Macro Monday’s The Hell Outta Here

SO HEY HI GUYS HOW ARE YOU has anything been happening since the last Macro Monday anything at all what’s that nothing’s been happening everything is fine oh okay cool see you later.

*pulls bucket back over head, hums quietly to self*

Ahem.

Yeah, no, if only it were that easy to duck and cover.

Obviously, I hope you’re doing okay, and if not, feel free to say so and email me or say hi on Twitter and while I’m not sure I can offer much by way of actual optimism and encouragement, I’ll be happy to do my best.

In other news, expect this blog to go quiet until around December 1st — this week I’ll be fucking right off to Hawaii, which, y’know, I know, woe is me. We’ve been trying to get back to Hawaii since our son was born (on our last trip, my wife was saddled with morning sickness resulting from the tiny person, which led to her reduced enjoyment of the overall Aloha experience), and so we’ve been planning this trip now for a while. I did not quite expect that it would fall in the wake of such a bleak time, but I’m going to use it to get away, bask in the sun like a mule-kicked hound, and clear away any of the brain spiders that have been building webs in my skull over the last week (really, the last many months).

This means obviously that any extra writing talk will be shuttered for the rest of the month, so I won’t be around for the remainder of National Novel Writing Month. (Though, part of me suspects that most participants in NaNoWriMo are gonna need a mulligan. And probably a bottle of whiskey apiece.) I’ll note quite selfishly again that if you’re looking for a big epic fear-crushing bundle of my own writing advice, you can grab my 8-book bundle for 25% off (so, $15) with code NANOWRIMO. Click here to do exactly that. Or, for a more polished and concise presentation, you may find value in The Kick-Ass Writer, which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Or, more self-promo alert, if you’d rather the sweet nepenthe of escapist fiction, for some reason a bunch of my books are on sale in e-book. Looks like Zer0es, Blackbirds, Mockingbird, The Cormorant, they’re all down to $6.99, and even Thunderbird on Kindle is pre-orderable at $7.99. Invasive is down to $9.99. (You might argue that given the climate, both Zer0es and Invasive will give you lots to talk and think about.) Then there’s Forever Endeavor, which is just $2.99 and does some neat things with time travel and regret and also tying together some elements of the overall Wendigverse…

ANYWAY.

Self-promo flurry over.

Here I’ll also note some books by authors I love recently —

Just started reading the flipped-on-its-head Lovecraftian noir tale, Hammers on Bone, by Cassandra Khaw, who is really good and also really twisted so, y’know, go looky.

If you want to amp up that cold, greasy feeling of a reality slipping away from you, continue on and read the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer.

I’m behind on my Daniel Polansky, but really, just go grab The Builders right now.

If you want non-fiction, Mary Roach is always a funny and informative winner, and her newest, Grunt, is no different — the science of the military, of the soldier, laid bare.

Ramez Naam’s The Nexus Trilogy is on deep-sale right now and so worth it.

Finally, I just finished reading three books that aren’t out yet, but you should really look for in the future — Sarah Gailey’s River of Teeth (WILD NOT-QUITE-WEST HIPPOPOCALYPSE!), Christopher Golden’s Ararat (INFERNAL TERROR ON A MOUNTAIN!), and Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes (CLONES MUST SOLVE THEIR OWN MURDERS IN SPAAAAAACE).

There you go.

Books.

Now, I’ll take your recommendations, since I’ll be traveling to and from a faraway island and that means I’m on planes for a very long time (~22 hours total), which means I’m going to have an opportunity to flee social media and do some damn reading.

Recommend for me a book.

Do this now.

I’ll wait here under this bucket.

*hums quietly to self*