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The Last Dinosaurs: Wearing my Inspirations and Just How Dark Children’s Media Can Go

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  So I’ve been locked the fuck in recently. A couple of months ago, I came across an essay discussing the original Land Before Time film as a Prehistoric  Dark Fantasy, three words that fascinated me so much I wanted to write my own one.    Sometimes, I come up with a character, or a setting, or a few hyphae in a mycelium of a plot. Other times, I have some vibes, or a goal, and have to come up with a story around it. And that’s what the words “prehistoric dark fantasy” did for me. I started a mind map to get my thoughts in order. A lot of animated dinosaur films revolve around the premise of dinosaurs migrating to a safe place, often fleeing climate change or an extinction event. I thought it would be fun to take things a step further. In the 2020s, we have a better idea of just how sudden and brutal the extinction of the dinosaurs was, maybe something set in the aftermath would be interesting.  With that time period in mind, I thoug...
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I read 100 books in a year; don’t read 100 books in a year – Part 2

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Read Part 1 here! And we’re back, diving into the world of short, oftentimes mediocre books I read to hit an arbitrary target.  51. Titanic and Her Sisters: A Postcard History – Janette McCutcheon, Campbell McCutcheon I love the Titanic, I love ships and I love postcards. I loved the pictures in these books, but the text accompanying them often felt unedited. Points were repeated constantly and the writing was just flat. 52. 100 Queer Poems – Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan I actually can’t remember most of the poems from this collection, because I read it so long ago. I’m glad the collection exists, though, and I’d love to revisit it and check out any poets whose work caught my eye. 53. You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight – Kalynn Bayron Fun, with enjoyable characters that I didn’t want to die. Maybe it would have worked better for me if I was familiar with these kinds of slashers, but on the whole it was good, atmospheric, and the tension builds nic...
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I read 100 books in a year; don’t read 100 books in a year – Part 1

Don’t even think about reading 100 books in a year. It’s not fun, it’s not quirky, and it’s not a substitute for a personality. I don’t know why I set myself this challenge. Because I’m stupid? I wanted to make a dent in my massive pile of unread books, I suppose. And yes, on the one hand, it was really useful for finally reading all those short books I’d found in charity shops over the years and bought because they were vaguely related to something I was interested in at the time. I’ve managed to get rid of so many books this year (only to be replaced by more but that’s another story). And this list doesn’t even cover the books I started to read, realised were terrible and not worth my time, and promptly sent to the charity shop.  On the other hand, there are so many books I wanted to read this year that I’ve put off for being “too long”. I’ve ordered my TBR on goodreads by page number and using that to determine what I would read, and only a few of the books I...
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