Wow, anyone else see the finale to Invincible? For something based on a comic I’ve read umpteen times, I didn’t expect it to pack that much of a wallop.

I threw my back out Thursday morning and I’m suprised at how it practically stopped my reading and writing–you’d think something that forces me to be as motionless as possible would allow me to do both (it’s been a while since I’ve done this as thoroughly as I did Thursday, and have forgotten how it impacts me). I’m almost back to normal, thankfully (pun unintended, but embraced).

Odds n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Writers Orgs Form #DisneyMustPay Joint Task Force—a few months back I linked to some posts about Disney stiffing Alan Dead Foster, and while I’m glad to see they reached some sort of agreement with him, more and more authors are coming out with similar stories. Authors and Writers’ Groups are applying pressure to put an end to this.
bullet Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about your to-be-read pile—I’m not sure the piece matches the headline, but I’m feeling better about the size of mine now…
bullet In-Person Author Tours Won’t Be Back Anytime Soon—As someone who lives in a place where it’s rare to get some authors, I’m okay with the virtual-ness of these (there’s no way I’m seeing Luca Veste in Boise, for example).
bullet 6 Benefits of Listening to Audiobooks
bullet Novels and Novellas and Tomes, Oh My! The long and short of novel lengths
bullet Driving in the Dark: Getaway Drivers in Fiction and the Dark Side of the American Dream
bullet Why I Read the Last Page of a Book First—I’m not sure if this is an interesting perspective or a cautionary tale. I’m leaning toward the latter.
bullet Zack Argyle on “The Rise of Self-Published Fantasy”
bullet The One Where this is one of my favorite things about reading: Let’s Talk – Rereading and why I love it—Not only do I like and agree with just about everything in this post, I love the way Mehek wrote it.
bullet Do I Like This Book or Not?—I can identify with this post in so many ways…

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Crime Time FM#9: Ace Atkins—A wide-ranging conversation about Spenser, Quinn Colson, classic PI novels, and more. Following the conversation, there is the best review of the Netflix movie Spenser Confidential that I’ve come across.
bullet Like the Wolfe Lone Wolfe: Glenn Fleishman—just a couple of fans talking about Wolfe. Fleishman had a point about a line in Some Buried Caesar that made me reconsider the scene and how I’ve always reacted to it. A fun listen for Wolfe-types.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford—the third Teagan Frost adventure looks great (and reminds me to get my act together and read #2)
bullet Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal—I’m not even going to try to summarize the description in a sentence or two. Click the link and you’ll probably be as intrigued as I am.
(I wish I knew the source of this!)