Author: terribleminds (page 154 of 480)

LOOK MA I MADE SOME NEW WATERDROP MACROS.

(Rest seen at the bottom of the post.)

Anyway hey hi how are you guys?

I’m good over here. Just chugging my way through THE BIG GIANT BOOK THAT WOULDN’T BE SMALL. It’s increasingly a very different book for me — past-tense (I know, gasp), not-really-thriller-pacing, bigger, sprawlier, more epic in its scope. Also not part of a series, so, a big ol’ standalone. I’m trying to be patient with it and myself.

What else?

Upcoming event stuff:

July 14th, a reminder that Fran Wilde and I join the effervescent Kevin Hearne at the Parkway Central Library in Philadelphia — event starts at 7:30PM, getcher details right here.

Also, I will be the Guest of Honor at Ravencon 2018, taking place in Williamsburg, VA! April 20 – 22nd, hope to see you there, otherwise I’ll just hunt you down where you sleep.

AND THAT’S IT WOO HERE HAVE SOME MORE WATERDROPPIES

*flails*

*gesticulates*

*opens mouth, photos fly out*

I would like to apologize for that mildly pornographic lemon.

I don’t know how he got in here. I didn’t invite him.

ANYWAY here is a very quick drink recipe you should make, and then put in your face. And then you should make it again, and put it in your face again. Because though it’s not summer here, it got suddenly fucking hot. It had been cold. Unseasonably cold. And damp. And then spring was like, “Fuck it, I’m out early,” and it left the door open, and HELL-HOT SUMMER DEMONS SWEPT ON ON WINGS OF STEAM and they just took over the place. Which meant it was time for a nice, refreshing drink.

Thing is, bourbon is — for me! — not really a nice refreshing drink. I love it! I do. But I don’t associate it with hot summer days or anything.

Bourbon tends to be a winter/fall beverage in our house. In summer I tend to lean toward beer, gin, tequila, the iced tears of my foes.

And yet, I wanted bourbon.

So I made this, and you should make it, too.

Into your mixer goes:

Two ounces bourbon

One ounce of ginger syrup*

The juice of one lemon.

The juice of one (small) orange, like, a blood orange.

That’s literally it.

You could add in an ounce of triple sec or other orange liqueur.

You could add in an ounce of ginger liqueur to replace the ginger syrup.

You could add in a couple dashes of bitters, for sass.

You could just drink the fucking bourbon** and nobody would blame you.

Either way, toss that around and pop it over some ice.

Then drink ten of them and write a comment below.

(As a sidenote, Gareth Skarka on FB asked me what I called this drink, and I had no name, so I called it The Velvet Wendigo, so let’s just make that official, shall we?)

* if you don’t know how to make ginger simple syrup GOD I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU NNNGHHH okay fine take a knob (heh, knob) of peeled ginger and chop it up and pop it in a pot. Also into the pot: 1 cup of sugar (I mix half white, half brown), 1 cup of water, and for some silliness, a splash of vanilla. Boil, then reduce to simmer for 20-30 minutes, until reduced. Stir occasionally.

** this is where you’re like WHAT BOURBON CHUCK JEEZ GODDAMN and I will tell you my secret is that for mixing and casual sipping you can’t do wrong with W.L. Weller — rumor is it’s basically a cheap variant of Pappy Van Winkle, and honestly, for $20, it’s really pretty lovely; if you’re wanting something fancier, I have and enjoy a lot of bourbons, including but not limited to, Hudson Baby, Basil Hayden’s, Colonel Taylor, Bulleit, and so on. Scads of smaller batch bourbons are available but I am not as well-drank there as I am with gin***

*** fine I’ll recommend some fucking gin too, you savages: Bluecoat is hands-down my go-to gin, but also love the Botanist (makes a helluva G&T with elderflower tonic from Fevertree) — though, the greatest G&T I have ever been served was in NYC and it used a gin made by a Brooklyn company called Greenhook Ginsmiths. Sadly due to weirdness in PA liquor laws, I can’t really get it here. Then again, some of you don’t like gin, so, there you go.****

**** though if you don’t like gin I might recommend you try a real gin and not like, the RUBBING ALCOHOL PINE TREE variety you get in most bottles. Most gin is shit, or half-shit. Try something lighter, more botanical, and put it with a non-shitty tonic like FeverTree or Q.

