So, at the realization of the fact that I have nothing that I absolutely need to be doing at this moment, thus am rather bored, I thought I'd start making use of this stupid newsblog that I never have any news to put in, since I put anything important in the author comments of the comic pages. So, uh, here's me "making use of it".

I heard the question, not too long ago, of what inspires me. My answer to that is typically inspirational stuff that other people do. Maybe I'm just secretly competitive, but whenever I see an awesome piece of creative material from someone, my thoughts on it don't stop at, "That's awesome!" They go to, "That's awesome! I wanna do something like that!" Not that I can't appreciate others' work for what it is...I just tend to want to see if I can do it too. Which is probably the reason I draw, write, play music and am in school for video game design. Among other creative endeavors.

Anyway, I thought that since this blog has been going unused for far too long, I would start using it to write about awesome things that other people do that I would recommend you guys check out. Just in hopes of spreading awareness of cool things, because cool things are cool (and inspiring). And maybe you'll find something that inspires you to do something cool too.

Expect recommendations of a host of different things; books, movies, games, music, comics/webcomics, maybe some anime and manga, TV shows, podcasts, or whatever happens to have my attention at the moment. These won't be reviews or anything like that, just, "hey, I enjoyed this, maybe you will too" posts. As often as possible I'll provide links and such to places you can find/download/purchase these things.

ANYWAY. After that lengthier than necessary (as usual) introduction, I'd like to make my first recommendation of...something cool for you to check out (I need a shorter title for that).

I think I'm going to start out with a story (no, not me telling one, thankfully). As I was working on a comic page today, I was listening to the podcast rendition of Marco and the Red Granny, a novella by Mur Lafferty. Yes, I made that face when I heard the title, too. And the same face when I heard what it was about: "It's a tale of artists, aliens, alcoholics, and moon gladiators." Sounds pretty bizarre, right? Well, yes, it is, a little. But it still manages to be a fascinating story that sucks you right in and refuses to spit you out.

I admit I was hesitant to check it out at first, being that I love a lot of Mur's other work (her podcast novella series, Heaven, and her surprisingly-helpful-to-comic-creators writing podcast, I Should Be Writing, among other things), and for some reason I'm always afraid to look at new things by creators I love because I fear being disappointed, even though that's almost never the case. Anyway, I finally did get around to it today, and of course, am loving it.

So, if you find yourself in the mood for a good story (particularly one concerning gladiatorial combat on the moon), I recommend you check out Marco and the Red Granny by Mur Lafferty.

You can find the beginning of the podcast version at Hubfiction, and the text version on the book site here. So go take a look/listen, and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I have.

Anyway, expect these little recommendation posts 1-2 times a week, or whenever I have something to tell you about. Otherwise, later =D