What's going on with me? I'm SO glad you asked. It has been a while since I did one of these. (Before DragonCon, I think?) Busy month. Why a gargoyle for the pic? WHY NOT?Books. I read books that weren't historical romances! Books I enjoyed!  Contemporary Fantasy! Steampunk! Exclamation points! I have high fantasy and space opera on my TBR list, but don't get too excited. It may not get reviewed for months. Okay, here goes;Convergent Lines. Michelle Cori. Its tagline is A Tale of Gothic Horror, and it definitely has a great gothic feel, but  horror makes me think blood & jump-scares. This has a fantastical moodiness, with fae, humans, witchcraft,  loads of intricate world-building and history...and so much more. The narrative jumps between the protagonist's past and present by chapters leading to a major plot development, and it has that "drop you in and let you roll along"  approach I adore. (but it isn't everyone's cup of tea.) Not sure if there's an ebook version of this, so buy the paperback or make your library get it. The cover and the interior decorations are mind-blowingly pretty.A Desperate Plan (Tales of the Automazombs) Toni Johnson et. al. Steampunk. Zombies. Need I say more? I really don't. It's a fun collection of shorter and longer stories that each stand alone but advance a larger plot. Some fine storytelling in a variety of styles. Great hints of reveals to come, but no sense of anything being left unfinished.  Ebook and regular book.A lot of romance got consumed in the last month too, but nothing I would recommend. I must say I seriously wonder if authors who consider "purely masculine scent" to be attractive have ever actually smelled a live man. I'm someone who can find the scent of a sweaty guy appealing, but "masculine scent" still makes me think, "Ew." Ya know, I think I'll be moving on now.Television: Daily Show & Samantha Bee over suppers, and the occasional sportsball game while I peel apples. That's it.  A bunch of shows got boring or cancelled, others haven't started. Zero interest in The Orville, not paying to watch commercials with ST:Discovery,  have to wait for DVD on Game of Thrones. I record Law & Order reruns because I know half of them by heart and specifically watch them so I can tune them out.Movies: Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Underwhelmed.  I mean, I enjoyed it, I can say, "okay, fun movie,"  but the whole Hollywood knee-jerk sequel philosophy of "take everything that was cool in the first one and evolve it" does not now and never has worked for me.  Plus I loathed the writing for Drax. Sure, expand our understanding of the character, but literal-minded to clueless is not a personality progression. Neither is there a line from single-minded to impulsively stupid. And Gamora was pretty much sidelined except for the OMG-SIBLING-HATRED thing. And then there's the whole "why can't heroes have two normal, living parents?" question......so, maybe I mostly didn't like it. I  dunno. Nothing I've mentioned will stop me from watching it again a few times.I watched Wonder Woman again to make sure the DVD worked. Yeah. That's why.The latest in re-viewing: disaster flicks.  2012, Day After Tomorrow, Dante's Peak and San Andreas. Just because. Figured out another reason I love San Andreas: the male teen lead listens to the female teen lead who knows what she's talking about. Multiple times.In other news, autumn is apple time, which means day trips into the Wisconsin not-so-wilds in search of all the scrumptious yummies. I've already socked away the first of the year's cider & saucein the big freezer, and the first fruits & cheeses of the season have made into tasty treats. The garden is an exuberant mess of drooping grasses and drying flowers, except for the asters, goldenrod & Joe Pye weed, which are in full glorious bloom.That's all for this report. Next post: all about the writing and authoring.Edited to add a full-length pic of Grawlix the Gargoyle: