December 17, 2023

Weekly Roundup Vol. 13

Deliveries Galore!

Hello and welcome to this week’s roundup! This week’s won’t be so chronological, instead focussing on the exciting deliveries I’ve received in the build up to Christmas, as well as one day out to Canterbury.

But first: writing-wise, I’m carrying on with the crystal’s journey. It’s reached Trier, the impressive capital of the Western Roman Empire, like a Rome of its own in Germany. I visited in November of last year (while all the magical Christmas markets were going on) so it’s nice to revisit, writing about buildings I’ve seen but two thousand years ago. Writing this was also very rewarding:

I managed to reflect on the journey of my writing from age twelve to eighteen, all the interconnected tales I’ve told, and how they became such a beacon of escapism during lockdowns.

I also want to share this amazing opportunity I’ve found: The Kate Nash Literary Agency's BookCamp Mentorship will take on eight writers for amazing training and feedback, as well as representation from their agency. The underlined link will take you to a page where you can read all about applying - you will need the first 25,000 words of a near-complete or complete novel.

Tales from the Rancor Pit

I’m going to start by thanking for all he’s shared this year on (subscribe to it!). All the insights and humour, all the kind replies and inspirations are worth much more than a nice hardback comic, but if you buy from his website you can support Cavan directly, and get signed editions of his comics and books - Star Wars and more! I recently finished reading Marvel’s Yoda series that he, Jody Houser and worked on - would definitely recommended if you want to see that Jedi Master go on quite a journey (or journeys).

Anyway, Tales from the Rancor Pit is in the tradition of Halloween stories:

The publisher’s summary:

A galaxy of fear!

It's a dark and stormy night on Tatooine as Jabba the Hutt's victim hangs perilously above the rancor pit with only his collection of scary stories to save him. New York Times bestseller Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic, Tales from Vaders Castle) teams up with with fan-favorites artists Nick Brokenshire, Juan Samu, Rafael Pérez, and Puste for a trio of terrifying tales just in time for Halloween. Experience clanking droid ghosts, explore the chilling wampa caves of Hoth and go monster hunting with Saber-For-Hire Ty Yorrick.

All-new all-ages adventures from throughout the galaxy!

Thanks again Cavan, for the bonus goodies (after reading the behind the scenes on the Shadows Service series, I’m glad I get to join MI666) and quality rancor drawing too! It was a wonderful package to open, but not the only one this week!

ALTRVERSE Physical Copies

I talked about jacksepticeye’s ALTRVERSE of interconnected stories across varying media last week after reading the digital comic. See here to find my thoughts on that. But this week the physical comics arrived (miraculously intact from America), all four variant covers of Issue #0.

I was very happy when it was announced, a comic book written by proper comic book writers, and illustrated, lettered and edited by equal pros. I’d really recommend checking them out!

That’s what I wrote last week, and it stands true. As somewhat of a collector I’m only going to open one edition of this comic (but not yet, they are Christmas presents…). Seeing them in person is wonderful though. I’ve seen jacksepticeye (Sean) go from a twenty-four-year-old guy filming videos against a sheet in his family’s log cabin in Ireland, to living in Brighton with his own coffee brand, short films, comics and live shows that sell out theatres. I say all that, but I do believe if you have no idea who he is, you’ll enjoy the comics that will be starting to come out regularly next year, at least five issues each for the two stories - one about a magician, the other a superhero.

A big shout out to Kano, Suzi Blake and Austin Baechle for these wonderful covers - and for the art inside! And to Alejandro Arbona and James Asmus for writing the two stories, plus of course all the wonderful colourists and letterers and editors that make every comic possible.

I’m particular happy to own these variant covers, especially the rarer foil one - all but the base cover are gone now on the publisher’s, Bad Egg’s, website.

An Afternoon in Canterbury

I went with my family to see the Canterbury Christmas market and pop in our usual bookshops. Before that though, we visited the oldest church in the English-speaking world. It really depends how you define that I suppose, but this church is old - the first one on the site was Roman, sometime before 410BCE.

You can see some Roman brick amongst the wall there, and the Roman rectangular doorway and arched Saxon one beside it. It was the first stop on the spread of Christianity to England in Anglo-Saxon times in 597BCE before the Canterbury abbey and Cathedral, so is well worth the visit if you’re interested in that sort of history. The highlight was probably seeing the stonework of all different periods, being able to see the history of the structure over 1500 years in the walls.

We also popped back in the Cathedral where they had a range of Christmas trees and angels decorating the space for Christmas, plus the largest nativity scene I’ve seen.

The Canterbury Oxfam never ceases to supply me with good books either.

Catalyst is one of my favourite Star Wars novels, so much more than a Rogue One tie-in. If you like that film then this is a prequel that certainly stands on its own, and really gets into the science and politics behind the Death Star’s construction. I saw the hardcover in an earlier charity shop that day but in slightly less good condition. Seeing it a second time felt like a sign to add it to my collection, especially as upon looking inside I discovered it had some design features missing in the paperback. One of my friends recommended Complicity to me so that’s another book on TBR pile that will take me into the next decade, or to the moon, by the looks of it.

After that it was dark and we enjoyed the market atmosphere and Christmas lights - though the market was smaller than last year and significantly lacking food that wasn’t chocolate or meat.

Thanks for reading! Let me know how your week went, if you feel like it.

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Cheers,

Harvey