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Book Review: The Hills of Meat, The Forest of Bone
Amazon Cover
The Hills of Meat, The Forest of Bone (A Broken Cities Novella) by Michelle Muenzler
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Explore the labyrinth…if you dare.
Exotics trader Hetha Eran has been poking her nose in the Labyrinth’s business since she was a snot-nosed little kid. And given her experience, she’s pretty sure she has at least a few more years before the Labyrinth figures out a way to turn her guts inside out.
The Labyrinth, alas, takes this as a challenge.
When Hetha accidentally poisons a rather important person, she and her half-shark assistant find themselves tumbling into a landscape unlike any other. One that might just be enough to make even the most committed carnivore a vegetarian…
A weird and wild and sometimes darkly grotesque black comedy in the vein of John Dies at the End, The Hills of Meat, The Forest of Bone will challenge everything you’ve ever thought about science fiction and storytelling.
MY REVIEW
I thought I was getting a horror novel – what with the cover and the title. But I’ve read two other Broken Cities books, with varying degrees of enjoyment and thought I would give it a shot. The Broken Cities is a shared universe (so far every author is different) with a scifi-fantasy blend of multi-verse-shard-gate jumps so every book can have a completely different base for its story.
To be honest, I don’t much like shard-type universe stories. I love world-building, but jumping willy-nilly between worlds with each one more unusual than the last doesn’t give much in the way of connections.
Until someone gets trapped in a really, really inhospitable world. Like the Hills are made of Meat and the Forests are created of Bone. The first 20% of the book is in a typical, slightly unpleasant fantasy world with a bar, a merchant trade, and a back alley. Boring, but I soldiered on. Finally the heroine and sidekick pop through a gate into another shard-world.
And I found out this is not a horror novel – but a HUMOR, fantasy/scifi, MacGyver-style solving story. All the crazy world stuff on the shards and the gates comes together in a dozen different problems and a gross of solutions. Each chapter introduces a new disaster requiring a new crazy solution which leads to a new problem, and so on.
A really fun book, even it if takes a long time to get there. Once the story gets rolling, it rolls fast.
(Read through Kindle Unlimited)
Flash: Confetti Ashes
Photo by Anna Bratiychuk on Unsplash
The ice cold stone step bites into my butt as I sit in front of the brownstone debating my waking existence with my morning coffee, watching a watery January sun struggle against ten million hangovers to start the new year. Last night, confetti fell like ashes and champagne flowed like tears. Today, glitter leaps into gutters from abandoned dried-out pine trees outside of the few houses pretending to still have families.
Behind me, a door opens and closes. “Happy 2052. Okay for me to join you?” Whitney asks as she creaks herself down beside me. Hair of dog with a hint of vanilla whiffs on the breeze from her coffee mug.
“Sure.” I say to the other female member of our polycube. “Happy New Year.” I add belatedly after a sip from my rapidly cooling coffee. Climate change didn’t erase seasons; it only made the variation within the season as predictable as my hot flashes. For Christmas, it had been record-breaking heat, next week will be record-breaking cold. Tomorrow will be normal temperatures but with a side of the white snow we wanted last week followed by a night sleet to petrify it in place. January this far north isn’t forgiving and, thanks to climate change, neither is summer.
“You told me to tell you to climb out of your mope.”
“After the New Year started.” I sigh. “I guess that is now.”
“Your daughter is twenty-six. They don’t come home anymore at that age.” She chuckles. “Lord knows, I didn’t.”
“Yeah, but the rules have changed.” She let me pause for a sip without interrupting, but I feel the judgy beside me, so I adjust the verb tense. “Are changing.”
“And yet some things will never change. Twenty-somethings know everything.”
“For as long as there continues to be twenty-somethings. And that is what now? Another ten years?”
“Twelve. The last child was born in November 2033.”
“Fuck microplastics and forever chemicals.”
“Fuck them sideways.”
(words 323; first published 1/4/2026)
Writing Exercise: New Year New Habits, Old Goals 2026
Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
Happy New Year
2025 flips to 2026 and another year in which you are going to work on your writing.
That’s fine. Reconcentrate after the craziness of December. For me, I lost all of November to my mom being in the hospital then in rebhab after breaking her hip in a fall. December, she was healthy enough for visits (though we are still going to a physical therapist three times a week), so we had rolling visitors all month for which we were preparing, having, then cleaning up to redo the whole thing over again the next week with another group. And I had edits. Writing has not been possible, but I did manage to finish my BIPoC reading goal of the year.
Now it’s time to return to the keyboard. Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard – BICHOK.
Today’s writing exercise is figuring out what do you want to accomplish this year.
WRITING EXERCISE: Reading, Writing, Submission, Social Media, Socialization, and Convention goals. Write yours down and record those you want to share in the comments. Keep the rest somewhere nearby.
