2019 Favorites
I honestly don’t know how other authors get
time to read, and personally only manage a half hour or so before bed on the
good days. In terms of books I really enjoyed, there’s Alec Hutson’s The Shadow
King, which concluded his Ravening series on a high note.
Rob J. Hayes’ Never Die was also a
highlight, which is probably why it’s doing so well in this year’s SPFBO.
Unfortunately (or not), I find myself
watching TV whenever I have a spare second, so here are some shows that really
stuck out to me this year:
She-Ra: Everyone’s all gaga over The Dragon Prince, which is just sort of run of the mill to me, but this show is a gem. Especially the third season, which gets really dark and really weird. There’s generally a dichotomy between “girl and boys” shows, and this one really blurs the line such that I think both can enjoy it. I sure wish shows this good were around when I was a kid.
She-Ra: Everyone’s all gaga over The Dragon Prince, which is just sort of run of the mill to me, but this show is a gem. Especially the third season, which gets really dark and really weird. There’s generally a dichotomy between “girl and boys” shows, and this one really blurs the line such that I think both can enjoy it. I sure wish shows this good were around when I was a kid.
Carnival Row: Another show that got released in the shadow of another in the form of The Dark Crystal, but I’ve been rooting for this one ever since it showed up a decade ago as a script being passed around Hollywood that everyone swore would never get made. A fairy immigration story with a Lovecraftian murder mystery and maybe some werewolves thrown in? Sign me up.
Sound & Fury: Sturgill Simpson’s fourth album is a doozy, what with an accompanying anime release on Netflix. It can best be described as a post-apocalypse-samurai-Western that’s also a country concept album, but really it’s a love letter to late night 90s MTV, what with all the weirdness that includes a line dancing scene in the middle of a mecha battle. So much crazy genre mashups had me hooked 100%.
Looking ahead to 2020
I’m in the middle of a move so can’t think
past the next week, let alone into a new decade. So what it might entail has me
stumped. Let’s just say I’m looking for more fantasy to push the boundaries as
to what’s popular and acceptable. We’re a genre based upon exploring impossible
worlds, so here’s to hoping they get a lot more impossible and weirder as the
decade opens up.
On the Horizon for M.D. Presley
Personally, I plan to finish up Sol’s
Harvest by releasing The Shattered Sphere in the first half of the year. Then
I’m on to a long-gestating non-fiction project examining worldbuilding in the
fantasy genre. It’s such an important aspect in assessing success in the
fantasy genre, yet we have no unified definition of what it is. I hope to
change that by the end of the year. Or at least make an attempt…
About the Author
Never passing up the opportunity to speak
about himself in the third person, M.D. Presley is not nearly as clever as he
thinks he is. Born and raised in Texas, he spent several years on the East
Coast and now waits for the West Coast to shake him loose. His favorite words
include defenestrate, callipygian, and Algonquin. The fact that monosyllabic is
such a long word keeps him up at night.
His flintlock fantasy series Sol’s Harvest
can be found on Amazon and should (hopefully) conclude this year. mybook.to/TWR
12:00 AM | 
Posted by
Łukasz |
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Best of 2019
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