#it's a bit of a cliche to have sally do these things for jack i know but if done sparingly i think it's very in character of her

[inkiedraws]

Very short little Christmas comic taking place a few years after the movie and the games kinda.

For my own enjoyment Oogie’s revenge is canon because that thing was 80% of my childhood and i don’t care

Jack remembers that cringe thing he did 5 years ago and suffers.

[sheepydraws]

SheepyReads March Round-up!

Romance

Hen Fever by Olivia Waite: Historical f/f where two women get embroiled in their town's annual chicken contest and learn about their tragic connection due to the recent war. This one is good enough to cackle about. I love that the heroines are on the older side (both past thirty) and the insanity that is caring for a bunch of show chickens. Funny, angsty, and with that touch of magical realism that can make historical romance really really fun. Recommended.

At His Countess' Pleasure by Olivia Waite: Historical f/m with a marraige of convenince, with. Um. This was originally published as I Pegged an Earl. So. Anyway, this is light-hearted smutty romance, and you should have fun if that appeals to you. Recommended.

Cinderella by S.T. Lynn: Fantasy Cinderella re-telling with a ftm/f romance. Making Cinderella's deadname Coal was very funny. Otherwise this didn't really stick out to me. It was sweet and very low-conflict but not particularly interesting. Not Recommended.

Pumpkin Pounder by Laura Lovely: A Cinderella based novella about a woman and her red-headed Halloween hookup. This is a "glad I got it from the library" book. It wasn't terrible (although I wasn't expecting it to be...uh...A Nightmare Before Christmas fan-fic??? Kinda??? It's a very minor element but her Halloween costume is Sally, and at the end the Hero shows up in a Jack Skellington costume and there's some pumpkin king jokes.) but it also wasn't really what I want from a romance novella since the "Cinderella" aspect meant the couple spent a good chunk of the story apart. Not Recommended.

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian: f/m historical where a woman winds up teaming up with her blackmailer when her own criminal activities go awry. I probably should have read The Queer Principles of Kit Webb before this, because the two stories are deeply interconnected, but I had a good time regardless. Sebatian did a great job of drawing an intimate romance in the middle of the whirlwind of committing a lot of different crimes. Also, how do I put this delicately? The heroine jacks the hero off in a stable and its incredibly hot. Recommended.

Non-Fiction

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy: A memoir about McCurdy's life as a child actor forced to support her family by her abusive mother. I loved that this book is told chronologically, so by the time you are reading about McCurdy having a breakdown in her twenties you already have context for her actions from the descriptions of her childhood. McCurdy is really good at showing how she felt when certain things were happening, while simultaneously giving you the bigger picture that she couldn't see at the time. Recommended

Been There, Done That by Rachel Feltman: A light-hearted history of sex, discussing contraception, kinks, sexually transmitted diseases and more things people have been dealing with since we evolved sexual reproduction. Not a serious dive into any particular topic, but this is a fun book, and the author has some good things to say about consent and boundaries. Recommended.

Mystery

The Bellamy Trial by Francis Noyes Hart: A mystery novel told mainly through witness testimony at a murder trial. Well-written and maintains its tension throughout, but I felt a bit let down by the ending. Not that it was bad, but I was abruptly reminded, "Oh yeah, this was written in 1925". It was very "bad people are bad and get punished and good people are good and get rewarded", in a way that almost felt condescending. This is very interesting as a historical artifact, though. Recommended

Graphic Novels

Heartstopper Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman: This was a very cute, very sweet high school romance, if a bit cliche. I'm kind of sad that the best thing I can say about it is that I would have been obsessed with it at fourteen. Not Recommended

Fantasy

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett: A wizard university dropout attempts to show a fool-hardy tourist around an increasingly beautiful and dangerous magical world. Okay, yes, this book is nowhere near as good as Pratchett's later works, like Guards! Guards! (It was so weird to see Death being a bit of an asshole.) However, it is weirdly compelling. It has the bones of what Pratchett will do with later works, and there's something about a person falling off the edge of the world multiple times and slowly seeing the beauty in it I found strangely compelling. I've decided to put the rest of the Rincewind books on my TBR, and not just because this one ended in a cliff hanger.

[rockcampxiv-blog]

Thirty Minutes with Sallie Ford: The Extended Interview

Sallie and the group moved into the Ceramics Studio and pulled chairs into a friendly circle. We could hear the chaos of “COBRA” unleashing upstairs and Sallie brought up how she would like to join the musical madness after the interview. The 31-year-old songwriter/musician from Asheville, North Carolina opened the interview by answering questions about her upbringing in the Appalachian region and distinguishing the difference between country music and “mountain country”. She had a relaxed disposition and was open to sharing a variety of questions regarding dairy-free diets, cats, and the logistics of crowd-surfing.

—Intro by Sylvie and Clare; help from Dilubch and Jayce and many rock campers who asked great questions. Photo by Thomas.

