Offbeat Offline: March 2022

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? More medical drama, and, um, that's it? I'm slowly/not so slowly inching toward the end of my 20-plus-years stunt as a radio personality (ha! "personality" makes it sound like I'm famous, which is SO not the case) and I'm still incapable to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. And oh, of course I've been reading. Pretty average...

📚 A VARIED BUNCH. I was approved for two ARCs this month, and two more I downloaded because they were Read Now (all of them are from NetGalley). The approvals are Prison of Sleep by Tim Pratt (adult, sci-fi, book 2 in the Journals of Zaxony Delatree - out at the end of the month) and the anthology Someone in Time (adult, sci-fi/romance, out in May). The Read Now books are the anthology Classic Monsters Unleashed (adult, fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi-ish, slated for release in July) and Picture Unavailable by Andrew J Brandt (YA, afterlife/thriller, out in October). And yep, you read it right - Someone in Time has romance in it 😮. But hear me out...I requested/downloaded the two anthologies because Seanan McGuire has a story in both, but the primary reason why I decided to brave Someone in Time was because the stories hinge on time travel...and go figure, while Classic Monsters Unleashed didn't work for me, I'm liking Someone in Time a lot. Quality writing and originality go a long way...plus, as I said, time travel 🤩. (Also, to be honest, the romance part isn't heavy).

Here are the books whose reviews I'm going to post this month: the aforementioned Prison of Sleep by Tim Pratt (on the 10th) and End of the World House by Adrienne Celt (on the 15th). I got the latter in September via Edelweiss - it's an adult story in which two friends go through a lot of weird stuff, but I'm not going to place a genre label on it because it would spoil the fun in case you want to read it... 

Reviews aside, I'll participate in two Tell Me Something Tuesday rounds: on the 19th (question: How Did You Choose Your Blogging Platform?) and on the 26th (question: Do You Still Own Any Books/Comics/Toys/Memorabilia From When You Were a Kid?). Both are prompts that I submitted. About that...I'm not purposefully ignoring my fellows hosts' questions...but sometimes I can't make the time to write my posts, so I end up commenting on theirs and leaving it at that...I plan on changing course though (here's hoping). 

🧑‍⚕️AN ARM AND A LEG. I got X-rays on my right arm because it's been hurting for a while, mainly when I raise it, and I made an orthopedist appointment. To cut a long story short, the rays showed signs of arthrosis, but still at an early stage. A handful of days before my appointment, I kneeled and heard a crack in my left knee, followed by a sharp pain and a warm sensation. I was able to return to a standing position, and after a while the pain receded - but the following night, while I was shifting in bed, the same knee cracked again, and when I went to straighten it I found that I couldn't. I sat on the bed, braced myself for pain and tried again, finally managing to unbend my leg. Needless to say, I was a bit scared. When I went to the orthopedist's, he suggested "holy water" as a cure for my arthrosis, and almost like an afterthought he prescribed ultrasounds for my arm and gym for my knees (with a personal trainer, no less, because I can pay for one 🤨), since from my most recent knee X-rays (dated six months ago) he could see that my leg muscles are weak and their bones bear all the weight of my upper body. In case you're wondering, he didn't even visit me - he only asked me to move my arm a little and concluded that I have "excellent mobility". Hey, you asshole, my arm can move, but it fucking HURTS 😡.

So, the day after, my husband - who works as a switchboard operator for the local hospital - mentioned my problems to another orthopedist he is in friendly terms with (I don't mean they are actually friends, but they have a good working relationship), and went as far as to mention the first doctor's unfortunate "holy water" joke. The second orthopedist told him I could go and see him in two days. He DID visit me (thoroughly), and concluded that I have tendon inflammation - both in my arm and my knee - which should benefit from laser therapy. (BTW, when I say "visited" I mean that he made me push at his hand with my arm in different positions until I couldn't take it anymore - not just "move" it - and he applied pressure to my knee as well). He was puzzled about my knee-bending incident, to be honest, because he couldn't detect any meniscus issues, but advised me to try therapy and to get an MRI if the thing should happen again. Welcome to the next installment of my health's downhill saga 😬 😫.

😐 IN STASIS. As for the rest, nothing new. I don't want to talk about my upcoming unemployment right now...I'll do it next month, when I'll be out of work for real. I'm regularly checking the net for job opportunities in my town, but I haven't been actively looking lately (as in, placing calls and giving out copies of my CV). I'll go back to that when I'm officially unemployed and have more hours to kill...The only good piece of news I have is about my MIL, who's doing a lot better. On Wednesday the doctors will remove the nail they put in her bone to help it heal. At least there's that.

PUBLISHING NEWS/TIPS

• The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning is finally out, and here's the author's own hilarious unboxing video! Seriously, you have to click on that link, because it's worth it. I don't know how to embed a Twitter video in a Blogger post - apparently, they're not friends 🙄.

THINK-PIECES, DISCUSSIONS, ORIGINAL FICTION

• Emily opens up about her mental health (and explains the cathartic value of such a post).
• Cee Arr shares a short poem she wrote (and as usual, whether it's prose or poetry, her writing is so good).

REVIEWS/RECOMMENDATIONS

• Kit reviews Dead Collection by Isaac Fellman, "a nuanced portrayal of gender and gender exploration and, to some extent, attraction".
• Jen shares a list of YA and adult dark academia books with some shows/movies thrown in for good measure.

OTHER

• Veronika recommends some podcasts (as you probably know by now, she loves the medium and is always on the hunt for new ones).

(I'm sorry about this section's being so short...I forgot to take notes for this post...😳).

That's it for now! My next post will be up on Sun. 10th, and it will be the Prison of Sleep review I announced above.

So, what were your highs/lows in the past month?