Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in bev_vincent's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
1:53 pm	Talking Turkey When I saw the previews for this week’s Big Bang Theory, I thought they were making a test tube turkey. Though the episode had some very funny moments, I thought it was a little less well focused than most. Sheldon getting helium voice during his NPR interview was hilarious. TV shows handle Thanksgiving in many different ways. Some simply ignore it, whereas others twist it around, as on How I Met Your Mother, which had more “slap” puns than you could shake an open hand at.  I sided with Lily and thought Marshal was out of line. And the whole “slap happy” game wrapper will probably come back to bite them on the butt. Not one of their best efforts. The “you’re dead to me” clips were well done, though, including the falling coffee pot in the bodega. And then there’s Dexter, which turns the whole affair into a hundred different kinds of awkward. One of the show’s strengths is the suspense that the writers consistently generate by putting Dexter up against the clock. When “Kyle” is having dinner with Trinity’s family, viewers know that he has to get back home to his real family, so when Trinity says, oh, but we have to watch the football game first, you feel that tension increase automatically. There have been many televised Thanksgiving meals, but I doubt that there’s ever been one like that. Ugh. With only a few episodes left, it’s only natural that things should be heading to something big…but how is it all going to play out? And the final two words of the episode changed the game dramatically. Who saw that coming? Something happened to the video on ABC last night during Castle, but the sound came through so I listened to the episode while doing other things. The old “more than one wife shows up to claim the body” gag has been done before, but they managed to do something a little different with it, bringing in the corporate espionage subplot. The best moments of the show, though, involve Castle’s interactions with his daughter, and you can just feel him beaming with pride whenever he observes her. Has any other member of House’s team gotten away with punching him in the mouth before? It’s funny that Chase’s stated motive was simply to get the others to stop bugging him about Cameron, and that House was okay with that. The whole three-hour diversion was a little bit mean, but given House’s intentions I guess Cuddy can be forgiven. Hopefully House will give up this futile quest and move on. That subplot is starting to wear a little thin. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
10:49 am	Vantage Point I had a lazy weekend. Watched way too much television and accomplished little of substance. Vantage Point was on one of our free movie channels so I decided to watch it, because the idea had intrigued me at the time. In fact, it’s an interesting premise but poorly executed in this case. The same scene is played out multiple times from the perspective of different characters, so that each time through we learn a little bit more about what’s happening. However, I think the failure in the concept is that the individual perspectives on events are all essentially the same. There are no unreliable witnesses, no faulty memories, no skewed perceptions. So the movie boils down to about 20 minutes of plot and a few twists. The linear story itself is moderately unremarkable, but it has some surprises. Unfortunately, there is little real screen time available to explore the source of these surprises and one character in particular is left as a gaping enigma. We never get to find out his motives. Not a terrible movie. It has some genuinely tense moments. But on the whole I would consider it a failed experiment. I stumbled across The Rocky Horror Picture Show playing on Fuse so I decided to leave it on while I worked on other things. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the historian’s dialog before. Any time I’ve seen the film in theaters–and it’s been a loooong time–he is drowned out by the audience shouting “Boring!” Tim Curry really is very good in this film. He does a lot with eyebrow twitches and the shape of his mouth. I found another potential market for my 10,000 word novelette, so I got it back into circulation this weekend. Probably my most significant accomplishment of the weekend. I really was lazy. It felt good! Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
