Happy Birthday, Italo Calvino
Somewhere outside the realm of logic and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmagorical shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What arcane esoterica shall we uncover there today? Read on, traveler, and see . . .
Hello, and welcome to my spooktacular October newsletter! Just kidding, there is no seasonally appropriate content in here, who has time for that? And while we're talking about months I might as well acknowledge the elephant in the room: I didn't send out a September newsletter. This is a monthly newsletter, and it came out every month for over a year, but I broke my streak and brought shame upon my household. This happened for two reasons: one, I didn't have much to write about last month, and two, I forgot about it until it was too late.
The reason I haven't had much to write about is that I've been focused on finishing Swann Castle and it's taken up a lot of my time. Good news, though . . .
SWANN CASTLE UPDATE
I finished layout of the QAGS version! As you may recall, I foolishly committed to making three versions of this book. One of them is done. I shared the PDF with Kickstarter backers and ordered the print copies. I've been hard at work on the Troika! version and just finished layout. Now I only need to proofread it and I can share it with the backers. I should be able to get that done this week, which will leave only the OSE version remaining. It's been a long journey, but I've gotten a positive response from people so far, and I'm excited that soon all the backers will be able to see what we've made.
SEEING CALVINO
In 2014 I teamed up with two talented artist friends of mine, Matt Kish and Joe Kuth, to launch the Seeing Calvino project. We took turns illustrating all the cities from Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities in order, one a week, and shared the pictures on tumblr. We make some really nice pictures and got a positive response--much more of a response than I normally get for my creative endeavors. There's lots of Calvino fans out there, but most of them are in Italy. We've been profiled and featured in various Italian publications over the years.
October 15 was the 100th anniversary of Calvino's birth, which was observed by various Italian publications who asked permission to use some of our artwork. Here's a nice art gallery that includes some of my pieces alongside work by other artists.
For instance, this one's mine:
That's an illustration of . . . Fedora. It's embarrassing, but I don't remember the cities' names at all. So I'll get an email from someone saying, "Can I have permission to use your illustration of Fedora?" and I have no idea which one that is and have to look it up.
Anyway, Seeing Calvino, check out that tumblr if you haven't, there's some really good stuff there. And if you haven't read Invisible Cities you should, it's one of my favorite books.
And remember, I'm a nobody here but they love me in Italy. Love me!
THIS FALL, I STILL HAVE BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH KINDLE VELLA
There are 27 chapters available of my science-fiction adventure Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation.
And as always, you can read the entirety of my occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille on Kindle Vella. If you like hardboiled detectives, men with lobsters for heads, Nancy Drew, occult conspiracies, and/or the works of Lewis Carroll, go ahead and start at the beginning.
THE TOWERING WORKS OF LITERATURE CHALLENGE
Someone (me) recently posted the following challenge on social media: List 5 towering works of literature that blew your mind when you read them and which you still think about regularly. My list:
1. The Epic of Gilgamesh
2. Don Quixote
3. Moby-Dick
4. Absalom, Absalom!
5. Invisible Cities
That's two plugs for Invisible Cities in one newsletter. Run, don't walk to your local library to grab a copy!
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST MONTH
Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Road to Epoli, Ben Costa and James Parks
Thuvia, Maid of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Wow, only two books? In two months? That's the shortest book list I've ever included in one of these newsletters (shoutout to Josh Burnett who gave me the Rickety Stitch book--it's good!). I've been reading, just not a lot of books. For instance, I've read a lot of online articles . . .
SOME ARTICLES I'VE READ LATELY
In Defense of Bureaucratic Competence, by Corey Doctorow
The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather is Wrong, by ara Ocobock and Sarah Lacy
Long Live the Dream: An Oral History of the Five Years Later Legion of Super-Heroes, by Jim McDermott - Highly recommended. If you're familiar with the 5YL Legion, there will be all sorts of delightful pieces of trivia; if you're not, a whole world of wonder awaits.
These New Ghosts, by Rob Delaney
Farewell to a Poor Bastard, by Jeet Heer - I was struck surprisingly hard by the recent death of autobiographical cartoonist Joe Matt, and this piece helped me find some context for that grief.
Review: Tough Crowd by Graham Linehan, by Elizabeth Sandifer - This is a hilariously and insightfully savage review of a bad book.
In Gaza They Don't Even Bother to Call It Peace, by Amy Wilentz
Elon Musk, Innovator, by Ed Zitron
GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING
I'm still running my Old School Essentials Illmire game, and recently started running Dungeon Crawl Classics for game night at Transform. The players are teenagers and they are very enthusiastic. I'm starting things off with "Triumph Over the Grave," a zero-level funnel by Josh Burnett that I've been eager to run since I edited it. It went well--that Josh Burnett, he knows how to craft an adventure!
TV SHOWS I'VE BEEN WATCHING
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4
Fionna & Cake
Our Flag Means Death season 2
Loki season 2
Harley Quinn seasons 1-4
MOVIES I’VE WATCHED SINCE LAST MONTH
The Flash
The Handmaiden
Memento
Panic Room
Edge of Tomorrow
The Batman
Interstellar
Some good movies there, but by far the best of the bunch is The Handmaiden, directed by Park Chan-wook, available on Prime Video. The description on the site says, "PARK presents a gripping and sensual tale of two women - a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but is secretly plotting with a conman to defraud her of a large inheritance." And that's only the beginning.
It's a beautiful movie, though I should mention that is quite, uh, explicit in its depiction of the lead characters' sexual relationship. If you're okay with that, highly recommended!
OKAY, WHAT ELSE?
I'm still on Blue Sky as @leightonc.bsky.social and I've posted a few times. If you want quality content from me, though, this newsletter is your best bet. Be sure to tell all your friends to subscribe. If everyone who reads this just convinces five of their friends to sign up, my life would be improved 1000%. Just think about that!
And with that mathematically dubious assertion I will take my leave of you. This pumpkin's not going to carve itself. See you in November!
Your Pal,
Leighton