Monday Miscellanea, 10/24/22

Readathon Wrap-Up

Saturday was Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon. I managed about 21.25 hours, heading to bed just after 2am my time. That is pretty much how readathon always goes for me, though I only took a short nap in the morning.

What did I read?

• 44% of It Came from the Closet, edited by Joe Vallese
• 41% of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
• 3 articles
• 6 “episodes” of WHEREWOLF
• 2 short stories

I probably would have been better off DNFing My Heart is a Chainsaw and moving on to something else. The book just wasn’t clicking with me. I kept expecting it to pick up, but it didn’t.

Ultimate Frisbee

Club nationals were this past weekend and I kept some of the games on in the background during readathon and semi-watched finals on Sunday. There are two things that are currently bothering me about club ultimate: vert stack and the amount of contact that is occurring.

My problem with vertical stack is a pet peeve. I find it boring to watch; even the best teams stagnate and cuts out of vert stack are prone to picks and other stoppages of play. As a player, regimented vertical stack is also difficult to run at a recreational level because it requires an amount of talent, athleticism, and organization that really doesn’t exist at a community league level. That hasn’t stopped many club-level league captains from trying unsuccessfully to get it to work.

Likewise, the concern over amount of contact occurring might be because I’m an aging player who doesn’t want to deal with younger players who find bidding into a cutter to be an acceptable thing, even if they “got to the disc first.” But I feel like there’s been some disregard for ultimate being a non-contact sport. Additionally, I was very surprised at how often foul calls were contested, even when the foul was pretty obvious. It feels like players are maybe being coached to contest instead of taking responsibility for a bad decision.

Writing Check-In

I’m reorganizing my blog with separate posts for movie-watching and reading, but I haven’t decided if I want a separate post for writing. I don’t regularly have much to say about my writing other than usually brief updates. So, my Writing Check-In will stay here for the moment.

Writing went pretty well last week. I added 4000 words to “California Gothic.” I don’t know what I think of those words, but I need to remember that I can’t edit and polish a draft if I don’t *have* a draft. Today, I’m going to reread my notes and what I’ve written and outline the rest what I need to do for that story. I’d like to finish the draft over the next two or three days and take the rest of the week to riff on my NaNoWriMo project.

And, yes, fine. Here we go. I’m going to do NaNoWriMo. Even though it starts on a Tuesday, so help me. View all my messy NaNo journeys.

One new rejection for “The Aeronaut’s Wife.”

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, October 2022

TBR

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? I rolled randomly for a while, but I’m now going between It Came from the Closet and My Heart is a Chainsaw.
2. How many books have you read so far? I’m such a slow reader; I haven’t finished any.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the readathon? I’m just going to continue what I have going on.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I’m courting interruption by having some ultimate frisbee games in the background.

Opening Survey

1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ
2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese. I’ve never read from a book of essays during readathon before.
3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? A Totino’s Party “Pizza” for lunch.
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! Other than reading, I like to watch movies and play ultimate frisbee.

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon Spring 2022

Photo by Maria on Pexels.com

Or, rather, the “Catch Up on Reading Before Going to Play Ultimate Frisbee Readathon”.

Once again, spring league finals for ultimate frisbee are on the same day as the readathon. It’s funny how often this happens, especially since both were scheduled rather late this year. Oh well. I can’t really complain when two activities I love end up on the same day.

So, I’m going to join in late—there’s no fooling with my sleep schedule—and read until about 5pm-ish, Arizona time. My team is probably going to play two games and finish up by 10pm. I’m not going to count on any reading afterward, but it could happen.

TBR

• “The Sycamore and the Sybil” by Alix E. Harrow – READ
• “Sir Nigel Otterburne’s Case” by Louisa Baldwin – READ
• Finish Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith – started at chapter 11, about 50%. FINISHED!

Want to join in? All the details for the April 30, 2022 readathon are HERE.

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, Spring 2021

Photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.com

Dewey’s & Spring into Horror

I’m celebrating two readathons today: Dewey’s 24-hour and Spring into Horror. I’m going to do something a little different this time around for Dewey’s. Inspired by Flik Reads, I’ve set up random prompt jar. I’m going to start the day with:

• A chapter of God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert – I’m sticking to my chapter-a-day schedule.
• Into Bones like Oil by Kaaron Warren – It’s become readathon tradition to start the day with a novella.

After that, I’m going to pick from my readathon jar. Some prompts will return to the jar and some are one-time only. Prompts include:

• Stories from Books of Blood by Clive Barker – I’ll be starting vol. 2.
• The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klein – A chapter or two or 40 minutes. We’ll see what works.
• The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination by Robert Coles – Hopefully, this book won’t crash my readathon momentum. It’s a book I want to make progress on.
• Other short stories!
• Plus, maybe an audio book, maybe graphic novels. Reading in all forms!

I’ll mostly be updating on Twitter. You can follow me at @katen

Opening Survey

1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ! It’s not sunny yet, but it’s going to be a warm day.
2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Vol. 2 of Books of Blood by Clive Barker. Barker has also become something of a readathon tradition for me.
3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? I’m planning on having a Totino’s Party Pizza later on. Also have healthier things like hummus and watermelon.
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I enjoy editing formatting ebooks (as well as writing my own). If you need something extra for your stack today, I have free downloads!
5. If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? As I mentioned above, I’ll be drawing from a prompt jar every few hours which is new for me!

