Weekly Roundup: July 3rd - July 8th
I’m e rathke, the author of a number of books. Learn more about what you signed up for here. Go here to manage your email notifications.
This Week’s Posts
Monday: My review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I pay special attention to the hangoutedness of the series and the question: what do wizards do for a living?
Wednesday: Paying subscribers received Chapter Nine of Emrys the Fool and free subscribers received Chapter Seven. If you received neither, there are instructions here on how to get these in your email.
I just realized today (yesterday) that I made a bit of a mistake. You see, chapters are paywalled for two weeks before becoming freely available to everyone. Except Chapter Two, which had been inadvertently paywalled this whole time. It’s fixed now and available to everyone.
Now is a good time to jump into this, by the way. Chapter Ten, coming this Wednesday to paying subscribers, ends the first minor arc of the story. While the plan here is all quite loose, I do think I’ll try to structure it with these kind of minor arcs every 10 chapters or so. Anyway, it’s gettin good!
Thursday: My essay on Super Mario RPG, my favorite game. I argue that Final Fantasy VII wouldn’t have exploded in popularity without Super Mario RPG paving the way.
Friday: Not posted at this here substack, but I began my children’s storytime podcast. This is the story I’ve been telling my son for a few months and began recording for him on his Yoto Player. With that in mind, this is a story meant for children and so share it with a child.
A young boy named Carrot who wants to become a pirate. This first chapter involves a bedtime story.
Music by my good friend Bart Larsen.
Saturday: I hadn’t written a short story in years before writing Ambrosia Waffles, which burst out in about three hours. It’s as inspired by ranching stories as it is by gold rushes. I took all that and transported it to a dust covered planet far, far away that only has a single species.
I’ve always loved this story and I hope you check it out. It’s vulgar and tense but also sweet. Family drama type stuff.
From the Archives
Feels like this essay never really stops being relevant. It was one of the first things I wrote for this newsletter, though I saved it for a whole month before publishing it.
For a long time, this was the most popular post here. I don’t put my political posts in the Table of Contents for probably stupid reasons, but I think I’ve written some pretty dang good ones.
Listening
Reading
Stella Maris was great. Much better than The Passenger. Feels like a fitting end to McCarthy’s career. The way everything post-Blood Meridian has gradually stripped down to its bare skeleton.
Ripping everything down to just dialogue feels like where this was all heading. The Passenger feels more like a strange detour, whereas this is the culmination of the last thirty years.
More on McCarthy soon!
Also read Hondo by Louis L’Amour. Why did no one tell me that L’Amour was awesome? Honestly, this feels like a surprisingly influential novel on Cormac McCarthy, if you can believe it. L’Amour’s a better writer than I expected, but this novel is all killer, no filler, with the occasional beautiful turn of phrase.
Boy could write.
Been struggling to find something to write post-McCarthy, so I checked out several translations of Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight because I guess this is who I am now.
Watching
We watched Succession and I have a lot to say about it so expect something next month on that. We started watching The Bear, which I don’t really have anything to say about except that it’s not really a TV show with episodes. Which is very odd. But it does manage to be consistently engaging.
What Else?
Spent the week watching my kids, though I began following the
method of waking up at 5am to get some writing done. It’s been mostly successful! Though it does make me mad sleepy, since I’ve always been a night person. But I’m getting the words in, and I suppose that’s what counts.I’ll be doing the final edit of Iron Wolf this week. If you’re a reviewer and want an early copy, let me know.
Anyway, read my books that are currently out. Then review them.
Thank you.
My novels:
Glossolalia - A Le Guinian fantasy novel about an anarchic community dealing with a disaster
Sing, Behemoth, Sing - Deadwood meets Neon Genesis Evangelion
Howl - Vampire Hunter D meets The Book of the New Sun in this lofi cyberpunk/solarpunk monster hunting adventure
Colony Collapse - Star Trek meets Firefly in the opening episode of this space opera
The Blood Dancers - The standalone sequel to Colony Collapse.
Iron Wolf - Sequel to Howl. Coming 7/25/2023
Some free books for your trouble:
Wolf.
Howl.
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about The Bear! To me it is very similar to Succession--about people stuck in the same kinds of conflicts because of family trauma.
Yes, Louis L'Amour is often overlooked as "just" a western genre writer. Two of his best are nothing of the sort: "The Walking Drum" 12th Century and "Last of the Breed" American Indian fighter pilot shot down over Siberia surviving by his recalled native skills while tracked by a local Siberian.