Shotgun Prose: December 2020

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Reading List 2020

The annual reading list of novels, shorts, non-fiction, graphic novels, the odd poem here and there, and a few other things like some kids books of note. I generally don't list re-reads, or even often re-read that much, but a couple of books I haven't read in decades made the list with a new heading.

Gaming

Unearthed Arcana by Gary Gygax
The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Ravnica by James Wyatt

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Dark Matter: 5th Edition Supplement by Mage Hand Press
Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game

Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount by Matthew Mercer & Wizards RPG Team

The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics For Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann

Mastering Magic Cards by George H. Baxter & Larry W. Smith, Ph.D.

Gurps Lite

Wedny's Presents: Feast of Legends: Rise From The Deep Freeze

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

The Lazy DM's Workbook by Michael E. Shea

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Poetry

A Dispatch From Seattle: or, Nervous in the Hot Zone by Sherman Alexie

Sublingual by Kiri Callaghan

Boogie Took The Cash by Jeff Eisenbrey

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Collections

A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi

Blackened White by Brian W. Foster

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Fiction

War of the Spark: Forsaken by Greg Weisman
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Age of Anxiety by Pete Townsend

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Highfire by Eoin Colfer

Warp by Lev Grossman

Otaku by Chris Kluwe

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
A Man by Keiichiro Hirano (translated by Eli K.P. William)

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home: Welcome to Night Vale, Book 3

by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel (The Carls) by Hank Green

The Last Emperox: The Interdependency Book 3 by John Scalzi

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Tube by Ksenia Anske

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehesi Coates

Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Birdwoman's Palate by Laksmi Pamuntjak

The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

Hell's Spells by Devon Monk

Ready Player Two by

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Wayward Souls: Souls of the Road by Devon Monk

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Short Fiction

Dues and Don'ts: An Ordinary Magic Story by Devon Monk

The Long Siege: Part Three of Avery Cates: The Burning City by Jeff Somers

Little Flame by Devon Monk

Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths - Sundered Bond by Django Wexler

Naked,Stoned,and Stabbed: A Wild Cards Story by Bradley Denton

Grace by Lisa Taddeo

Terranaut: Explorer by Blaze Ward
Called to the Warrior Path by Philip G. Lewis

The Dark Hunt: Part Four of Avery Cates: The Burning City by Jeff Somers

Evacuation by Alan Dean Foster

Der Katzenprinz by Liam O'Brien

A Poor Choice by Phil Lewis

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Non-Fiction

Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies: On Myths, Morons, Free Speech, Football, and Assorted Absurdities by Chris Kluwe

Aeternum Cascadia!: The NASL and MLS Soccer Rivalry Among the Pacific Northwest Franchises: Seasons 1968 to Present by Greg Harlan

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

One Life by Megan Rapinoe

The World of Critical Role: The History Behind the Epic Fantasy by Liz Marsham

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Graphic Novels/TPB

The Magicians: Alice's Story by Lev Grossman, Lilah Sturges, & Pius Bak

Starslayer: The Director's Cut by Mike Grell

Vagrant Queen (Vol 1) by Magdalene Visaggio & Jason Smith

American Jesus (Volume 1): Chosen by Mark Millar & Peter Gross

American Jesus (Volume 2): The New Messiah by Mark Millar & Peter Grose

Donut The Destroyer by Sarah Graley & Stef Purenins

The Flintstones Vol. 1 by Mark Russell & Steve Pugh

The Flintstones Vol. 2: Bedrock Bedlam by Mark Russell & Steve Pugh

Code Monkey Save World by Greg Pak et al

Punch! by Allan Amato et al

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Papers/Essays/Children's Books/Misc

Orbit and Attitude Performance of the Lightsail 2 Solar Sail Spacecraft by Mansell, Spencer, et al

Piggy and Pug by Anne Wheaton

Kat and Juju by Kataneh Vahdani

Rosie the Dragon and Charlie Say Good Night by Lauren H. Kerstein & Nate Wragg (Ill.)

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Re-reads

Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster

Midworld by Alan Dean Foster

Ephemera 2020

The annual Ephemera posting of stuff for me to remember what I have done. I actually have referred to these lists for a variety of reasons and it's my blog so I do this.

2020 was a year. There would have been a number other things on this list, but so much got cancelled and rescheduled that this list is very different than it should have been. That means playing in the GP in Seattle or displaying my game at a show in PDX or working various cons didn't happen. A lot of movies in the theatre didn't screen. Soccer media covering the Reign and WoSo and regional things more or less vanished in the Spring. Tickets for shows were refunded or the shows rescheduled for whenever later. Trips just didn't get booked. The decisions to work TX and CHI shows early in the year meant I did do at least some things, but the C2E2 vibe included a lot of worry over the pandemic beginning. I oddly spent 4 hours in LA on layover that I am fondly remembering for finding a friend in the terminal we hung out with.

We did do some fun virtual things like "Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell" through The Can Can Culinary Cabaret's Theatre at Home.

I had pre-noted a number of items and slowly was changing them to different dates and / or deleting them. Plus, I really was not gonna be a first wave of go and do stuff pawn. Pawns go first for a reason.

Actually happened:

Conventions

PAX South 1/17-19 ([E]) {3}
C2E2 2/28-3/1 (Starlight Division) {3}

Soccer Media (ProstAmerika/GoalieGuys)

* Remote coverage of events and matches (mostly, until October)

Press work done remote, conference calls, and Zoom. From quarantine to May NWSL Challenge Cup announcement, through the tourney, there was a time of ongoing virtual media work with coaches, players, owners, and the commissioner. I covered a few matches as though they were local. Got a chance to write a few other pieces like covering the Rave Green boys a few matches. This year would have included the second Reign season in Tacoma, some CLink rave green matches, and a few local scene matches for clubs like the Everett Jets. All Prost articles were also posted on the Goalie Guys site, as I worked to make that more of a habit. I did short Reign pieces during the tourney even when not assigned to be thorough and so the GG site would have a complete picture of the season. The GG site got all of the Prost pieces without the NWSL provided pics. Was attempting to do even more and UEFA is as elitist and as much of a dinosaur as one would imagine and doesn't work with modern online media in the way US teams and leagues and the federation does. Also, got an advance copy of Pinoe's book to review, which was cool. Guested on the ROTV podcast about Pinoe's book.

Sounders playoff coverage was in person. There were really strict rules, and that was comforting enough for me to take the assignment. But, having to decline the credential IRL for Columbus was really a harsh reminder of the year.

Live

OLR 1 v PTFC 2 / 10-10 Tacoma, WA - Cheney Stadium - NWSL Fall Series

OLR 2 v UTAH 0 / 10-17 Tacoma, WA - Cheney Stadium - NWSL Fall Series

SSFC 3 v LAFC 1 / 11-24 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs R1

SSFC 1 v FCD 0 / 12-01 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs WCS

SSFC 3 v MNU 2 / 12-07 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs WCF