I played Ruination for the first time last night. It’s pretty fun if you like combat/area control. I like the action selection/card draw mechanism. The combat’s dice drafting is better than I thought it would be. Also, the replay value seems high with the card drafting to build your abilities.

Writing Battle has invited me to participate as a professional judge in the upcoming Wonder Battle starting on April 13!

The Wonder #flash #fiction stories will have 4 possible genres that participants will draw from: #Sci-Fi, #Fantasy, #Fairy Tale & #Adventure.

More here: writingbattle.com

Madmartigan will forever remain the Greatest Swordsman That Ever Lived.

Val Kilmer (1959–2025)

I’m happy to report that after quite some time, one of my orchids finally bloomed again!

#orchids #houseplants #plants

Finished reading: The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

#amreading #books #gothic #horrorbooks

Lunch at a New York City automat, from the March 1942 National Geographic (photo by: J. Baylor Roberts)

Last night, I read Shirley Jackson’s “Pillar of Salt” (set in Manhattan), and an automat is mentioned in it. It made me wish they were still a thing.

I've been looking for book recommendations for people who enjoyed the video game Disco Elysium. Authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, China Miéville, Philip K. Dick, Albert Camus, and Thomas Pynchon have come up, which actually makes a lot of sense.

"SF has never really aimed to tell us when we might reach other planets, or develop new technologies, or meet aliens. SF speculates about why we might want to do these things & how their consequences might affect our lives and our planet."

—John Clute, Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia

A reminder that Isaac Asimov wrote this 45 years ago. You can't reason with a cult.

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

Despite the liberties taken regarding the concept of life on Mars, the book otherwise explores scientific concepts (both social and biological) that make it engaging.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, like I did The Time Machine a decade ago.

Finished reading: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

I enjoy short stories, and I enjoy blended genres. The two often go hand in hand because writers can take greater risks with short fiction than with novels. This collection is no exception. www.instagram.com/p/DGQkcOVRkeQ/

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night

Finished reading: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a prime example of why Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favourite writers. Spectacular novel.

It's interesting to read it at a time when the pronoun debate continues to rage on.

This is the current status of the watermelon peperomia propagation I’m attempting.

I’m not sure I know what I’m doing, but nothing’s died yet.

The only other propagation experience I have is with a lucky bamboo, but that was water to water, while this one is water to soil. #houseplants

"There's trouble and then there’s trouble, and the trouble with some trouble is at first...it don’t look like trouble."

—Waylon Jennings, The Dukes of Hazzard

Finished reading: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

This is my first time reading a Sherlock Holmes story, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't what I expected, as Holmes himself isn't in much of the story. But it all works out regarding its mystery.

#booksky #mysterylit