11:23 am	Rocket Science It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to upset the apple cart on Survivor. But this week it helped. So, let’s see. I can sit back, keep the tie vote and stand a finite chance of drawing the black stone and being sent home, or I can change my vote, evict a strong player, and guarantee that I’ll be around to play another day. Hmmm. The tribal councils the last three weeks have been great. First there was the Eric blindside, where he was so taken by surprise that you could see realization oozing out of his ears. Then there was the “no way he has another immunity idol” gaffe last week followed by the zoinks! when he produced it. And this week there was John’s decision. I thought it was a very gutsy move by Russell to keep the immunity idol, play for the draw and let the chips fall where they may. Fringe was pretty awesome this week, too. The mythology expands a little bit to show us that there are multiple observers, and then one of them is humanized. Inklings of their interference in Walt’s early life, but most importantly the personal story that emerged when the observer went off the reservation, so to speak. In fact, all the characters had personal moments — Olivia with her niece, for example — and the only shame was that Walter didn’t figure out the missing ingredient in his ice cream recipe. A mystery for another week, perhaps. And just when you were counting The Mentalist down and out they hit you in the gut. Even though I’d seen the previews, I wasn’t expecting the shooting scene, and I certainly didn’t expect the culprit to be who it was, nor was I expecting Sam’s fate. It was almost like the writers and Red John were in sync. We’ve introduced this complication and it’s derailing Jane from the investigation so we have to wipe the slate clean. I’m still not impressed with Robin Tunney’s acting skills, but it was a hell of an episode. Perhaps the best one yet. Fast Forward, on the other hand, tread water more or less tread water this week. Brice’s story is vaguely interesting, but it’s so far afield from the main trajectory of the series that it felt like an unnecessary diversion. I want the mosaic team to go to Hong Kong, but now we have to wait two weeks to see how that plays out. And I want the Dominic Monaghan character to come clean. Ditto: two weeks. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
9:56 am	Be Seeing You…Not I received my semi-annual statement from Penguin via my agent for The Road to the Dark Tower yesterday. I keep expecting to open these and find several pages filled with zeroes, but that hasn’t been the case yet. Exactly five years after publication, it is still selling at a pace of about 2.5 copies every day. Of the sales in the last six months, fifty were for electronic versions of the book, eighty copies were sold in Canada and the rest in the U.S. At the current rate, I should earn out my advance in three more years! I received my contributor copies of Issue 62 of Cemetery Dance magazine yesterday. Didn’t have time to do more than scan through it yet. Looking forward to reading all the Blatty material. I tried to watch the AMC reboot of The Prisoner last night. I recorded it, but found that it is available On Demand on Comcast so I went there instead. I made it about 3/4 of the way through the first hour and gave up. It simply didn’t interest me or hold my attention. Did anyone watch it and like it? Hard to compare to the original. Caviezel is no McGoohan. Last night’s Criminal Minds seemed like a mash-up at first. The swimming pool scene needed the theme music from Jaws to be complete, and of course there was the obvious Hannibal Lecter influence. Prentiss was a pretty convincing flirt. L&O:SVU took on the new DNA controversy, where people are able to spin the DNA out of blood cells and replace it with DNA from another source to fake evidence. Sinister scientists rubs his hands together in glee and cackles at the end. Mwaaa-ha-ha. I had to laugh at the clip of Al Gore’s cameo for this week’s 30 Rock: “There’s an old African proverb,” he says, “that I just made up…” I’m also getting a kick out of Ellen Page’s commercials for CISCO. She’s funny and natural. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the future. In the rejection department: I received one that featured the tell-tale word “alas.” Any guesses as to where it came from? I have this 10,000 word contemporary urban fantasy story that is really tough to market. The protagonist is a teenager, and it’s a little flippant, but it’s also too damned long for most venues. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
11:15 am	Days of Future Past The editor of the anthology where “The Fingernail Test” will be published said that I could take one more polish pass at it before sending it to her for editing, so that’s what I did this morning. I remembered being pretty happy with the story when I submitted it to the Apex contest. I think I made all of three or four changes. Punctuation, better word choice, one slightly stilted sentence restructured. Off it went. For the third year, I’m a judge for the literary equivalent of science fair. The past two years the number of entries has been very low–last year particularly because of the effects of Hurricane Ike–but this year I have something on the order of 75-80 short works to evaluate. I have to score them on creativity, artistic nature and, most importantly, the way