Offbeat Offline: June 2022 (Baby, I'm Back)

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 (either than a blog hiatus)? Intolerable heat, laser therapy conundrums, job search despair, hairdresser hunting. On the plus side, I rested...or tried to - you know I'm a caregiver and the house is on me, but at least I didn't scramble to produce posts (though I wrote a few mini reviews and drafted a full one) or comments (though I made notes of your posts for my Tooting Your Trumpet series and kept abreast of your tweets), and I read a lot...10 books to be precise (plus I started one but DNF it). Here's the rundown of my past month...

📚 WELL-READ. As I said, I read ten books in June (one of them was a reread) and DNF one. Three of them were NG/EW approvals. I got a fourth ARC that I still have to start: Full Immersion by Gemma Amor (adult). It comes out on September 13th, and I'll have my review up a few days in advance.

I reread Deadgirl: Goneward by B.C. Johnson - Book 3 in the Deadgirl series - while waiting for the fourth and last installment to hit the shelves...it shouldn't be long now.
I read the Temporally Out of Order anthology by Joshua Palmatier et al., and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck - both adult (the second being a novella), and I have their mini reviews scheduled for this month.
I read Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (adult - some of you may know her for her YA and romance books under the pen-name Stacey Kade) and Fade Out by Nova Ren Suma (this one was her 2009 debut, originally called Dani Noir). I have mini reviews coming for those as well, in a trio with my DNF book of the month, August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White (adult - and to think I actually got APPROVED for that one! eeeeek! Pub date is July 12th).
I was given access to an ARC of The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco, and after loving their Girl from the Well duology, I expected to be blown away...except this one fell a bit flat for me. Mini review to come prior to pub date (the book releases on October 4th).
I also got approved for The Honeys by Ryan La Sala, and I loved it! Review to come next month (pub date is August 16th).
I read the Velveteen vs. series by Seanan McGuire (adult), which I found to be brilliant - mini reviews are scheduled for August.

😈 LITTLE RULE-BREAKER. As you may have noticed, while some of my mini reviews are just my immediate thoughts on a book that I mean to reread and review in full later (in which case I state it in the mini itself), I've been writing more and more "definitive minis" for certain categories of books (novellas. anthologies), or for books up that I'm rating up to 3 star. Well, I meant to point out that I've ended up adding 3.5-star books to my mini reviews. To be precise, I'll decide on a case-by-case basis if I want/need to review them in full or not - which, if you know me, is HUGE, since 1) I had drawn the line for my minis at the 3-star books not long ago, and 2) I'm allowing myself to be flexible about a whole category of books, instead of putting them all into the full-review or mini-review camp...GASP! I'M SWINGING! I DIDN'T MAKE A FIXED RULE FOR THIS! But honestly, I couldn't bear the pressure anymore, so I HAD to. It's not so much about not feeling up to writing a long review (since I noticed that some of my "definitive minis" tend to get a bit out of hand 😅), as it's about having an excuse to drop the darned full-review format (which I love, but can be exhausting).

Here is my review plan for this month: 

• Classic Monsters Unleashed by James Aquilone et al., Temporally Out of Order by Joshua Palmatier [see above] and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck [see above] (in a mini-review round on Sun. 10th);
• August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White [see above], Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes [see above] and Fade Out by Nova Ren Suma [see above] (in a mini-review round on Fri. 15th);
• Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire (full review on Thu. 21st).

Reviews aside, I'll participate in the last Tell Me Something Tuesday round of the month on the 26th (question: Do you prefer movies or TV series?). It's a prompt that I submitted, but I plan on answering a few of my fellow participants' questions in August...

Since this section got very long due to the number of books listed, I'll try to make the next one shorter...so here's a digest of my June adventures...

🥵 HOT STUFF. The temps have been well above average (by 6-8°C / 42-46°F) for the whole month, which means I've been miserable. Normally, this kind of heat would only happen in July, but what's normal anymore? So the cold-cuts and salads and quick-to-cook-food season started early...*sighs*

💉 THERAPY DRAMA. I tried to get laser therapy for my shoulder tendonitis, but after a tedious back and forth, I was definitively rejected due to my being an oncologic patient (though I only have CLL, not a tumour, and I'm not even taking drugs yet). The orthopedist told me that he didn't think physical therapy would be of much help, so he suggested infiltrations, but the first one didn't do much for me. I guess I can't expect to feel much better when I'm abusing my arm all day via mouse and keyboard...

✍️ UNEMPLOYMENT BLUES. I went to my local job center for a guidance session, but they didn't tell me much that I didn't know already (also, they will put my name forward for jobs that fit my profile, but most of those are the same ones that I can find on my own via the internet...). I'm keeping my eyes open and sending my resume anywhere I see an opening that suits me, but again - no experience except the radio one, no qualifications except the Foreign Languages and Literature degree, no driving licence, and I'm OLD 😭.

💇‍♀️ NEW ADVENTURES IN HAIRDRESSING. I finally plucked up the courage and started looking for a new hairdresser...I was afraid I'd have to walk around the whole town (which I was SO not looking for, especially in this heat), but on the second day of my scouting, I found a nice and friendly lady who answered all my questions and said a lot of things that I liked AND showed me the right curlers, so I decided to give her a try. Of course we'll start with dye jobs for now, and it will be months until I get to test her perming abilities (when it's time to redo my bangs/top), but I'm reasonably confident, which is a start...

PUBLISHING NEWS/TIPS

• The lovely Erin Callahan (whom I've worked with as a beta-reader for her solo debut The Art of Escaping) finally found an agent for her college horror-fantasy Black Dog, White Rabbit (which I beta-read as well, along with my friend Carrie). It's inspired by the classic children book Goodnight Moon, and I'm so glad that literary agent Sydnie Thornton decided to champion it! 🎉 We need more agents with a vision.

THINK-PIECES, DISCUSSIONS, ORIGINAL FICTION

• Lissa asks if blogs need readers, and if yes, how it affects yours.
• Kit explains why spoilers can be a good thing, though you should always give your readers the chance to opt out.
• Krysta offers 10 quick takes on common bookish controversies and makes 10 very valid points.
• Louise ponders on review ratings, especially the 5-star ones that precede a book launch.
• Rivka discusses the value and importance of ARCs in the light of a recent Twitter drama.
• Sam asks if "blogger" and "reviewer" are synonyms (uh, we take it for granted, but probably they aren't...).
• Greg muses on the pros and cons of cloning, in true sci-fi-aficionado fashion 😉.

REVIEWS/RECOMMENDATIONS

• Veronika and Sabrina put together a rainbow list of LGBT+ book recommendations for Pride, in one of their well-researched and aestethically curated posts.
• In the same vein, Emily shares five of her favourite books with 2SLGBTQIAP+ representation.
• Kit recommends 10 sci-fi/fantasy books to make you laugh, and heavens know we could use some...

OTHER

• Kit reviews a game called The Sexy Brutale (OK, the name is a little frightening, but apparently, it's a fun one!).

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

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