Update Thread

It's #readathon time!
📚📘📚
I'm also hoping to get some reading done for #SpringHorror.
👻🎃💀https://t.co/KvCCIqaJKr

— Katherine Nabity 🌻 (@Katen) April 24, 2021

Dewey’s 24-Hour “Reverse” Readathon 2020

Friday & Saturday, Aug. 7th-8th, is the second annual “Reverse” 24-hour Readathon. What’s reverse about it? Instead of starting (in the US) Saturday morning, it starts Friday evening. So, for me in Arizona, it will start at 5pm on Friday instead of 5am Saturday.

Will I end up reading more than I usually do during a 24-hour readathon? Probably not. I do like my sleep…

Hour 19 – 20

Finished House of M. Yeah, I know. I’m slow.

And my Deal Me In, Week 32 story: “Some Cupids Kill With Arrows” by Tansy Rayner Roberts. This story was a delight and a great pick-me-up after the heartbreak of House of M.

Hour 17 – 18

Still reading Draft No. 4. All those short stories yesterday made me feel like a speedy reader! Peanuts for a snack.

I have to put Draft No. 4 away for a while. There’s some heavy stuff to think about. And I’ve been sitting in the front room with the laptop and I think it’s finally gotten too hot for that. Time to adjourn to the office…

Finishing House of M and snaking more than expected. This time it’s a Nature Valley dark chocolate, peanut & almond granola bar.

Hour 15 – 16

Picking up Draft No. 4 by John McPhee at Ch. 4. Coffee and donuts (a powdered sugar and a plain Softee) for breakfast!

Hour 14.5

Mid-Event-ish Survey:

1. What are you reading right now? Just woke up; coffee’s brewing.
2. How many books have you read so far? Finished 5 short stories & 2 comic collections.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I still have Destroyer in my queue and finishing Draft No. 4 this morning.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? No major interruptions aside from sleep.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I feel like I’ve already read more than usual, even though I’ve not going to log as many hours as a regular readathon.

📚 Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, 4/25/20

All the Readathon Details

The official readathon start time for me is 5am, which is so, so early. Maybe I’ll be up, maybe I will sleep in. I know my limits. But I’ll try to get in as many hours of reading as possible.

Wrap-Up

I read 651 pages! It was a good readathon, maybe the best I’ve had in a while.

Hour 22

02:35 – Time to get some sleep.

Hour 21

• Reading: Some Edgar Allan Poe. An audacious pick for 1am. Also H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness by Gou Tanabe
• Food & Drink: Diet Dr. Pepper. Dark chocolate peanut butter almond granola bar.

Hour 20

Finished Daisy Kutter: The Last Train! 🤖

Hour 19

• Reading: Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi

Hour 18

• Reading: “The Vanishing” by Peter S. Beagle
• Food & Drink: Cheese & sausage on Triscuits. And a shot of vodka.

Hour 17

• Reading: Reading this week’s Deal Me In story, “The Vanishing” by Peter S. Beagle
• Food & Drink: Glass of iced tea.
• Other Stuff: Moved back into the front room, updating on the laptop.

Hour 16

Finished Dracula! 🦇

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, Spring 2019

01:38

Calling it a night. Or maybe I’ll be back up after a nap…

00:24, Sunday

Did I say something about not being sleepy? My husband shared some of his sour gummies with me; much needed zing.  I decided instead of skipping to another book I’d continue with I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

21:41

That was quite a game. I’ll admit, I did more watching than reading. Good luck to Texas Tech on Monday!

Finished!

But I did finish The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 8: I’ve Been Waiting for a Squirrel Like You.

Mid-Event Survey (Even though we’re past halfway…)

1. What are you reading right now? I’m going to take out the garbage,maybe take a walk, and then start on The Hellbound Heart.
2. How many books have you read so far? I read about a third of a book, listened to a third of a book, and read one comic collection.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Looking forward to some Clive Barker, but might also check out something magic themed from Hoopla.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Just been going with the flow.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I’m surprised that I’m feeling pretty awake. Though maybe I shouldn’t be considering the amount of caffeine I’ve had…

17:07

I had four and a half hours left on Tesla: Man Out of Time and I listened to it all. During which, I played EverQuest 2—I “tradeskilled,” leveling my provisioner/chef from level 15th to 22nd level.

Finished!

Now, dinner of pepperoni pizza and a little basketball. I’m going to have the Michigan State v. Texas Tech game on while reading some The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

11:09

Lunchtime! I’m going to have a bacon cheddar BBQ burger and an Orange Vanilla Coke Zero. On the reading front, I’m about halfway done with I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, but I think I’m going to switch over to the Tesla audio book for a while.

08:50

That was such a good nap. I dreamed I ate lunch at some sort of cafe. The waitress brought food out at random (first the entree, then desert, then bread sticks…) and kept saying “April Fool’s.” Now back to my reading…

07:21

Had breakfast of yogurt and a granola bar while reading some of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. Despite a mug and a half of coffee, I think I’ll go back to sleep for a while. Morning naps are one of my favorite things.

05:24, Saturday

Man, 5am is early. I tried all week to shift my wake up time; alas, in vain. But here I am, a little late, hazelnut coffee in hand.

Getting to Know You Survey

1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ
2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! The plus side of being lazy about reading my library books is that I still have Squirrel Girl anthologies on hand for the late hours of readathon.
3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? Despite my pumpkin pie threat, I don’t really have any snacks planned. I’ll probably just eat like normal.
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! This April I’m also participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, which is the gentler form of National Novel Writing Month. But it’s been a slow writing month thus far…
5. If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I’m going a little more unstructured today. More like a chill-a-read-a-thon.

Stack of Possibilities