I Picture A Slow Downward Pan...

...until you get the pay-off on the last page.

Making Healthy Decisions

Between Worlds

Art by Jacey

 

Here's a story of mine from 2021 I forgot to tell you about the first time around. Sorry! It's a flash piece for Nature called "Between Worlds" (number 176 of The One-Thousand). Enjoy! https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02227-w

Old Man Shirt!

Bought myself a plaid shirt. Next stop: Assisted Living!

Fresh Mangoes!

The two latest episodes of Beware the Patronizing Mango are waiting, free of charge, for anyone who wants to click!

Episode 156 is Trowel Those Trousers wherein a woman tries to make a house out of pants and accidentally becomes a witch. It happens.

Episode 155 is Nobgoblin, about a potentially inappropriate game of D&D. Oh, my.

Once you're there, click on the "free episode" tag for more free Mangoes, or support me at https://www.patreon.com/matthewsanbornsmith and get even more episodes plus other goodies!

Finally, A Book About The Life Of Cookie Jesus

Hospital Stay

I spent some time in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday. Had some persistent chest pains but, after many tests, it seems my heart is in good shape, so nothing to worry about there except the ridiculous medical bills that will be coming my way.

Story Sale!

Yesterday I sold my story, "That Feeling You're Feeling," to StarShipSofa! It's about a guy who takes snapshots of the emotions of people when they're at their absolute lowest, and he posts them for his subscribers. It's number 182 of The One-Thousand. I'll let you know when it's available and I'll post a link to the show.

184-189

Last month I banged out six pieces of flash fiction and here they are in order:

"The Hip of Theseus" - A guy replaces ALL of his body parts.

"Life is so Strange" - A woman foresees her life is about to come to a violent end.

"Time's Archipelago" - An old man travels to the past and might be stuck in his ten-year-old body.

"Life in the City" - A woman summons Life and uses it to do her bidding.

"My God, It's Full of Stars," - Stars keep appearing in the night sky at an alarming rate.

"A Break in the Action" - A couple find themselves in a lull in a real-life action movie.

The Non-Born King

The Nonborn King by Julian May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Epic. Deep. A blast. This is my second reading, the first being nearly forty years ago. These books were written to last. I may be enjoying them even more than I did as a teenager. A deeper knowledge of the world only enriches the experience. Nearly everything I remember from this series came from the first two books. This is exciting, as these books are my favorite adventure story. It's similar to reading them for the first time. The end of book 2 knocked the game board over and scattered the pieces. Here, those that remain gather strength and make fragile alliances. Julian May was absolutely brilliant, her layers of knowledge stack atop one another to make (brace yourself for this metaphor) a magnificent baklava, honeyed by her cinematic writing style. I can't wait to see how it turns out (again).

View all my reviews

La Belle et la Bête

Josette Day and Jean Marais as the title characters.

 

Finally saw Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946) after years of it sitting on my to-be-watched list. I saw it on HBOmax and it's usually on the Criterion Channel as well. The story moves along at a decent pace and has enough weirdness throughout to keep me interested. I especially like the moving heads of the sculptures. What impressed me was how much it felt like a Hollywood picture of the same era. Cocteau's Orpheus (1950), on the other hand feels much more like an indie film. Is it the budget? Or is Beauty's surrealism subsumed by the fairy tale nature of the story while that of Orpheus stands out in sharper contrast, affecting our biases? I recommend this film to people who have exactly my tastes.

Goals Update

I’ve been gone for a while! Here’s an update on the goals I posted on January 1st. 

The short version: IT'S GOING TERRIBLY!

The longer version:

1. Write 365,000 words: I currently only have 103,068 words in. I’m running about 109,000 behind.

2. Finish Hive Five: Not even close. I’m about 22 chapters into what I think will run about thirty chapters and those 22 are far from final drafts.

3. Read 104 books: I’m currently at 29 books

4. Have 50 patrons (at the same time): The strategy here was to produce weekly videos and establish a YouTube presence. First I didn’t have enough time because of school. Then I was done with school and no longer had free access to Adobe products through the school. So, that strategy is going nowhere. I seem to have one more patron than I started the years with though, so, technically, I’m going in the right direction (hey, I’ll take whatever progress I can get).

5. Weigh 225 pounds (and don’t get heavier after I do): I think I’ve actually gained weight since the beginning of the year, but I’m not giving up yet. I might even try this time.

6. Write 52 blog posts on The One-Thousand: We’re in August and this is post number six!

7. Get my A.A. in English: I succeeded!

Well, I’ve got a lot of work to do. Better get to it!

BTPM 152

UPDATE: The Patreon player is acting up at the moment. If you can't play it in the player, you can always download it and give it a listen.

Here's a link to the latest episode of Beware the Patronizing Mango, number 152. Enjoy!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/patronizing-152-68890838

 

Shadows in Color

I was making big bubbles and fell in love with their rainbow shadows on the wall. Crank up the picture quality, and please share if you like it. Thanks!