Goodmorrow, friends! As always, I hope everyone’s doing well.
Just going to shamelessly start this blog update by making sure you’ve checked out my previous post from a few weeks ago, in which I gave a retrospective review of author Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers. As noted at the start of that little piece, I picked up the recently reprinted first omnibus for Hickman’s lengthy run on the title last month, which sort of inspired me to share my thoughts on the run as a whole. So, if you haven’t already, be sure to give that a read!
Other than that little tidbit, March was actually fairly smooth sailing as a whole, if not also a bit boring at times. But that’s kind of to be expected, I think, since March is basically a lull period before the year starts to get more interesting. That’s especially true as we head into spring, and the weather starts getting much, much nicer.
So, on my end, not a whole lot happened in March. Just kind of more of the usual, which is both good and bad, I guess. though it certainly leans more towards being good, as I’ve been working on three short stories simultaneously. The Blood Sisters tales are at the forefront of my attention as of late, and as previously mentioned, I should be ready to start dropping those by the end of April.
As part of that ongoing process, though, I’ve started thinking more about how I want the overarching plot of those short stories to eventually play out. For greater context, the Blood Sisters are meant to serve as villains to a larger superhero book I’ve had in mind since high school. I started writing out the Blood Sisters stories in college, though, as a means to flesh out these villains that I knew would each be pivotal to the story. Since I’ve been dedicating so much time to each of them, though, I’ve started to wonder if the full story’s focus should really be on them instead, and playing around with this idea has yielded some highly entertaining results that I’m very excited to explore down the line.
Nevertheless, the stories are coming along nicely. I’m pretty much already done with the updates needed for “Scars,” which I knew would be the easiest of the three I’ve done so far to fix up. “Recoil” is proving a bit more complicated, as there are several ways I feel like I can actually write and present the story, in addition to there also being a few completely new elements I need to add to give the titular character some much more needed depth. I haven’t returned to “Vial” since finishing it, but I’m playing with several ideas for how I’m going to readjust it and improve the pacing (believe me, it’s kind of a mess at the moment).
Aside from working on those three, the ongoing struggle of trying to get published also continues. My first choice of magazine, Apex Magazine, were unfortunately not interested in publishing my short story, “Soul Survivor,” but that was more or less to be expected. Getting that first publication is a challenge, as any writer in the field will tell you, so while I’m upset by the rejection, I’m not about to let it get me down. After all, there are plenty of other great magazines out there that I’d love to be published by. Just a matter of finding the right one, which I’m confident will happen sooner rather than later.
Outside of the ongoing writing antics, March also provided me with plenty of new tunes to listen to—which is always helpful for when I’m working on whatever. Primarily, I started listening to Invent Animate, who have been on my radar for a while but never really stuck with me until now, and BABYMETAL, my new musical guilty pleasure. It also turned out to be super convenient that I dug into these bands’ material in March, because they both had new albums drop during the month as well.
Invent Animate’s latest album, Heavener, is one of the most tonally consistent and satisfying albums I’ve heard in a while. It’s not my usual cup of tea, as it were, which I think is a big part of why I like it so much; it’s a fairly different type of metalcore than I’m otherwise used to. Though there are a few standouts, such as the closing track “Elysium,” the record largely holds its ground by presenting a unified sound, with some insanely slick guitars, pounding drums, and grounded lyrics. And while I anticipate there may yet be better albums in store for this year, I’m sure this one will stand as a strong Album of the Year contender for many metal enthusiasts.
BABYMETAL are an oddity, to put it lightly. That I was so utterly enamored with their sound was a surprise even to me. So, as I started digging into their discography in early March, I was elated to find they would be dropping a new album within a matter of weeks. Lo and behold, The Other One does not disappoint. As many review outlets have pointed out, this record helps to cement the kawaii metal group as a prominent presence in the metal scene as a whole. While many of the fun elements that made their previous albums so enthusiastic and amusing are present here as well, this latest effort from BABYMETAL demonstrates that the ever evolving and maturing musical talents of the songwriters and performers are not to be ignored.
In the realms of literature, I’ve been reading Himself by author Jess Kidd, in addition to catching up on other Marvel titles. I originally purchased the former novel during my time studying abroad in England in the spring of 2017. Yes, I recognize the problem in me letting the book sit on my shelf for about six years. But hey, I’m finally reading it, so better late than never. I’m not terribly far into it yet, so I can’t precisely say what it’s all about just yet, but the early chapters have been setting up a very interesting mystery, one that I’ll be gladly blogging about sometime in the near future once I finish the book.
Other than all of that jazz, life has otherwise been fairly straightforward as of late, as previously noted. And seeing as though I’m very tired as of the writing of this blog, I think I’m just gonna cut it here as opposed to drawing it out with the usual “end of the post” banter. I think everyone gets the gist of this one anyway at this point.
So, until next time, stay chill everyone. Although maybe not literally, since it’s spring and it’s getting warmer outside. Eh, whatever. Peace!