Supernatural Creatures

DK. (192p) ISBN: 9780241656938
Supernatural Creatures

Supernatural Creatures

This was such a highlight of a not so great week, opening an unexpected parcel and finding this sumptuous hardback from DK in (I’d forgotten I’d asked for it!)

When I opened it I wasn’t disappointed as each page (double page spread) talked about different mythical beings from around the world. Each entry was accompanied by gorgeous illustrations that really make this book stand out.

I’d read a book earlier this year about supernatural beings from around the world that made out that none of these creatures existed before a person from the colonising nation(s) had seen the creature and that was so wrong and racist. This book acknowledges the cultural and historic background of the myths and creatures that are included.

The information in the book is firmly aimed at children but is so well thought out that it would cover a large age range and even be a great primer for older people who get a new interest in myths and legends.

Set out in chapters that pull the various creatures into a loose classification, it makes it easier if you’re looking for something that you know of, but it also helps show similarities in myth from different timesand cultures.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read, lots of fun information presented in a beautiful format, well worth it for any youngster who is into mythology.


Bottom Ko-Fi

Share this:

Fiction Prompts

Signature

Signature

I’ve just found a source of some fiction prompts which was what I was looking for 🙂 Will start working through these to give me some ideas for short stories and flash fiction.

I will add more fiction prompts as I find them or think of them for anyone to use 🙂

  • Listening to a couple speaking in the street and one of them uses the mantra “Eat, Sleep, Slave, Repeat”
  • Following the pylons home through the mist
  • The moon looks big in the sky. A little too big.
  • A minor cut won’t stop bleeding.
  • Something is scratching the inside of your closet door.
  • Your life is on your phone, but you just dropped it into a pit of deadly vipers.
  • Your mouthwash is actually a magic potion.
  • You awaken to find yourself locked in a casket.
  • You trade lives with your cat for a day.
  • The new USB drive you bought came preloaded with a strange secret.
  • Every time you enter your house, you hear the faint sound of children laughing. You have no children, and none live on your street.
  • Your rich uncle give you the supernatural secret to his fortune.
  • You interact with a ghost that doesn’t know it’s dead.
  • Your new running shoes have a special feature which allows you to run further and faster, but it comes with a unique price.
  • A strange new social movement was actually started by space aliens (or time travellers).
  • One of the books in the library glows.
  • A mummy’s curse falls over an entire town.
  • Your fingernails fall out, but are replaced by retractable claws.
  • An app store lets you download magic spells.
  • Those toy laser guns at the amusement park souvenir stand aren’t toys.
  • Your imagination runs wild – everything you imagine comes true.
  • Your parents reveal a dark family secret.
  • Unbeknownst to you, an alien has been visiting you in your sleep for years.
  • A favourite piece of jewellery is more than it seems.
  • Your favourite childhood storybook comes to life.
  • What in the world is that in your stocking?
  • Santa has a terrible secret that may ruin Christmas.
  • A newborn child can converse in perfect English.
  • The Mayans were right… sort of.
  • The airline didn’t lose your luggage — they changed it into something different.
  • A new app for your phone bends the laws of physics.
  • A patch of quicksand leads to another world.
  • The fireplace leads to a wonderland, but only when it is lit.
  • An alien society seizes control of your tablet computer.
  • A new app lets you copy your soul and download it into different things.
  • Your pen contains magic ink.
  • A tiny planet declares independence from the intergalactic empire.
  • The heat and humidity begin to melt people. Literally.
  • Days begin to run backwards.
  • Terrorists create an app that instantly kills anyone who downloads it.
  • The scent of a certain rose does strange things to people’s minds.
  • Space aliens built the pyramids.
  • Ancient Atlantis is discovered, and it is a thriving society.
  • A Twitter follower follows you in real life.
  • The Post Office demands more than just a mere stamp to deliver your letter.
  • If a top-secret government computer is shut down, the entire universe is shut down.
  • There’s intelligence in that stray dog’s eyes. Too much intelligence.
  • Your iPod plays a strange song you didn’t load onto it.
  • You turn on the shower and blood pours out of the faucet.
  • You awaken into the world of your favourite novel.
  • There’s a new app available that lets you control minds.
  • A tiny dragon, no bigger than a hummingbird, befriends you.
  • The newest gym craze is exploding exercise bikes: stop peddling and BOOM!
  • A new bottled water on the market doesn’t exactly contain water.
  • The light from a sun in a distant solar system has strange effects on a crew of astronauts.
  • A rabbit-eared television set can control time and space.
  • A radical environmental group starts assassinating smokers.
  • Is that Santa climbing down your chimney…or something else entirely?
  • Your favourite stuffed animal comes to life.
  • A tiny spacecraft crashes through your bedroom window.
  • Gnomes follow you home.
  • A buzzard circles above you.
  • Space aliens knock on your front door.
  • Your dog strikes up a conversation with you.
  • An Internet virus affects your computer in a strange way.
  • You hear a nearby train whistle. There are no railroad tracks anywhere close.
  • The court jester has a sinister gleam in his eyes.
  • You’re alone, but there are footsteps in the hall.
  • You find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
  • The local zoo displays a real unicorn.
  • There is a monster inside your mattress.
  • A dragon is spotted flying over a distant farm.
  • A shooting star just changed directions.
  • Your favourite video game is actually a training manual for death.

