Romance makes me crazy

I am not an avid reader of the romance genre.
I just can’t take it.
The thing I think so many readers love, and that has propelled that genre to such heights is the constant tension of unsaid words, unannounced feelings and misunderstandings. It makes me mental.

JUST TELL HER WHY YOU DID WHAT YOU DID AND THAT’S WHY YOU HAD TO DO THE THING AND YOU WEREN’T THERE WHEN SHE NEEDED YOU TO —- AAAuuuUUAAARRRGGH!

See, this is where she does love him, but if she says so, her friend / sister / dad / mom / etc. will be devastated somehow and I lose my mind because the writing is doing exactly what it wants to me and I am weak and it makes me nuts.


I try (try) to read in a sequence of sorts. That looks like this:

  • Horror (my genre zone) - anywhere from recent things to the classics

  • Literature - Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, Faulkner, Shakespeare…could be contemporary, could be classic. The point is, reading the dense rich stuff

  • Non-fiction - history, historical biography, science…stuff that makes you smarter, think Naomi Klein, Dr. Julia Shaw

  • Get better at something - for me, as a career creative director / brand lead that’s typically business books, team management, brand strategy…so, Les Binet, Dave Trott, Graham Roberson. It also applies to writing books, like On Writing, by King, or K.M. Weiland’s books

I try to keep track of this by saving the cover art on Pinterest and I also have a photo set on Flickr where I grab snippets of writing, cover design and whatever else ensnares me in what I am reading.

Then, there’s GENRE I DON’T TYPICALLY READ. This is where it gets tough and is the part of the process I get the most sluggish about. Fantasy…I can do Moorcock, the ciomplete Elric is in queue, or Silverberg’s stuff like Lord Valentine’s Castle might need a reread, since I read the Madripoor work 40 years ago. Lewis and Tolekein, sure…but generally? Elf shit bores me. Sci-fi? Maybe…but, not in a long time. I’m due to re-read Dune…also 40 years ago… (pattern?) But, I typically find ways to neglect this one the most…so, more often than the others, I might skip this and jump right back into another horror novel, but occasionally, one of those novels is a romance novel in disguise. These aren’t the first romance novels I’ve read, but they are the ones the snuck in on me.

Like this one…

This one doesn’t hit you with those tropes quite as often, but it is defo a romance novel and my favourite Stephen King book.

And then, there’s this one, which is absolutely excellent…

This might be the most of THAT kind of frustration I have ever managed. The prose is lush and rich. Cañas’ writing is fresh, funny, delightful and genuinely transports the reader to that part of Mexico and that time in their history so magnificently. She makes you understand the vaquero class system without ever heavy-handedly explaining it to you. You just live it. It also has some real scares and her vampires are her own. There’s no template - the monster feels original. This novel also has one of the single best battle scenes showing a moment in war I have read in a long time. It does that great job in horror of yes, the vampires are a problem. But humans, as always , are the problem.

It’s a solid read that makes me crazy.
Which I get.
That’s romance for you.
It makes you crazy.

Tsundoku

I hate to be that white guy that would love a tattoo in an Asian dialect, but IF I WERE, the Japanese word Tsundoku calls to me…

Tsundoku: the act of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up unread.

“The term combines tsunde-oku (to pile things up for later) and dokusho (reading). It originated as Japanese slang during the Meiji era (1868–1912).”

It is often used to describe books on a shelf that are waiting to be read, though the pile itself is a key part of the phenomenon

Although, of course, the final true directive of fan fave hashira, Kyōjurō Rengoku, “Set your heart ablaze!” would probably be up there, too.

We hardly knew ye…

Canxiety

Canxiety

Noun

a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome, caused by the government of the United States and affecting Canadian sovereignty, economic stability and safety.

ChatGPT & The End of the World

Prompt

Write a chapter of the bible in the style of the King James version in which the four horsemen of the apocalypse choose not to destroy the world and reject both God and Satan.

