Other Ever Afters

Melanie Gillman's Other Ever Afters is a cute collection of graphic short stories. Maybe fables? They are not as heavy-handed as traditional fables, and they center feelings and belonging. The back copy describes the book as "original, feminist, queer fairy tales" but the queerness is a light touch because they are fairy tales, so the important bits are things like "there is a giant outside our village" and "the goose-keeper lives outside the castle". The drawings are bright and softly round-edged and lovely.

It's overall cute, and a quick little collection of stories.

This post's theme word is pussivant (v. intr.), "to meddle, fuss, move around busily." The villagers pussivanted around the square in an attempt to find the yearly sacrificial maiden.

Off Book live!

Off Book: The Improvised Musical podcast had a delightful exploration of the impish Salvador Dalí, an incredibly successful cat rescue, and how Zach and Jess manage to convey "sucked into a pocketwatch and deposited in another universe" in a shared glance and series of unexpected stage direction executions. Overall the night was a delight and I'm so glad that I got the chance to see a performance in-person (and overcame some weather-related travel setbacks to make it).

Five stars, zero regrets about my years of subscribing to the free podcast and paying to support the joy that these performers bring into the world.

This post's theme word is magniloquent (adj), "characterized by lofty, grandiose, or pompous speech or writing." The plot was resolved by a magniloquent soliloquy from an unexpected character in the final few minutes.