Bottom Ko-Fi

Share this:

Future Blogging

Journal

Thoughts

Been having a lot of problems with motivation to read lately, lots going on in my life and working full time with a 12-hour day out of the house has put a real crimp on any chance of blogging on any kind of regular basis.

It’s started making me feel really anxious about the whole blogging thing as I was tipping into the idea of having timetables and goals again which is never healthy, and this was adding to me feeling a lot of FOMO at the moment.

I was chasing ARCs and release dates without the actual capacity to do anything close to achieving any of these self-imposed goals.

I subconsciously was trying to develop a side-hustle without having the space or energy to put into a side-hustle and this is causing me a lot of anxiety, and as soon as I realised this I pulled back a bit on everything and that’s why there’s been no newsletter for a while, review rates are down as is my posting on social media. I now only really seem to be posting on Bluesky as it feel far more relaxed but with some great interaction.

At this point I’m not entirely sure of what I’m doing or how I want to proceed but I know I’m no longer chasing ARCs and deadlines, I’ll eventually read all the books I’ve got but will not feel pressured by dates. I’ll also no longer be taking any review requests as these have been getting weirder and weirder over the last few months, some aggressive, most passive aggressive.

So from now I’m just going to blog when I feel like it and can fit it in, not feel as though there’s any pressure on me to hustle and just enjoy myself again.


Bottom Ko-Fi

Share this:

The Story of Art Without Men

Katy Hessel. Cornerstone. (576p) ISBN: 9781529156096
The Story of Art Without Men

The Story of Art Without Men

I’ve got the lovely slip case version of this since it came out, and have always meant to read it through, but never quite got around to it.

Since I read Noclin and Greer, and other second wave feminists art historians during my Art History degree and have continued to explore art through a feminist and Marxist lens since.

What Katy Hessel has done her is to build on the work of these authors from the 70s and onward to produce a review of artists taking in different periods and styles.

Rather than comparing to their male contemporaries they are discussed as artists in their own right and how they progressed the work and visibility of women in the art spaces of the world.

Each artist gets such a small section that at times you feel that you are screeching thorough art history at breakneck speed, but what it did was give me names and periods to explore further as a good survey should.

This was a great book in hardback but it is an essential book in paperback for those who need to see a well researched and developed survey of women artists throughout the world.


Bottom Ko-Fi

Share this:

Of Cattle and Men

Ana Paula Maia, Zoë Perry (trans). Charco Press. (99p) ISBN: 9781913867492
Of Cattle and Men

Of Cattle and Men

It’s August so that means it’s Women in Translation month, and this is the first of a few Charco Press books I aim to read this month.

It’s pretty much a given that anything that comes with a Charco Press label is going to be good, never had a bad one yet and this was no exception.

Set in an abattoir in rural Brazil where the river is so contaminated with blood that it turns red and salty and the air is heavy with repressed emotions and madness.

The main character we follow is Edgar Wilson, a stun operator at the abattoir, a man who is used to death and killing and takes all in his stride. Edgar knows he is damned and at times this book feels like he’s living through his damnation on earth. Edgar takes care in all he does, notices all that is going on around him and is calm at all points.

As we read on the descent into madness and chaos grows, with the cattle and men mirroring states and often indistinguishable. There is a very honest look into the meat industry and Edgar is exceptionally honest about it and his part in it.

That feeling of damnation whilst on earth and Man’s domination over nature has really strong old-fashioned Catholic vibes to it, as I said before Edgar knows he’s damned and has accepted this as his place as no matter how much forgiveness he received it wouldn’t be enough to wash away the stains on his soul.

Dark and claustrophobic in its relentlessness and closeness of space, the heaviness of the constant blood and fetidness of the miasma of death that surround everything and everyone.

A worthy winner of the Republic of Consciousness prize 2024 as if continues a tradition of the exploration of the dark side of humanity and our relationships with nature and our descent into those depths without shying away from the blood and shit that comes with it.


Bottom Ko-Fi

Share this: