Mike Manz

A slightly blurry close-up shot of a slightly overdone chunk of Toad in the Hole. It was more than slightly tasty.

Yours turned out better than mine, for sure. Went for the Toad in the Hole combo, but left it in a few minutes too long.

It's up to all of us to keep that space filled with Wombatty goodness, and stories, and silliness, and dirty puns, and the kind of care for each other that he always had ready to hand.

Happy trails, my friend.

He will be missed, I hope he knew how much, but I've seen people mentioning the hole he leaves in our lives and I don't see it that way. There's no hole, just the big, Wombat-shaped space he made in our lives by being in them. /1

I'm guessing this is off the beaten path for many. Found myself having a mediocre coffee and a decent sandwich just across the street from the Wukang building in the French Concession in Shanghai yesterday. The cheesecake was very nice.

#SundayPixOffTheBeatenTrack
#SundayPix

I'm glad it stayed glued the second time. Tomorrow I'll show you the bigger one. It sounds better, but it's harder to cover the holes 'cause they're further apart

@wombat37.bsky.social
Set up (part 2)
#KickWombatsBucket #FuckCancer #WomsLastStand

@wombat37.bsky.social
Let's get it set up (part 1)
#KickWombatsBucket #FuckCancer #WomsLastStand

@wombat37.bsky.social
Our flute has arrived!
#FuckCancer #WomsLastStand #KickWombatsBucket

Crazy Man Michael sounds appropriate on both sides ;)

What song would you like to have played on that flute? I'm on it.

If Dems were smart we wouldn't be dealing with this nonsense in the first place

Not Litfic per se, but I'm *loving* Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. His prose is amazing

Oh, I'm well aware - I have a degree in literature and have taught high school English for around 20 years - it just seems that none of *those* books are hanging out near the bottom of my "greatest novels of all time" list. :)

I'm hopeful for the remainder of the list

Falconer (a review) Ok, so I'm starting to regret including a bunch of literary fiction in my list of greatest novels. I'm also starting to come to the conclusion that literary fiction in general involves trying as hard as possible to avoid anything resembling plot. These two things may or may not be related. Falconer is a novel written by John Cheever and published in 1977.

Falconer (a review)

Ok, so I'm starting to regret including a bunch of literary fiction in my list of greatest novels. I'm also starting to come to the conclusion that literary fiction in general involves trying as hard as possible to avoid anything resembling plot. These two things may or may not…

Honk

Flash Fiction Prompt #1 So… because I don’t have enough things on the go at any one time, I’ve decided to resurrect an old tradition. Flash fiction challenges! Every week I’ll post a prompt. ItR…

Starting up an old tradition once again: a flash fiction challenge.

Come one, come all. Weekly prompts, share and comment and enjoy bite-sized pieces of each other's work.

www.msmanz.com/flash-fictio...
#writers #writingcommunity #flashfiction #flashchallenge

Flash Fiction Prompt #1 So... because I don't have enough things on the go at any one time, I've decided to resurrect an old tradition. Flash fiction challenges! Every week I'll post a prompt. It's up to you to respond to the prompt in whatever way you see fit - any genre, any style. The only real requirement is that you come in under…

Flash Fiction Prompt #1

So... because I don't have enough things on the go at any one time, I've decided to resurrect an old tradition. Flash fiction challenges! Every week I'll post a prompt. It's up to you to respond to the prompt in whatever way you see fit - any genre, any style. The only real…

Creating a Writing Routine (so you can actually get some writing done) First of all, let's get something straight. If you have trouble sitting down to your writing, if you put it off, if you struggle to get words on the page when you do manage to sit down to write; it's not entirely your fault. Let's get something else straight as well, though. The meme of the tortured writer completely at the whims of "the muse", only able to write in fractured moments, adrift in the ether...

Creating a Writing Routine (so you can actually get some writing done)

First of all, let's get something straight. If you have trouble sitting down to your writing, if you put it off, if you struggle to get words on the page when you do manage to sit down to write; it's not entirely your fault.…

Do I learn to play the piano properly? Do I get better at writing hip-hop and EDM music? Do I start that YouTube channel? Do I resume my writing stream? Gaaaah? 2/2

Struggling a bit currently, as I'm being pulled between too many interesting projects to reasonably follow up on. Do I edit that first draft of my first novel? Do I finish the other first draft of the other novel? Do I write the series of shorts set in the world I'm building? 1/2

Piers Anthony – The Xanth Series

Boy, this is starting to become a habit. Yet again, I'm reviewing a book I couldn't (or wouldn't) finish. In this case, it's a book from a series I read many moons ago when I was a young'un. I remember enjoying them well enough at the time, though I did find…

Not the Same Old Story Classic fairy tales and short stories, the way they were originally published.

If you are interested in having old stories read to you. here:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCDi...
I will read you some stories

Not the Same Old Story Classic fairy tales and short stories, the way they were originally published.

If you are interested in having old stories read to you. here:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCDi...
I will read you some stories

Why thank you sir. I've been thinking I should re-do it one of these days. I've got a much better setup now.

YouTube video by Not the Same Old Story Not the Same Old Story - The Brass Ring

Starting a new thing. Do you enjoy fairy tales? Do you enjoy audiobooks? Please like and subscribe :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSEM...

#fairytales #audiobook #writingcommunity

(just for clarity: I'm narrating classic, original, lesser-known fairy tales and putting them on YouTube)

Out of the Silent Planet (The Space Trilogy book 1) – C.S. Lewis

Let me start this review off with a caveat. Well, two caveats. The first is that Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad set a very high bar for…

https://www.msmanz.com/out-of-the-silent-planet-the-space-trilogy-book-1-c-s-lewis/

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (a review) I was looking forward to this book tremendously as soon as I looked it up. It's got an unusual (possibly unique) story structure, it's loosely centered around the world of punk rock and the music industry, and it's relatively (by comparison to some of the books on my reading list) new. I suspect it was partly my anticipation for this book that made…

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (a review)

I was looking forward to this book tremendously as soon as I looked it up. It's got an unusual (possibly unique) story structure, it's loosely centered around the world of punk rock and the music industry, and it's relatively (by comparison…

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield – a review Having just finished Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, I really wish I hadn't bothered. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a terrible book, it just that, much like Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart, it isn't a particularly good one either. And I had such high hopes for it, as well. Everything I've ever read about this book has been overwhelmingly positive.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield – a review

Having just finished Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, I really wish I hadn't bothered. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a terrible book, it just that, much like Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart, it isn't a particularly good one either. And I…

Just saw this - hope the rest of your day passes pleasantly. Off to bed, but I'll check back in the morning my friend

It's actually considerably more than 238 novels, as the list counts series as a single entry. The Cosmic Trilogy is one entry, for example, as is the entire Xanth series by Piers Anthony (all 47 books of it).

Should be glorious fun!