Thinky Thoughts 86: Sleepy Weekend, Noisy Week
I wrote at a cafe! Not much, it was way too interesting all around me, but I was determined to write, and it was even more distracting at home today, what with all the equipment and workers milling around.
That’s right, frenz, sewer repair happened at last! The big beepy truck with work crew the equipment on a flatbed arrived around 7:45 AM. After an hour of examinations via snaky camera, metal detector, and Mark 1 eyeballs, much fluorescent marking of the driveway occurred. Then the concrete saws came out.
That’s when I left to run errands. When I returned, the bitty baby (noisy) backhoe was hard at work. The crew kindly let me take a few pics.
Clockwise from top left: (1 & 2) the modern PVC sewer cleanout hiding beneath the old steel cover in the middle of our drive, (3) the wee bitty backhoe the work crew used to dig the first few feet of the not-a-grave. They went to shovels once they got about 3 feet deep to avoid, ya know, causing more breakage. (4 & 5) the 6’x’6’x3' trench that is totally not a grave in the middle of the driveway in various stages of the Unburying of the old clay pipe. And 6 is showcasing the new pvc pipe with its fancy gaskets joining it to other sections of pipe and also dealing with the “the original clay pipe came in at an angle because why not?” So typical of this house.
I left them to their labors and distributed the spoils of my successful Yard Quest Part Deux. Unlike the last trip, this time extender hoses, connectors, and grass seed were all were in stock. I also got a second hummingbird feeder and a crook for the back yard, since a) the side yard hummingbird feeder is getting action already, months earlier than last year, and b) we finally have enough shrub height in the back to give the hummingbirds feeding cover.
Then I happily stress-weeded for a while. It was much too noisy and house-rattly at unpredictable intervals to work in the office, so I took myself to lunch at the cafe and puttered for a couple of hours before heading to the ‘bar for work shift.
And now here we are. New sewer line in, yard looking happy, and blog mostly written up. But not complete yet!
I READ THINGS. That’s what I did over the weekend. That, and dug out a big ‘ol holly bush that I never liked and which needed removing.
Reading report: five out of six Hugo novel finalists are finished. That’s Alien Clay & Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, and A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher. Plus all the finalist novelettes I hadn’t read yet, which I’m not going to list. They’re on the Hugo Awards 2025 page if you’re interested. As are the novellas, and The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, which are coming up next on the TBR, right after I finish my palate cleanser read of Netherford Hall by Natania Barron.
Bottom line review: I only liked two, and only really liked 1 of the 5 novels. They’re all brilliant, shiny writing. Award-deserving writing. But. I fear I have have lost my tolerance for apocalyptic British SF. There’s a distinct claustrophobic, small-world feel (I did not know that Adrian Tchaikovsky or Kaliane Bradley were British, f’rex, I inferred it from the narrative style & characterizations of the novels, then checked.) that grates on me. It’s possible I read too much End Of The British World SF in past decades, (Arthur C. Clarke, John Wyndham and all their ilk) so now my mental gears are worn down and won’t engage.
My love of Regency/Victorian-era British-based fantasy, in contrast, is still a strong and powerful force despite decades of wallowing in it. Hence taking a brain break with what’s essentially “Sense & Sensibility With Fae N Vampires.” (SO GOOD.)
Anyway. This weekend I ate many “it’s a holiday” snacks, read good fiction, pondered possible plotlines for Ghost Town book 2, researched pen names, and played in the dirt.
Also watched more Leverage: Redemption with a friend, and watched both seasons of Elsbeth, which is weirdly quirky and I can justify it as Ghost Town research, so extra yay.
And it was lovely.
That’s a good spot to wrap, I think. And now, the best part of any post: Cat pic!
Pippin in various poses of “I am very much done with all this noise and fuss. Pet me now.”
Okay, that’s all until later.
What’s on your bookshelf?
This is the part where I talk about my books.
Relics From A Traveling Show
The newest of the new! A collection of all my short fictions in one handy volume, available now from your favorite booksite or local shop.
Or! OR! if you like your local library, you could request a purchase. Free for you, sale for me, everyone wins.
Most libraries need the following info for ordering print books:
Title: Relics From A Traveling Show
Author: K. M. Herkes
ISBN: 9781945745201 (paperback)
Every library system does things a little differently, but most want their collections to serve their communities, so most of them are very responsive to patron requests.
If you like novels more than short stories, I recommend my series The Rollover Files for hopepunk tales of about an alternate world where moms with midlife crisis superpowers have been saving the world and making the military nervous since 1943.
I also have a completed, quirky slow-burn science fiction thriller duology with a romance chaser: The Stories Of The Restoration.
All my titles are available from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Hoopla, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Overdrive and many other fine booksellers.
Support your favorite independent bookseller! Find a local shop via Indiebound
Be a potato.
" Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."
Terry Pratchett (Small Gods)