ChatGPT

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, on a certain day the four horsemen of the apocalypse rode forth, each one with a mission of destruction and desolation. But lo, they didst look upon the world and saw the suffering of mankind, and their hearts were moved with compassion.

And they spake among themselves, saying: "Why must we do the bidding of God or Satan? Why must we bring forth death and torment upon the earth?"

And the first horseman said: "I will not be the bringer of war and bloodshed. I will use my sword to defend the weak and protect the innocent."

And the second horseman said: "I will not spread famine and hunger. I will use my scales to measure out abundant crops and bountiful harvests for all."

And the third horseman said: "I will not unleash pestilence and disease. I will use my pestle to mix healing herbs and cure the sick."

And the fourth horseman said: "I will not cause death and destruction. I will use my pale horse to carry the souls of the righteous to their reward in heaven."

And the four horsemen didst reject both God and Satan, saying: "We are not servants of either deity, but servants of mankind. We will not bring ruin upon the earth, but instead bring peace, prosperity, health, and salvation."

And the world didst rejoice, for the horsemen had chosen to be instruments of good and not of evil. And all mankind didst live in peace and happiness, knowing that the four horsemen had chosen to be their protectors and benefactors.

And thus it came to pass that the four horsemen of the apocalypse became symbols of hope and redemption, and were remembered for their mercy and kindness throughout the ages. Amen.

Tracking Reads

When Pinterest arrived, I had to use it to figure out applications for clients in digital marketing. For myself, i couldn’t see much use. It’s a lot of busy work - activities that lead nowhere. It reminded me of a much prettier version of early Netscape days, carefully curating and organizing bookmarks in a pre-Google era because to close a window was to forever lose that one Geocities page that you really needed.

I did use it to track what I was reading. That seemed like an application that was interesting. I did this from 2014-2017 and then stopped.

Reads, 2014-2017

My problem, at least, I see it as a problem, is I have a hard time remembering when I read the things I read…from what I can best recall, since then, I have read the following…

Reads I can recall, 2018-2022

This is a mixture of my own selections and reading to my children…I am pretty sure there’s a bunch of business and non-fiction missing, but this is my best recollection.

I tend to experience inertia as I switch books. I find it difficult to emerge from a great read and just jump into the next one, but if I don’t, I tend to stop reading for a while and analysis paralysis sets in and I can’t decide what’s next, which is why I adopted a reading system. I have recently amended it to include genres I don’t normally seek out, like mystery, crime, romance, you name it. So, here’s the new roster:

Genre fiction, something really tasty (horror, sci-fi)
More literary fiction
Non-fiction
Business / brain improvement / instructional
Different Genre
Graphic novels (I’d like to return to reading more of these)

These are my ramblings on reading as I seek to once again keep track of the words that traverse the space between these ears.

un callejón sin salida

A passageway with no exit…. I love to capture moments that capture me…although, I can’t always recall exactly why they did…

This is Black Sunshine

I was listening to White Zombie’s BLACK SUNSHINE and wondered…what if the spoken word piece by Iggy Pop had been the copy in an old Ford Mustang print ad… so I found one and made this…. This… is Black Sunshine... (I made this)

Here’s the original piece. I love the original because (having worked in automotive advertising and digital quite a bit) it is clearly a dealer network piece with the approved master brand asset comped in.

Altering the Deal

A little something I wrote for Medium, where I discuss design iterations through the lens of Star Wars because, why not?

Excerpt:

“Episode I alters Star Wars in a way that reminded me of my work life, leading creative departments in general and (a lot of) digital product design, specifically. It updated the mythology in the way that you might update a digital product with a new feature to improve it and it did it in such a way as to change what had come before by implication. THE PHANTOM MENACE iterated on a feature of the original trilogy story that improved the related components of that story in the way designers build and improve the features of digital products and experiences.”

Article: https://dylangerard.medium.com/altering-the-deal-635d7cad0bef