My Attempt
One) Reading Goals (A) BIPoC reads. I want to do 24 books again this year. It is a reasonable goal and I have been able to make it for three years running. It is about 20% of my reads. These are verifiable BIPoC reads; often with immigrant or latino reads, verifying isn’t easy or possible. (B) Book Clubs – I am part of two book clubs. One specializes in recent (5 years or less) genre fiction and often introduces me to books I wouldn’t have found on my own, but I am, generally, interested in. The National Public Radio book club in Waco is called Likely Stories and reads random books reviewed on the radio station by listeners. It is random and REALLY introduces me to books I would never have read. – Both goals for (A) and (B) make me read outside my comfort zone and explore new authors constantly.
What are you doing to look beyond your normal reading interests?
Hmm. The big change from normal is previous years I made a habit of reading writing books, but this past year I only read one. I think I should make a challenge over on Storygraph of reading twelve books for bookcrafting. Goal (C). The Storygraph challenges will be the BIPoC and the Writing Books.
A bonus goal is actually creating some of those book reviews for my NPR book club. Six will be a reasonable challenge I think. (D) Six Likely Reads Book Reviews.
Two) Writing – Editing took over the writing last year, as did yardwork and readjusting to living at home. This year goals are (A) writing at least one blog per day; (B) writing at least one short story a month; and (C) writing at least 500 real words per day, not just words on emails and the like. Will I do it all? Unlikely. I keep making this goal and failing, but maybe, like the reading, I can figure out a way to make the goals happen. I’ve done good for months at a time so it isn’t impossible, just unlikely.
Three) Submission – I cannot control if a book or short story will be published, BUT if I don’t finish and submit, it won’t happen. (A) I need to submit the followup short story for my superhero story which appeared in “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To P-Con” for the 2026 anthology. (B) I would like to submit to two of the Ranconteur anthologies. (C) I would like to publish another 20k (at least) book; “Honestly” is getting lonely out there. (D)Bonus points, get a novella or short novel published by Falstaff’s Crush line.
Four) Social Media – I have fun (A) making daily TikTok bookquotes (or embroidery drops; (B) transferring them to YouTube; (C) making memes (at least 50 this year) on bookquotes; (D) maintaining this blog; (E) (the likely books review mentioned under reading) (F) Bonus point: start a substack.
Five) Socialization – I have two book clubs (as mentioned under the reading goals) but I don’t have a club or regular writing group outside of that. I was thinking I would need to create one since Waco didn’t have one, but the Hewitt Library System is starting one in January and it will meet twice a month. I hope it will keep me honest. So (A) book clubs and (B) writer group. I also have (C) an embroidery group. These are my social lifelines. Do not skimp on having a support system outside of your family.
Six) Conventions – My goal every year is to go to at least three writer conventions. I need to sit down and make plans for this.
Seven) Publication – This is something I don’t have control over (mostly), but (A) Bonus: Publish a novel either by myself or with someone else.
I have marked a revisit to these goals for April’s 5th Thursday blog.
Other questions include do I want to participate in the A-to-Z in April or do Novel November?
Embroidery: Christmas Ornaments
I am clearing out my embroidery stash. This is going to be a LONG-TERM project. The easy start on the UFOs (unfinished objects) and Stash-Babies waiting to be touched is the Christmas ornaments. I am taking pictures nightly as I work on them. I usually have about an hour a night (more like 1 and a quarter hours, because there is always “ONE MORE STITCH”). Non-screen time is important to get to sleep once you lay down, and this gives me an hour of no glowing screens before bedtime.
HO-HO-HO (7/9/2025-7/12/2025) – total time about 5 hours: Starting on 7/9/2025, I break out a kit for “Ho-Ho-Ho” and a Christmas stocking.
On 7/10/2025, I asked myself why am I working on only one kit? I got three sets of this bugger. May as well knock all of them out at the same time so I can take advantage of minor memorization of the pattern. Three kits in process now; 7/11/2025 – Get the final cross-stitch done for the pattern and start working on the outline stitch in black. No, I don’t know what colors these are exactly as the kit provides everything; 7/12/2025 – Get the backstitch complete and all the stupid French knots – one for each of the Ho’s, nine total.
Stockings (7/13/2025-7/17/2025) – total time about 13.5 hours: 7/13/2025 – Time to start the stockings. First off is the white and blue of the top of the stocking. 7/14/2025 Get the little part of the cane sticking out of the top of the stocking. 7/15/2025 – Add the holly sprig (two shades of green) and get the dark red of the stocking providing shading down so I know the shape of the stocking.