they express the given theme. About half of the submissions are short stories or personal essays, the other half poems. I have grades 5, 6, and 7-12. I’m always fascinated to discover that some of the younger kids put more thought and work into it than the older ones. This week’s NCIS was a hoot. We’re used to all these crime shows using ultramodern techniques and gadgets. Thanks to a power outage, they had to resort to searching through paper files (with attendant paper cuts), using Polaroid cameras to record the crime scene (when’s the last time you saw an SX-70?) and a gestetner to reproduce the eye witness sketch. Gibbs was in his glory in this low-tech universe. The actual crime itself was secondary. Castle was fine this week, too, though I did guess the surprise twist at the end about halfway through the episode. His daughter helps to humanize his character, and it’s cool that she’s starting to connect to Beckett. Thanks to a warp in the space/time continuum, I was able to watch the latest Doctor Who, Waters of Mars. (No spoilers here.) Let’s call it: Under the Biodome. We’re getting very close to the end for Doc #10, and this episode sends him in an interesting and unexpected direction, especially in the last 10 minutes or so. This episode is a rare instance of a near future adventure, and it took me most of the hour to figure out where I knew the main guest actress from: she was the wife on A Year in Provence. Tennant has seen the Doctor through a fascinating character arc, from wide-eyed kid to world-weary and almost jaded. This special was reasonably tense and only featured a tad of goofy Doctorisms, most notably the chorus of annoying, shrill screams. The interaction between Lindsay Duncan and Tenant was very nice. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
2:17 pm	Meteor Shower I finished my Storytellers Unplugged essay (Location, Location, Location) this morning, which is the latest I’ve gotten my monthly contribution done in a long time. Usually I have it ready a week or two in advance, but this month I’ve been busy with a lot of stuff, plus I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about until yesterday morning. As you might guess from the title, it has a little bit to do with the placement of my book in B&N last week, but it also tells the whole story of how the book came about and how it came together in such a short time. I received a rejection letter of a different sort yesterday. I’d applied for a travel grant for WHC 2010. Shot in the dark, but it’s like the lottery. If you don’t buy a ticket you won’t win, guaranteed. Alas, I did not win this lottery. I didn’t have the gumption to stay up late — or get up extra-early — to see the meteor shower last night. Sleep trumps spectacle. The writers of Dexter must have a great time plotting out each season. It’s so fiendish. The revelations this week about Debra’s shooter (I’ve heard speculation about this, which may be right after all) and “Kyle’s” heroic actions and their repercussions are great. The series still has a lot of mileage left to it. Not sure I trust the guy who’s sniffing around Rita. Where is that going to go? I read this morning that the actress who plays Cameron on House doesn’t know any more about her character’s fate than the audience does at present, that the writers are only a couple of episodes ahead of production. I’m not sure I believe that. I think 13 is the critical character–she is the perfect foil for House. She isn’t as smart as he is…yet, but she understands his motivations, perhaps even better than he does himself. The Big Bang Theory was hilarious last night. Hash brownies are always good for a chuckle (the Barney Miller episode ranks as one of the funniest sitcom episodes of all time), but even funnier was the Sheldon/Penny fiasco. Although I had to laugh at Leonard when he realized that his name has the name “nerd” in it. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
1:28 pm	Are you shpongled? I went to Atlanta on Friday (the 13th, no less) to attend King’s signing at the Barnes & Noble in Buckhead. We were supposed to meet up for lunch or something beforehand, but the scheduling gremlins got in the way. I had a VIP wristband awaiting me at the store and decided to just hang out at one of the tables outside the Publix grocery store next door and people watch. I met up with a virtual friend from the SK message board, and a number of other people, including Anya Martin and her father, RJ Sevin from Creeping Hemlock Press, and Dave and LeeAnn Hinchberger from Overlook Connection. We hung around until about 45 minutes before the signing was to begin, then went to the end of the line. It went amazingly fast. Once the line started moving, it barely stalled. Once inside the store, we saw a huge sign over a table. It read “The Dan Brown Experience” but all the books on the table were Twilight novels. Dave took a photo of that for failblog. On the way through the bargain