J. Ichabod Whateley

No, thank you! If you keep writing them, I can promise you at least one sale.

Black & White photo of Nick Mamatas’ ‘Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest, on a slightly sparkly bar framed by a half pint of dark Pilsner and a bourbon.

Tonight’s post shift reading provided by the ever enlightening* @nmamatas.bsky.social and his most recent work ‘Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest’.

*Enlightening in that every damned piece of his work sends me down a rabbit hole of reading up on weird heresies, forgotten philosophies, or Greek history.

Wolverine & the X-Men with Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo was a lotta fun. Got… not as good as it went along, but still had its moments. Also loved early issues of Generation X.

Shit! I meant to preorder this. Hopefully MidSlumber Media or someone else local picked it up so I can buy it tomorrow. How the fuck is it this far into January already?

I mean, if you’re chasing down that mercenary/thief-for-hire-or-betrayal lifestyle…

The rhythm of Teddy’s narration is fucking delightful. Thank you.

Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.’s ‘The El’, accompanied by Larceny whiskey and a cheap beer can that looks like a pack of smokes. All hail bad marketing!

Tonight’s post shift bar read is @tvayyyy.bsky.social ‘The El’. Sadly, I’ve never seen an Old Style for sale in Oregon, so I settled for a local lager that embraces its trash roots. And Larceny. Obviously.

Weird fact concerning the Cathars: I was a freshman in college before I realized that my grandmother hadn’t developed odd ideas about her Catholic faith due to a lifelong love of sci-fi/horror, but because she had spent the first seven years of her life in a Cathar run orphanage in 1930’s Germany.

Fuck you man. I bought a Kobo this year (my bloody eyes are fucking shot) and I’ve been trying to find a way to ask you how much I need to pay you for all your goddamn books, not in print. Make me give you money for your fucking work!

You forgot to mention that you had a cocktail based on one of your novels. And it was great.

Hell, I liked it so much I made a Negroni variant based on it, and put it on my menu.

A copy of Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Shadow Ticket’, pretentiously placed on a coffee house bar, it’s natural habitat.

Finally cracking open the latest by Thomas Pynchon - an author whose body of work consumed most of my collegiate education. Still spend more time than is probably healthy thinking about bad jokes and dumb song lyrics after all these years…

Fuck yeah! Editor we might know?

Wait wait wait WAIT! They’re supposed to *like* the main character? I don’t want people to even relate to the assholes I write.

Wendy N. Warner’s ‘Girl In the Creek’, accompanied by sweet, life-giving, iced coffee. Yes. Iced. It is still too fucking warm out to drink hot coffee.

Tonight’s break from reality is brought to us by @wnwagner.bsky.social ‘Girl In the Creek’. Sorry to take so long to get to this one Wendy, the TBR pile is an ever growing monster of awesome.

Hah! Jokes on you: I’m already banned from attending Portland City Council meetings. You curse out an incompetent mayor and lying police chief one time…

It’s a brilliant piece of satire and commentary, but more importantly, it’s a beautiful work on learning to age gracefully, and truly acknowledging the place where you live.

Finished @kashana.blacksky.app “The Payback” tonight, which keeps being billed as a heist novel. But it’s not really that. It’s a brilliant character study on aging black women, and their relationships, their hangups, and their blindspots. It’s a book about learning how to grow, and knowing anger.

Fall/Winter Queer/Trans Horror inspired cocktail menu including a drink based upon Valkyrie Loughcrewe’s ‘Crom Cruach’ (amongst others).

Should you be averse to words (what kind of monster are you?!), you can now drink ‘Crom Cruach’ while I regale you with praise for its brilliance and ingenuity.

Pinky’s. We’re on Interstate, across the street from the Alibi.

Aw, thanks. You’re ever in Portland, hit me up and I’ll make you a drink.

I like to think this was the punch she was enjoying before becoming the next… host. If not, it’s definitely the one she should’ve been enjoying right before the next Halloween.

No, what rules was that ending! Maybe the most cathartic, over the top violent coming out scene ever bloody written. And Strom Thurmond in that crowd - ahahahah! Fuck that asshole.

It’s bitter, dry, subtly spiced, and hints at fall fruit. I tried to make the drink equivalent of how I thought the Gray Maiden smelled. It’s pretty tasty. Thanks for writing some amazing work to make this possible.

Queer/Trans Horror inspired bar menu, featuring works by Eric LaRocca, Joe Koch, Hailey Piper, Valkyrie Loughcrewe, Gretchen Felker-Martin, & Poppy Z. Brite! The cocktails are almost as delicious as the prose referenced.

Released later than I would have liked, but today I can unveil our Fall/Winter cocktail menu! Inspired by such fine authors as @ericlarocca.bsky.social , @horrorsong.blog , @haileypiperfights.bsky.social , @goresorcerer.bsky.social , @scumbelievable.bsky.social , and Poppy Z. Brite! Read more horror

Just finished ‘King of Ashes’ by @blacktopkid.bsky.social and what a beautifully perfect “moral” noir tale. ‘Breaking Bad’ tried to be this, but was soft enough to let familial characters live. Cosby gives us a brilliant man, who lets all that he wanted to save, die or run away, to become himself.

Congratulations! It was a lovely event and a lovely time.

This kinda makes me a little sad that I can just go to the Hawthorne Powell’s and buy all your books. Just a little though.

Mine likes to regularly bark at the reflection of me in the front door when I stand up after we have been hanging out on the couch. I know she can see herself when she gets up and barks, but I know she pretends she doesn’t.

Very nice. And grossly underrated.