Offbeat Offline: April 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? The end of a 20-plus-years job, basically 😭. There's been other stuff of course, but nothing headlines-worthy like finding yourself jobless at 55 and badly needing the money and not having a clue what to do. I've had 3 months to prepare, and I'm still at square one. In other news, I've been declared thrombosis-free, my mum got Covid (bad cold and cough and everything tasted bitter, but she recovered nicely), and El0n Mu$k bought Twitter 🤢 (maybe I should request that my old account be reinstated, since it was suspended indefinitely because some bot used it to tweet about crypt0curr3ncy in his name. Oh the irony).

Also...last minute piece of news: I got my usual laryngitis (+ cold), because of course. At least I hope it is. I feel like I got hit by a truck, but I don't have a fever or other typical Covid symptoms. I'm getting a swab on Friday because I have a hair appointment for Saturday (THE PERM) and other errands to run, and I have to (hopefully) make sure I can go. I can't even begin to process the risk that my already small world could stop for an indefinite time. I feel like the universe's scapegoat at this point. Wasn't it enough what I've suffered since Dec. 31st 2020? Wasn't it enough that I lost my job and I've barely started my first month of unemployment? Wasn't my life as a whole shitty enough? I can't seem to catch a breath, and I'm so tired and angry. Even if it turns out not to be Covid, I feel like crap, and I'm facing my usual month-long suffering, because that's how my throat problems work. Anyhow...sorry for the rant, and sorry if mine sound like first-world problems to some of you, but there's only so much a person can endure. Please send healing vibes 😥.

Note: it's Fri. 6th, I had my swab this morning, and OF COURSE IT'S COVID 😭😭😭. They booked me a second swab for next Friday. Let's hope to be in the clear by then AT LEAST 🤒🤬.

📚 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. I just realised that all my April reads have been on the dark side. I mean...it's not like I ever read "fluffy" books, but a whole string of them? That's a lot, even for my standards 😂.

I read the Laughter at the Academy anthology by Seanan McGuire, which will be in my next bunch of mini reviews (spoiler: very imaginative, I really liked it).

I reread What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman for review purposes, and I was on the verge of giving up and letting my old mini review do the talking, because I was at a loss to do it justice with a "proper" one...but I can't bear not to write a full review for the books I really loved - plus I reasoned that this wouldn't be my first rodeo, and I'd always found a way to talk about tricky books before, so why not this one? Leaving the book without a full review would have been the easy way out, except it wasn't easy because it was paining me, and then again, when have I ever done "easy"? 😉 So, I wrote my review, and it isn't half bad, and it will go live in a few days.

I read Picture Unavailable by Andrew J. Brandt, which was in the Read Now section on NetGalley. Three stars - I'll post my mini in July, but you can read it on Goodreads for now (P.S.: the author graciously liked my review, even if I pointed out what I considered the book's weaknesses...).

I was approved for Last Exit by Max Gladstone on NetGalley at the last minute (the book expires in a few days). It's a long, tick novel, and it doesn't pull any punches, but I'm loving it. I'm going to squeeze my review into my already packed May schedule.

Here is my review plan for this month: 

• Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance by Jonathan Strahan et al., Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire [see above] and Switch by A.S. King (in a mini-review round on Sun. 8th);
• the aforementioned What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman (on Thu. 12th) and Last Exit by Max Gladstone (on Sat. 28th).

Funny how many purple covers from different years
I managed to gather

Reviews aside, I mean to participate (if health permits) in two Tell Me Something Tuesday rounds: on the 17th (question: How long have you been blogging? And has your blog changed over time?) and on the 24th (question: Do you review every book you read? Why or why not?). The first is a prompt that I submitted, but hey, I'm actually answering someone else's question too, for a change! 😉 

📻RADIO GAGA. Fri. 29th marked my very last day at work (as most of you know, I've been a radio personality - so to speak, ha! what a joke - at a local station for 27 years, first as an occasional collaborator, then as a proper employee for the last 21 years...and now the station has closed). It was a sad affair, not only because of my new unemployment state. I mean, I wanted to quit - if I had had something else to fall back on, I would have a long time ago. There wasn't any joy to be had anymore in what I did, plus the money was a laugh, but...I couldn't turn it down, and I didn't know what else to do, yadda yadda. Anyhow, the saddest thing was that, on my very last day - while I was clearing all my audio files along with my doc ones (because I needed all my bridges burned) and going through my routine one last time - it finally crashed down on me full-force what I'd always known...how very little I'd mattered for all that time, and how I'd wasted my whole life riding the comedown of a broken dream. I'm no one, and no one will remember me - or maybe someone will, for a while, but like an afterthought, and then it will be like I was never there at all. One day I'll write a post about my radio experience, because I realise that you can't understand what I mean without my explaining a few things, but rest assured...I'm not being overdramatic. I did say goodbye, but in a way, I left in silence, and after all these years, silence is what I got in return 😢.

🥺THE ITALIAN JOB. It would have been different if I had quit on my own terms - at least I would have done it for a better life and with the perspective of getting better money. Plus, that would have constituted a statement to my boss: I'm not settling for scraps anymore. Try running a radio station without me, the one and only employee, the one who got the short end of the stick too many times but stayed, because she didn't know where else to turn. Which now I'm forced to do anyhow, at 55, without any qualifications or skills beyond the non-marketable radio ones. I'm looking, I'm asking, but there's nothing to be found so far, especially for someone who doesn't drive and doesn't have any experience in any field. I mean, I'm good with English and computers, but secretary jobs and the like are the hardest ones to find, plus most of the time they require the aforementioned experience and a specific knowledge base that I don't have (I'm diving deeper into the Office suite though, because there's so much about Word and Excel I don't know even if I've been using them for years, and I'm currently taking PowerPoint lessons via a YouTube channel). So, for now, I'm going to apply for unemployment benefits and keep looking...Please send good vibes my way.

PUBLISHING NEWS/TIPS

• Still riding the high of his freshly published portal fantasy novel The Shadow Glass, Josh Winning got another book deal (or better, two!). His next book is an adult horror novel called Burn the Negative, release date TBD. You earned this Josh! 😃

THINK-PIECES, DISCUSSIONS, ORIGINAL FICTION

• Cee Arr talks about brain fog days - that is, she discusses brain fog as a symptom of depression/anxiety.
• Briana explains why book blogging is not dying, though lots of publishers are shunning good old bloggers and forming new alliances with literally every other type of book reviewers under the sun (which is OK, but hey - *waves* - we're still alive and thriving...).

REVIEWS/RECOMMENDATIONS

• Sam lists 10 books with time loops (which is one of the most intriguing plot devices ever).
• Amber recommends audiobook narrators for newbies, with a couple of titles for each one.
• Since she loves supernatural creatures, Kit lists 10 books about dragons (not all of them literal 😉).

OTHER

• Kal offers some ARC request templates - email, email responses, NetGalley and Edelweiss profiles.
• Veronika revisits her all-time favourite pieces of media, with some new entries.

That's it for now! My next post will be up on Sun 8th, and it will be the mini-review round I announced above.

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