books section, I saw one that was about how to curse effectively in Spanish, complete with a playback machine so you could perfect your pronunciation. King was on a dais at the back, curtained off on three sides. When we reached him, I introduced the people in our group who’d never met him before. After we went outside again, I signed a bunch of copies of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion for Dave and for others. Every single copy in the store was sold that night except for one that looked like it had been through the wars. A Charlie Brown’s Christmas kind of book. We met up with Jim Argendeli from CNN and his brother. Jim had escorted King through the network headquarters earlier in the day for his interview session with Robin Meade. A bunch of us went to an Irish pub afterwards and talked until midnight. One of my favorite groups to listen to while writing has a new album coming out at the end of the month. Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland. I can feel a trance coming on. I became aware of the group after Simon Posford contributed to Alan Parsons’ most recent album. The music is mesmerizing. Absolutely ideal to accompany a writing trance. I read Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston while traveling this weekend. It’s the second book in his trilogy, and a brutal novel. The main character escaped with a ton of mob cash at the end of the first book and now people are after it so he has to figure out how to keep his parents from getting tangled up in the whole mess. It’s a violent book, and the brunt of the violence is directed at the protagonist, who takes one beating after another. It’s not limited to him, though, as most of the people who come into his orbit also fare poorly. Good stuff. I think I’ll go straight into the final installment, A Dangerous Man. I received a rejection letter from On Spec with brief but encouraging comments, and an acceptance note for a Southern Gothic anthology that I had been invited to contribute to. The anthology won’t be out until late next year, or perhaps until 2011. I also received my contract for “The Fingernail Test,” the story that won the Apex contest, and payment for an interview I contributed to an upcoming catalog, so it was a busy weekend for business. We watched the remake of Taking of Pelham 123 this weekend. Though the gist of the story is the same, they deviate significantly. I read the John Godey novel back in the 1980s, but I can’t remember it that well. The original film for me is the story that everything else gets compared to. One of the biggest differences is that the other three criminals (besides Travolta) have very little presence in the story. In the original, they were known by colors and had individual personalities and stories. Of course there are lots of high tech updates, including the guy who is broadcasting the whole thing via his webcam. The Japanese visitor comedic subplot in the original is turned into backstory involving Denzel Washington’s character, and the mayor of New York isn’t the lazy slug from the original. Not a bad movie, overall, though Travolta is a touch over the top. The Prisoner remake is on AMC this week. I think I’m going to record all three parts and watch it straight through. I thought The Mentalist was better than average this week. I didn’t fall to the lure of the CSI trilogy because I refuse to watch the Miami version and have little interest in the New York spinoff. So I went straight into the Las Vegas story and let them catch me up on any important details required to understand what was going on. Fast Forward is starting to do some interesting things with perception. At the end of last week, we decided that the future could be changed but this week it seems that despite some deviations, things are still falling into place for the envisioned future. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
10:26 am	Location, location, location My Barnes & Noble sales rank continued to improve over the course of the day yesterday until it bottomed out at 132. That means it was in 132nd place on the overall bestsellers at their store, a combined list that includes fiction, non-fiction, music, videos, and e-books. The boost in sale was helped, no doubt, by a flier sent out to their membership that cross-promoted the Companion with Under the Dome. I don’t know if store sales contribute to the sales rank, but you can’t complain about placement like this, can you? I haven’t checked the local store yet to see if I got as nice a display, but I’ve heard from readers in Michigan (the one who took this photograph) and from California. Too cool. To put the 132 sales rank in perspective, the final slots in the top 100 list are occupied by the new Michael Crichton (pre-order), Michael Connelly’s newest novel, the second book in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson and Patrick Swayze’s memoir. I was just 32 places behind them! So, two serial killers go for a ride in a van out into the wilderness. How many come back home? That’s just one question posed in this week’s episode of Dexter. It seems that we have not yet plumbed the depths of the Trinity killer, who seemed to have gone through his homicidal phase and is now on to something else. Something that he’s done in the past, or is this new? Definitely something that he’s manic about, anyway. I had a strong suspicion about Dexter’s most recent kill that was proved correct. Or at least so we’re lead to believe at the moment. Next week looks even more full of awesome. Excellent season thus far. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