HEY THERE.

Read a great Book Riot article by Alex Acks (author of the book, Hunger Makes The Wolf) about LGBT inclusion in Star Wars (or the failure to include LGBT in the cinematic universe of Star Wars), and it drummed up some responses from Yours Truly, which I’ve Storified below for you delight or your discarding. You don’t need to read my piffle, but do try to read the post at BookRiot. Kay? Kay. *ignites rainbow lightsaber, vwommzz*

SO, content has been a little thin at this here terribleminds-dot-com, and that’s for a handful of reasons. But first, hey look, new photos! One above and several below, mostly macro — but one is also a photo of BABBY GOATS, because if I can win your hearts with anything, I can win them with a photo of some BABBY GOATS, goddamnit.

Anyway, to continue.

Handful of reasons bloggerel has been a bit light —

First, I’ve had some mild problems with my site — it’s been sluggish and yo-yo’ing up and down. The host is looking into it, and though it’s gotten more stable, I’m not sure the digital turbulence is entirely over. (That said, I did fix the problem where email subscribers were no longer getting posts emailed from this blog but rather from “wordpress.com.” Thanks to all who offered fixes — the fix was ultimately easy, if irritating: I had to update not only WP, but Jetpack, and then initialize Jetpack, and also update all my other plugins for Reasons Unknown.)

Second, I’m currently writing A Really Big Book, like, the kind of book that is both big in plot and idea and SHEER BLOODYMINDEDNESS, so it’s been spending an excess of my Intellectual Energy Points (IEP). Every day the book takes a lot out of me. (In the best way possible, though. I’m really excited about it.)

Third, honestly, it’s a little hard to conjure blog content in this AGE OF DUMBFUCKERY — and I think people aren’t reading as much blog content, either, because they’re devoting a great many of their LFCRP (LongForm Content Reading Points) on articles and posts about this current AGE OF DUMBFUCKERY. So, it gets harder to pierce that veil both creatively and effectively with some little post about, “hey hi here’s how to successfully create narrative tension with artful comma placements OH GOD WHAT DID OUR PRESIDENT DO NOW AND OH SHIT ANTARCTICA IS ON ACTUAL FIRE I JUST SAW A POLAR BEAR COMMIT SUICIDE.”

Still, though, I need to get back into it a little bit, and assuming stability on the site’s part, that’s what I’mma do. Starting this week I’m going to post some shorter form writing stuff, maybe a recipe or three, and always a chance for some manner of frothing rantiness. Look for more STUNNING WENDIG-FLAVORED CONTENT in the coming days.

Sidenote: I hate the word “content.” It ranks up there with “IP” as the most milquetoast way of describing the junction point between art, entertainment, and information.

Then again, I also hate the word “blog,” which is the sound my dog makes before she throws up.

Anyway. Buy my books.

Have some pictures. Either here, or on my Flickr page.

(Warning: last photo on the page contains a spider. A really cool spider! A spider I’d never seen before! A glorious cyclosa orb-weaver trash-spider! But it’s a spider, so if that freaks your shit out, don’t scroll down.)

Always a fun one —

Ten random titles.

I give you a list.

(Gotten from a random title generator online.)

You pick (or randomly choose) a favorite.

Write a story.

Fun and easy.

I mean, y’know. “Easy.”

List at the bottom of the post.

Length of story: ~1000 words

Due by: Friday, June 16th, noon EST

The List Of Titles

1. The Secret Gift
2. Wave of Destruction
3. Laughing Lights
4. The Thief of Moons
5. The Thorn of Prophecy
6. Each Game
7. The Nobody
8. The Unwilling Word
9. A Year of Bodies
10. Cleaning Up The Ashes

I went on a bit of a Twitter tear about the upcoming Comey hearing, and in addition, the overall state of this country — with a call to action about trumping Trumpcare in the meantime. I’ve gone ahead and Storified those thoughts for you. Please to enjoy. Or not. I’m not your Dad. Yet.