What I did while I wasn't gone

I took myself on a writing retreat last weekend. It was mostly a mental trick to take advantage of physical preparations for travel to a convention I ended up not attending.Since I had planned and prepped be away from home for a four-day weekend, I figured that meant wasn't responsible for anything at home those fourdays. I could ignore my whole Regular Life guilt-free and wander off to my computer any time the urge hit.I finished a short story I've been tinkering with for over two years and published it for my email list subscribers (I also set up that process from scratch, a post in its own right.)I also made headway on a second short story and wrote about 5000 words in Ghost Town, my current novel in progress. I write slower than a Galapagos turtle walks, which is why I rarely post word counts (and loathe them as motivational tool)  For reference, that's about a usual month's worth of writing. In 4 days. Yeah. So mental writing retreat as a working trick...definitely helped. I plan to do it again. Sometime.But writing isn't all I did. This is a media consumption post too, so here's what I took in.Throne of Glass series. Sarah A Maas. Finished all the books currently published (yay!) now have to wait until at least October to read the one that'll wrap up the current series. (BOO!)  There's a lot I could say about her books, but I said most of it in a previous post. One thing to add: the things that bugged me in A Court of Thorns & Roses series are less overt in this one. No idea which came first, don't care, just liking them more.Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach. Kelly Robson. SWOON. So good. Go read it now. It's a short book, (novella) but it will stick with you in the best of ways. I inhaled it over two meal breaks and a walk.Yes, I read on walks. I was tripping off curbs and veering towards lamp posts long before it was trendy with Pokemon Go. Don't worry, I've never run into anything, and I always pause at roadways to watch for traffic. But I digress. As usual.Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach reminds me of Connie Willis & Kate Wilhelm ( two of my SFF favorites) at their very best. Not because it had time travel, although it does, nor because of the science, which it is ALL ABOUT,  but because of the way both those elements were presented: brilliantly, elegantly, and enjoyably.Time travel was an essential element but not a pitfall of paradox or an excuse to wander into theoretical physics for far longer than the narrative could bear (Woo!) Science was at the center of the plot without ever stampeding over the characters or dragging the story into a slough of exposition, (WOO!!!) Plot & characters were also amazing.Basically, if you want fresh, new classic-style SFF relevant to and written for today's world, this is it.A Divided Peace. Tanya Huff. Happy sigh. Always a joy to read her words.  Aaaaand now I have to go back and re-read all the Confederation novels. If I could write military science fiction a tenth as well as she does, I would do a whole novel about Mercury Battalion. But I don't have the chops for making the Corps a realistic centerpiece. Maybe if someone with experience wanted to co-author...yeah, I would totally be up for that that.ANYWAY. Onward.In the viewing circle, I watched a fun season of superhero television show, Black Lightning, and a serious movie about a real world hero. Marshall. (it's a biopic-style movie  about one of Thurgood Marshall's early cases.)  I enjoyed the drama of the movie, but it seemed bizarre to me that the titular character, an AMAZING human being who was part of so much civil rights history--who MADE so much history, was not even the narrative center of his own movie. (A white guy was.)  I am not surprised that was the angle Hollywood took, just angry and aggravated. They could have done so much better.But I'm loving Black Lightning, so I'm batting over .500 in viewing satisfaction.Still haven't seen Deadpool 2 or Ocean's 8, but they're on my list. And Jurassic Park Episode whatEVER is next up in Major Hollywood Kaboom Movies.So until then, it's back to writing-writing-writing.