2:02 pm	The Dome Bounce Today is my 14th wedding anniversary — fourteen years of wedded bliss. I highly recommend it. The lowest (best) Barnes & Noble sales rank my new book, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, had reached before today was about 327. It had been creeping upward into the thousands. Then, this morning, it suddenly dropped to 304 and by mid-morning it was sitting steady at #196. It’s not a top 10 bestseller, but a top 200 bestseller! Clearly it’s being carried along by the release of Under the Dome today. Did you notice who directed last night’s episode of Castle? Jonathan Frakes, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. I loved the scene where the two detectives and Castle were sitting on the couch covered with cats as the mistaken “terrorist” told her tale. Glad, too, that they didn’t go the route of the pompous, uncaring senator, and the end was a real surprise, though I was sure the repeat mentions of the stolen ring were a clue, as they were. The one loose end: no one seemed to care enough to find out where the young woman’s body was. I finished Awaiting Your Reply and am looking for time to write my review. There was a very neat story reversal at the end. I think he laid it on a little heavy in terms of pounding the theme home time and time again, but it was effective, and a fascinating novel. I watched Mortal Causes, the fourth of the Rebus adaptations and the last starring what’s-his-name as Rebus. Gotta see if I can track down the second series to see if the quality improves with the new actor. The voiceovers are the worst part. I guess someone figured that a hardboiled crime show had to have a morose voiceover, but I could have done without. I’m liking the new and improved House. He still isn’t above drugging a friend, but he’s more awake, alert and oriented to the world than ever before. Looks like he’s going to be up to his old tricks next week, though, when he messes around more with Chase and Cameron. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
1:16 pm	Meep! Meep! I saw one of these little guys crossing the road when I went out at lunchtime. It's not as unusual as seeing a dodo or a roc, but they're not exactly common in this part of East Texas, either. No coyotes giving chase, though. I have been reading with interest some of the articles about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Back in 1986, I had the fascinating and memorable experience of crossing through the wall at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. I was on my way to Leipzig in (then) East Germany for a scientific conference. I first approached the US outpost near the checkpoint, uncertain of the protocol, but the bored-looking guy behind the counter said he had no interest in who went into East Germany. (I'm sure he was lying and that he recorded my every move!) The Berlin Wall was an impressive sight. On the Western side, it was covered with graffiti. All of the brush was cut back from it, so it looked like a no-man's land for about 20 yards. Depressing looking, actually. Checkpoint Charlie was both an automotive and pedestrian gateway between the East and the West. The route for vehicles was a deliberate maze so that someone couldn't just floor the gas pedal and break through. There were concrete barriers every few feet that required careful navigation to those who were permitted to pass through. For pedestrians, the course was no less daunting. Inside the Checkpoint, I had to pass through four different chambers. When you passed one stage, the door in front of you opened and then locked behind you, so there was no backing out once you were in play. I think that you could easily apply for a day pass to go into East Berlin, too, but I was prepared in advance with my visa for the conference. There were plenty of questions along the way, and at one stage you were required to exchange a certain amount of money into Ostermarks, East German currency that had no value outside the country. The money was cheaply produced. The coins were aluminum and the color on the bills came off if you rubbed it against something. While in the country you were required to convert a certain amount of money every day, and it was unlawful to take Ostermarks out of the country while you left. This