Update: Life and Books (May 2023) + Mermay Art

 
 

I’ve still been struggling a lot lately. So I’m sorry that I still have not been visiting or chatting with everyone much. I’ve been posting here less too, but I’m still going.

I’ve also been listening to fewer books, but podcasts have been great. Among my usuals, I’ve been bingeing a trivia podcast called Good Job, Brain! It’s interesting and fun.

As for games, I’ve still been playing Sun Haven (which I just reviewed), but I also played a couple quick, free games that were really good! The first was If On a Winter’s Night, Four Travelers. Gorgeous pixel art, great point and click puzzles, and interesting though dark little stories. The second was The Secret Life of Dorian Pink. Inspired by Dorian Gray, but gayer, and so silly and fun! I also have been playing an app “game” called Cats and Soup that I found through Netflix. You mostly just click some things, but it’s very cute!

I even watched some movies. Call Me By Your Name was amazing! I watched it and then watched it again two days later, and then again the next day. And probably some more times by the time you’re reading this. I can’t stop! That’s something I’ve never done with any other movie except Tangled. To be fair, some movies are more suited to being rewatched right away than others. It’s just so well written/directed/acted/everything in a way that makes it feel so true to life, it makes me feel a lot of bittersweet feelings. Closer (2004) was so weird with characters who were weird and shitty people, and every interaction sounded like it was trying so hard to be edgy. Closet Monster was alright (great acting, story felt a little lacking) but hard to watch because of the hate crime and homophobia. Straight Up was a really cool portrayal of a relationship out of the norm usually shown in media.

Also, this past month was Mermay, so I managed to make some art! A trans sea turtle merman and an oyster merman (with two hair color options). And I updated my old merman watching the sunset, mostly to redo the coloring on his body.

Digital art of a sea turtle merman, as if he is swimming by above you, the sunlight illuminating him from behind through the water. His long black hair flows behind him. He has ears that look like turtle fins, and green spots on his shoulders, ears, and sides of his face near the ears. He also has a fish hook belly button piercing, a flat seashell necklace, and light top surgery scars.
Cropped close up of the sea turtle merman from previous tweet.
Digital art of a tan merman with shoulder-length black hair and a colorful tail lying on his stomach and elbows on a dock watching the sunset in the distance. View is from above at an angle. His tail is pink, yellow, and orange, with pink translucent side fins and a purple and yellow fin running along his back and part of his tail. His ears are like translucent fins, pink and yellow. There's pink and yellow webbing between his fingers. The water is pink, yellow, and orange.
Close up of the merman. His irises are yellow. His hair is layered and swooped to one side in the front.
Digital art of a giant oyster shell open with a man's torso connected to the goop inside. He has fair skin and long dark brown hair that is flowing luxuriously in the water. He is posing seductively with one hand on his face, the other on his neck, his head tilted just a bit to the side and down. All his jewelry is pearls, a necklace, a bracelet, nipple piercings that are connected with a string of more pearls, belly button piercing, three anti-eyebrow piercings (under the eye), one above his top lip in the middle. One of his eyes is a pearl with a small scar under it. Seven pearls ranging from pool ball to volleyball size are resting next to his torso inside the shell. He's underwater in a pile of sand with a wall of bubbles behind him.
Same merman but with pearly white hair.
Same merman above, dark hair close up.
Same merman above, pearly hair close up.

Let me know if you like the dark or light hair more 🙂


Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing.

 

Books I Received for Review:

The Mourning Dove and His Snow Sparrow by Eve Healy, from NetGalley. Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella, an audiobook from NetGalley.

 

Books I Finished:

Deadbeat Druid by David R. SlaytonIf I See You Again Tomorrow by Robbie CouchThe Alchemy of Moonlight by David FerraroThree Meant to Be by MN BennetBored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

If you’re considering buying one of the books below from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

Deadbeat Druid by David R. Slayton – A nice finale to a great trilogy with magic, action, and romance.

If I See You Again Tomorrow by Robbie Couch – YA repeating day romance and some sweet messages.

The Alchemy of Moonlight by David Ferraro – Older YA historical paranormal, a bit lacking in the romance but a good story.

Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes – Fred books are just comforting for me at this point. I know I’m going to get a pretty chill paranormal story with characters I like, especially Fred.

Three Meant to Be by MN Bennet – A very grumpy MC teaching a whole class of students at magic school, with some action and romance and a really neat magic system.

The Mourning Dove and His Snow Sparrow by Eve Healy – Not the most developed romance, but sweet, with a bird who becomes a man.

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella – A great book with queer perspective, friendship, and a somewhat atypical take on werewolves.

 
 
 

Talk to me!

How was your May?
Have you found any good books, games, movies, etc. lately?

 
 
[shared_counts]
 
 
 

Your Thoughts

 

16 thoughts on “Update: Life and Books (May 2023) + Mermay Art

I'd love if you'd share your thoughts, too!

 

Reading your comments makes me a very happy blogger!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 
  1. Greg

    Nice Mermay art. I think I like the dark hair more but it was a touch call. 🙂 I’m loving pixel games lately too, and pixel artwork.

    Yay werewolves!

  2. Lorna

    I like the darker hair. You drew those? That’s pretty amazing. I’m sorry you are struggling. Hang in there.

  3. Sam @ Spines in a Line

    I think I might like the light hair more but those drawings are all beautiful! I’ll have to check out that podcast, I don’t tend to listen to a lot but they are a fun way to spend my time. I’ve been enjoying Normal Gossip and talking about it with friends

  4. Jessica

    The sea turtle picture is like the martial arts fantasy book series I had read. One of my the main characters is the god of martial arts which is a sea turtle and snake. He was human form alot. I like the merman with dark hair. Right now I’m reading No Second Chance by Harlan Coben, I watched the French tv show before reading the book. I just finished an awesome book called River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan. I hoping to listen to two other books by her soon. I have been watching The Servant (season 2), Mrs. Davis (almost through with it), A Million Little Things ( season 5), The Blacklist (season 10), and Kung Fu (one more episode). I had watched one episode of American Born Chinese and it was good. I have been watching Disney movies lately. Today I watched Brother Bear 2.