope which is also for rewrite-a-fic, a challenge in which author's rewrite older fics of theirs.  In my case, I took two Spooks (MI5) ficlets, told from Lucas' POV and rewrote them from an OC's (Pamela) viewpoint.

For intoabar I had Miss Marple meets Carabosse from Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty: An Encounter in a Tea Shop

And allbingo held a Colour Fest: The Curate's Education  Part of my ACD Holmes Sussex retirement series.

I've discovered a new-to-me albums and that is making me happy (which is much needed!). I splurged and got them both as a b'day present to myself. I finally get the day off, too -- because it's on a Sunday when the business is closed. Maybe I can use this momentum to continue feeling better.

1. Melissa Etheridge, "One Way Out," 2021. I've been a huge fan of hers since her debut album back in 1988, but I wasn't really impressed with the ones that came out after the first five. I've been disappointed with each new one, but I never gave up the hope that one day she would create another one I'd love. Now, finally, I took a listen to "One Way Out" and IMHO it's the best one she's done in decades. It's not perfect, but something about the songs reminds me of the style of her debut and Brave & Crazy (which I adore). That makes me very happy!


HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

It's been so long since I've done anything more than work and stay home that I was thinking it might be nice to celebrate a bit this year. The last Pride Parade I went to was in NYC, which of course set the bar very high. And now I live in Red hell. In any case, Atlanta Pride is in October and it's pretty iffy whether I'll feel up to dealing with a trip to the city.  There's a celebration next weekend in a smaller city not too horribly far away and I've love to feel up to venturing out, but I'm not making any promises to myself.

Hmm... it might be fun to do a Dreamwidth-type fest for myself, by writing LGBTQ+ themed fic and making various other types of posts during the month. Yes, I think I'm going to do that.


( Spoiler for the new season of Leverage: Redemption under the cut: )

Guess that's it for now; I'm already way past my bedtime.