Hi ironmanwithaplan! I have some links and things for you.
Holiday music: - I adore John Fahey’s Christmas album (Spotify, youtube)! 1960s folk guitar. Good stuff. - And you probably saw Daveed Diggs’ “Puppy for Hannukah” song but it’s amazing and my fave.
Book recs: - For AI-related scifi, have you read Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy? Ancillary Justice is the first one. It’s about a she/her AI who used to be a spaceship and have many bodies and now finds herself confined to a single body. She’s on a quest for vengeance. Also, she really misses her captain. - The Loyal League series (An Extraordinary Union, A Hope Divided, An Unconditional Freedom) by Alyssa Cole is a romance trilogy set during the US Civil War. Each one is about a different m/f couple. It’s one of my very favorite romance series. - Some other favorite romance novels include: Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles (late Victorian m/m); A Seditious Affair by K.J. Charles (Regency m/m, the second in an excellent series, but in this case the 1st book would sliiightly spoil you for this one so I usually tell people to start with this one. Also because it's probably my all-time favorite romance novel); The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan (Victorian m/f); The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan (Victorian m/f, from the same series as Heiress Effect, all of them are good but these two are my faves); Pansies by Alexis Hall (contemporary m/m with hints of identity porn and enemies-to-loves but not really); When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole (contemporary m/f, described as "Get Out meets Rear Window"); Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian (post WWI m/m).
And: Since you like prehistoric animals and mentioned drawing animals, I recommend checking out James Gurney, if you haven’t already. He’s the illustrator behind the Dinotopia books, and he has a lot of blog entries—and several books—about his process and his technique. He creates whole miniature scenes, sometimes with toy dinosaurs, and then lights them and uses the resulting photos as drawing reference. He shows how he uses photo reference, uses himself as a model, how he plans his pieces, and lots more. He links to a lot of great resources, too.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-02-13 11:30 pm (UTC)Holiday music:
- I adore John Fahey’s Christmas album (Spotify, youtube)! 1960s folk guitar. Good stuff.
- And you probably saw Daveed Diggs’ “Puppy for Hannukah” song but it’s amazing and my fave.
Book recs:
- For AI-related scifi, have you read Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy? Ancillary Justice is the first one. It’s about a she/her AI who used to be a spaceship and have many bodies and now finds herself confined to a single body. She’s on a quest for vengeance. Also, she really misses her captain.
- The Loyal League series (An Extraordinary Union, A Hope Divided, An Unconditional Freedom) by Alyssa Cole is a romance trilogy set during the US Civil War. Each one is about a different m/f couple. It’s one of my very favorite romance series.
- Some other favorite romance novels include: Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles (late Victorian m/m); A Seditious Affair by K.J. Charles (Regency m/m, the second in an excellent series, but in this case the 1st book would sliiightly spoil you for this one so I usually tell people to start with this one. Also because it's probably my all-time favorite romance novel); The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan (Victorian m/f); The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan (Victorian m/f, from the same series as Heiress Effect, all of them are good but these two are my faves); Pansies by Alexis Hall (contemporary m/m with hints of identity porn and enemies-to-loves but not really); When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole (contemporary m/f, described as "Get Out meets Rear Window"); Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian (post WWI m/m).
And:
Since you like prehistoric animals and mentioned drawing animals, I recommend checking out James Gurney, if you haven’t already. He’s the illustrator behind the Dinotopia books, and he has a lot of blog entries—and several books—about his process and his technique. He creates whole miniature scenes, sometimes with toy dinosaurs, and then lights them and uses the resulting photos as drawing reference. He shows how he uses photo reference, uses himself as a model, how he plans his pieces, and lots more. He links to a lot of great resources, too.