The Scribbling Man > Recent Status Updates

Shaky start. Wooden dialogue, names on a page. Too many characters with little to no description to differentiate. The writing seems to be improving as I go, with some of Simak's token pastoral description helping things to feel a bit more settled and natural. I'm not optimistic, but it's readable.

Spontaneous reread has me nearly halfway through in a day. Flawed and dated, but utterly unique and charming; I really love the framing and it's easy to see why it's highlighted in Simak's bibliography. I remember it all falling apart after the next story, so we'll see how I fare this time. Third read's the charm, no?

Didn't care for the first segment, but enjoyed the second (probably bias toward it as a musician). There's already a connection between both established, which is more than I was expecting.

The "Dracula Daily" format has me impatient and wanting to binge through the entries, but I must admit I'm loving the jumps back and forward to deliver a chronological telling. It's also pretty effective in experiencing the story in real time.

Finally, after years, I'm resuming progress on this audio collection with The Call of Cthulu. Back to Lovecraft's harrowing vagueries of untold horror. Adjectives are insufficient.

Finished "Book 1", which (to my knowledge) was where the original story ended before being expanded into a novel. 5/5 from me for this first part, unless what follows should shed unfavourable light.

Doing "Dracula Daily" which is not really daily, but you get sent emails on the date of each diary entry/letter in chronological order. I'm using the emails for reference and then looking up the entries to read in my paper copy. Thought it would be a great way to re-experience one of my favourites.

Glass of water, please, cos this is dryyyyyyy.