Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
I must admit that Charles Stross’ pitch is what got me to pick up the book in the first place, it’s just too funny:
“Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” —Charles Stross
The Malazan book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson would be my recommendation. Start from Gardens of the Moon and go ahead… It keeps getting better and better!
Pale Lights, an ongoing web serial set in the pistols-and-sabres era. The first book’s already out for you to read! The author previously wrote A Practical Guide to Evil, which is completely finished.
How authentic is this on Mayer’s end? He’s set up cameras, lighting, probably got the owner’s permission…he’s not ‘just happening’ to sit there on Zoom.
Didn’t really do much during the night of the new year. I’ve spent the last couple of days on a rollcoaster of anger and depression over things that I have no control over. At this point I’m just ready for school to start back up so I can busy myself with something other than work.
The intro started playing to let the party know that things were about to start. Processional was from 0:43 - 1:03, recessional begins at 1:30 and faded into dance music at ~1:50.
We got married on Friday, October 13th 2017 (had a true anniversary this year!), and decided we would include as many subversive horror themes as we could sneak by certain family members. Centerpieces with Gomez and Morticia, the carpet from the Overlook Hotel, Frankenstein’s monster and his bride, and a few Lovecraftian reliefs were backlit on various vase shapes for our guests. The one for the head table was that scene from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead - you know the one, where the woman in a white dress crests the hill and you can just make out the horde behind her.
Fun fact: our wedding favor was a bottle opener that looked like a historical key. Because of who we are, several of our guests spent an hour or two looking for what they unlocked before they saw me open some bottles with it.
I really like the “for as long as it works” part.
Was that a religious ceremony of some kind or ‘just’ a civil wedding?
The song I picked for my second wedding was not a processional per se, but it was Nicht doof (loosely translated “Not Stupid”) by German band JBO. The male singer sings about how he enjoys somebody’s company because of a list of bad traits she doesn’t have: she’s not ugly, she’s not annoying, her farts don’t smell worse than his, she’s not an idiot etc. The melody is lovely though. The song was in line with the wedding theme, if you can call it that - the main event was a bad taste party at a swinger club, part of which was SO’s idea, which convinced me that she’s the one.
With the first, we had about the most stoic engagement ever. It was a Saturday morning, I’d gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed while she was grabbing something out of the closet, and I asked if we were headed toward marriage. She gave it a think, and as we were a year or so into things, figured this is what we’re supposed to do next, so yes. Actually exciting weekend ensues, as we realise we’re engaged.
I still have Lieder, die Die Welt Nicht Braucht, by Die Doofen from my time as an exchange student, so I get the … as the French would say, “I don’t know what” … about it.
Anyway, we had that wedding at the local science museum after the mountain lodge we’d booked for the ceremony, reception and the whole place for the night … burned down the day after we sent out the save-the-date cards. Glad I worked at a copy store to be able to quickly print and mail “We’re working on Plan B” postcards.
I admire your pragmatism. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but at the very least it looks like it’s somehow led you to your second and better match, so there’s that!
Out of nothing more than personal curiosity, where in Germany did you live?
I still have Lieder, die Die Welt Nicht Braucht, by Die Doofen
Aah, I remember owning that one. Personally I’ve filed it under “those were the 90’s and it seemed like a good idea at the time”.
It was 1995, and I’m not saying it was high art, but it did feel like absurdist music like that was one of the main outlets for expressing humour amongst my classmates.
I was in Hameln for school and socializing but lived in a Dorf some 5km outside of town.
Actually, the second engagement was arguably worse. We were on the back stoop smoking cigarettes, and I opened the conversation with “obviously, I’m not going to ask you to marry me.” There are red flags, and then there’s this.
What I was unaware of was the ring out of a quarter machine she’d given me a week earlier “as a joke” was not. So she happily let me fumble words for some 20 minutes after that opening, knowing exactly where I’d end up and basically said “you were already mine, but this was fun to watch.”
I used to work retail far from where I grew up, and everyone I knew would go home for the holidays but I would have to work. It was tough sometimes but also it’s just another day, I “took time off” from my home chores to go do what I want once I was off work or if I wasn’t feeling up to it, just stay in with a frozen pizza and watch horror movies.
I’m not sure if that helps, but even though it did rob some of the remaining childhood magic for me, changing the view of holidays to be more mundane helped me feel less bad about my situation and enjoy the fact that I had some time to do whatever I wanted.
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