7/16/2025 – Meeting night, an hour of sitting and listening and waiting, plus the normal hour gets the stockings green heel and toes complete and most of the stocking done. I still need to put the white lines on the heel and toes, the yellow dots on the stocking, and, of course, the black outline plus the bell with it’s stupid French knot. 7/17/2025 – Another meeting night, this time two hours. Plus final touches when I get home. AND DONE! (Well, there is still putting them into the ornament, but I need to finish all of them first.)
For Santa (7/18/2025-7/20/2025) – total time about 2.5 hours: 7/18/2025 – Next up, a For Santa and Santa Claus pairing. I only have two of these kits. Start working on the milk first. Hardly visible against the Aida cloth until the outline is started.
7/19/2025 – Must put the writing in because I don’t want to risk the long counting to get things in position and have them wrong. Writing out Santa lets me know where the red highlights go and where the cookie starts. 7/20/2025 – Final night of finishing For Santa with the backstitch, and get a slight jump on the next two.
Santa Claus (7/20/2025-7/26/2025) – total time about 6.5 hours: (see 7/20/2025 above) 7/21/2025 – Get Santa’s rosy cheeks done and the bottom fur of his cap. 7/22/2025 – Get the V of his color done, the holly spring on his hat and the gold bell. 7/23/2025 – White on white for Santa’s beard isn’t easy, even with the light blue for shading.
7/24/2025 – The cross stitch is done. Now to start doing the outline. 7/25/2025 – So, I did the bell in the wrong place which I discovered outlineing the first one. I ripped out the bell on the other and redid it (I wasn’t reworking the outlineing – that is a PAIN – so I left the first as-is. I mean, yeah, tearing out cross-stitch is always a pain, but I chose the level of self-infliction of only fixing one of the two.) 7/26/2025 – Backstitch complete and the French knots are worked. All the Christmas Ornaments are done.
In my embroidery stash are other ornaments. A Love Bug, an Umbrella Duck, and two Frogs. May as well continue the clearing of the stash. Only one of each of these, so it should be much faster. Oh, during the first one, I discovered they don’t use embroidery floss (where you normally separate out two parts); these are just straight up single cords. But easier and harder. Not sure I like the feel of this thread.
Love Bug (7/27/2025-7/28/2025) 2.5 hours: First picture to show the one package. Each comes with instructions (on the back of the picture), a pack of threads, a needle, a display holder and a sticky back for presentation. 7/27/2025 – First photo, nearly forgot to take a picture to start!. 7/27/2025 – That is because of burnout. I completed an edit, third down on it and I powered through eight-hours solid for the final day. I am establishing the new normal of one hour embroidery and one hour of reading before bed. Tonight I am NOT up to reading anything, so I do two hours of embroidery getting most of the Love Bug complete. 7/28/2025 – Finishing the writing took hardly any time, onward to the Umbrella Duck!
Umbrella Duck (7/28/2025-7/29/2025) 1.5 hours: (7/28/2025 see above) 7/29/2025 – The Umbrella Duck is quick with virtually no backstitch.
Flower Frog (7/30/2025-8/1/2025) – 3 hours: 7/30/2025 – First photo is a picture of the two kits. The Flower Fog & the My Pad Frog. 7/30/2025 – Flower Frog has a LOT of green cross-stitch to do. 7/31/2025 – The green face is complete, next up is the pink cheeks and the pink petals for the flower.
8/1/2025 – All the rest of the details take hardly any time at all.
My Pad Frog (8/2/2025) – 2 hours: 8/2/2025 – Brain insisted on taking a vacation so two hours on the embroidery that evening and the final decoration is complete.
Assembly (8/3/2025) – 3 to 4 hours: Big breath. Time to do the assembly. This is a big step for me because it involves cutting the material after the embroidery is done. No going back if you screw up the cutting!
First picture is getting everything together (about half an hour getting together and laying it out). – Second picture is matching the frames and the back support to the projects. – Third picture is after two hours of putting on the back adhesives (need to position perfectly), cutting (oh the cutting), and inserting into the frame. Does it look good? Now another deep breath, and then put Elmer’s glue around the edge on the back so they don’t pop out.
Fourth picture, wait hour and flip over! – Fifth picture, ho-ho-ho and stockings are complete, except I seem to have lost one of the frames (in the 30 years) since I bought them. – Sixth picture – For Santa and Santa Claus ornaments complete.
And the traditional decorations – Love Bug, Umbrella Duck, Flower Frog, and My Pad Frog all are done.
Finally, the Cardinal. I finished this piece of embroidery three decades ago, but never put it in the frame. I had never framed anything before at that point and it was so beautiful. The concept of gluing the aida cloth to some random piece of cardboard (unlike the other decorations, this one did not come with a self-adhesive piece), cutting the aida in a circle, the very opposite of how the fabric is made, and then gluing all of that to the frame, and it still has no way to attach to anything!?! The whole thing was beyond me. I am very proud of finally making this complete. Now, I just need to figure out how to hang or display this piece.