You live in the Portland area currently. How’d you hear about it?

I had heard about Portland because I wanted to go to art school, but art school is like a bazillion dollars so I ended up just taking non-credit art classes.

How did you get into music?

I grew up playing music. I was homeschooled. When I was about seven, I started playing Suzuki violin. Really glad I learned that because Suzuki is all about learning by ear, so it’s not reading music, it’s just listening. I did that and some guitar lessons, but right before I moved to Portland I started writing songs and singing more. I grew up singing and doing music and stuff.

Do you think your knowledge of classical violin has influenced what you play today?

For sure. Music for me is like the best expression of being able to be really intense and channel that into something creative. I'm really lucky that I got that really rigid practicing. I think those two things combined make it really easy to express myself, because I really wanted to do art and I still do that some. I never really did a bunch of drawing practice though.

I really wish that I did something like [rock camp] when I was younger. I did play some rock guitar in high school, when I was sixteen. Violin is just too rigid.

Have you always been into country? Was that a diversion for you, or more of where you came from?

I think when I first started playing, when I was writing my own songs I wanted it to sound loose and jazzy, because I really liked jazz singers. Then I found that when I played faster music, people would listen and dance more, so I liked doing that. I never really wanted it to be super country, that just kinda happened. I've been pegged as rockabilly, which I'm not super into. I also sort of imitated a lot more singers when I first started, and wanted to play this character of this jazzy singer and hide behind a persona of a voice that I made up. But the more that I play, I’m just like, "I don’t need that, I can just sing the way I want to sing." I grew up with Appalachian and country stuff, it was more mountain country than classic country.

So you traveled to Europe, were you playing music there?

No, I was just traveling in Europe. I have since been back to Europe, and have gotten to play shows and tour there, which was interesting because I was 18 years old when I first flew to Europe. I just traveled and stayed in hostels. But it has been interesting going back there and playing shows while having the experience of working in Europe instead of traveling.

What was your favorite city in Europe?

Paris is my favorite city, I guess I was surprised because when I was 18 and backpacking in Europe I hated Paris, and had this really horrible experience. But then when I went back I had this French label that was based in Paris, so I wound up having to be there a lot and I've made friends there. It’s like the one other city I know besides Portland. Playing in Paris, the venues have a little bit more character, while the rest of France I played in community centers. France is very lucky because the taxes go to the arts and music, so I'll get paid really well by these government venues, but a lot of them aren't as fun to play. It’s just kinda like a box with lights: I like venues with stickers on the walls with a community there that you can really feel. There's more of a community vibe in Paris.

Any nightmare tour stories?

I once lost my voice during a tour: I was on stage and singing while it started to cut out, and I just had to get off stage. It was really hard, because I had to cancel a few shows and medicine is pretty different, so they were trying to give me all these weird pharmaceutical drugs.

Your best gig ever?

One of my favorites was in Portland, I played in the Lewis and Clark College. There were a bunch of kids stage-diving, it was so Rock and Roll, it was so cool! I have always wanted to do that, but I never had the guts. There was also this show in France where there were a bunch of people crowd-surfing, but there definitely weren’t enough people to pull it off successfully. My guitar players were doing it, but I didn't -- I was scared of being dropped.

Your favorite Mexican dish?

Tacos. I'm one of those boring people that avoids dairy.

Are there any big artists that you've shared a venue with?

Oh, this sounds kind of boastful haha. [People in the room reassure her that it's not.] I played with Wanda Jackson, Mavis Staples, and Jack White.

Opening for Jack White was pretty cool, but I don't think we held up to their expectation of us being the typical "Rockabilly,” "Blast From the Past" band.

How'd you hear about Rock and Roll Camp?

My bandmate, Walker Spring, told me about it. I played with her at the opening of the "Live from the Leslie" event here in town at The Lodge. I didn't meet Addison there, actually (Head of the Rock Camp), but I was so determined to participate and teach in the camp that I sought out his email. Who knows, maybe I'll start my own camp in Portland.

When you changed bands, did your style change?

Yeah, I feel like I change every few years. Especially my vocals. I'll listen back to old albums and vocals, and it sounds so fake. It sounds forced and faked, it makes me sick to my stomach. That's why I have so many tattoos. I've already put out records, so you have to live with that permanent decision, and I think recording albums and tattoos are pretty similar.

You played reunion shows right?

Oh yeah, my very first band was Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, and it was me and these three guys. They kind of got tired of touring, but I wasn't ready to give it up yet. So I just dropped their name and got a new band. But now it's haunting me haha, people will say to me, "Why'd you break up?" and I'll say, "I'm still in music!"

Advice for first-time performers?

This is probably cliche, but it's easy to judge yourself.  But you know that if you heard your friends talking negatively about themselves, or if you heard them have the same lack of self-confidence that you have, you wouldn't want to hear them say that. You'd encourage them, so you should encourage yourself, too!