guaranteed an influx of hard currency that the country needed to purchase goods. After I made it through to the other side and was in East Germany, I had no idea what to expect. I thought that I would be stopped frequently and asked to justify why I was there and where I was going. I went to the train station in East Berlin and, after an arduous negotiation, figured out how to get a train ticket to Leipzig. No one would speak English. I had to take the U-bahn (subway) to a certain stop and then the S-Bahn (regular train) from that point on. Fortunately I saw a station stop that sounded like what I heard and guessed correctly where to change. Again, I expected that people would stop me and demand to see my papers, but no one did. I was free to travel inside the country without issue. However, when I checked into the hotel in Leipzig, I had to surrender my passport to the local police for the duration of my stay. East Germany was drab and dreary looking. Pollution coated concrete and glass buildings that had been erected hastily after the war. Though there was nothing overt, I was convinced I was under constant surveillance. I tread carefully. I took absolutely no photographs during my 10 days behind the Iron Curtain. I got the impression that people crossed the street to avoid direct contact with me--I was obviously a westerner with my brightly colored clothing. I was a little surprised that the professors and other faculty at Karl Marx University spoke so openly about their dissatisfaction with the government. A couple of attendees from Czechoslovakia, when they discovered I was Canadian, wanted to know if I could help them join a hockey team. It was a truly surreal experience that will stay with me as long as I live, I suspect. When the time came to leave, I traveled to Berlin with an American who had come in via India. He had a lot of things in his suitcase that interested the East German police when we made the reverse trek through Checkpoint Charlie. They opened his suitcase and spread out everything. I expected to get the same treatment. However, there was a shift change right at that moment and the guy who came on as a replacement seemed to assume that I'd already been searched, so I was waved through. The world seemed brighter and less oppressive once I was back in West Berlin, an amazing, ultra-modern city that seemed to be constantly partying in the shadow of the Evil Empire that completely circled it. When the wall came down a few years later, I was one of the people who bought a little piece of it as a memento. Kitschy, of course. An excellent season finale of Mad Men last night. Some shows choose to rip apart the status quo and leave viewers dangling during hiatus. On this show they managed to disrupt the status quo but give us the promise of a new beginning. Should be interesting times when the new season picks up again. I knew who Roger Sterling was going off to fetch to help them decode the arcane records of the business. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
2:44 pm	A New Home for the Dead Zone The folks over at Cemetery Dance have done some site re-organization. After installing WordPress, my online column has a new URL. Of course, you can still use NewsFromTheDeadZone.com to get there, too. I watched Hanging Gardens, the third episode of the Rebus series. Not as good as the second, not as bad as the first. Some good, realistic twists. I find it interesting how proximate the criminals and the cops are. Without guns to defend themselves, a lot of the exchanges end up like bar room brawniness and high school smackdowns. So, is Wendy going to get to be a "field mouse" on C.S.I.? Hodges is a funny character. So geeky and pompous but he has his moments of redemption, too, as when he told Wendy he just wanted her to be happy. Usually the acting on the show is at least solid, but I thought Nick's reactions in the final scene when the brother was released from jail were forced and obvious. Mice seemed to be a theme on Thursday night, with Jane using one (Mr. Jingles, is that you?) to effect an escape from the lockup. Of course, he psychoanalyzed everyone in jail with him and solved the murder almost without leaving (like Nero Wolfe, solving his crimes from the brownstone). Getting one of the suspects "brought to him" was funny. Still, I find the show teetering on the balance, trying to decide whether to be serious or comedic. NCIS pulls off the comedy. The Mentalist hasn't figured out the right recipe yet. Finishing up revisions on Chapter Two and plan to send it off to my agent tomorrow. I read quite a bit more of Awaiting Your Reply this morning. The title comes from the end of one of those Nigerian scam e-mails, the one that everyone is familiar with. My husband died and I'll give you millions of dollars if you'll help me get his fortune out of the Ivory Coast. The e-mail itself doesn't play a part in the story, which is about identity--what it means, and what it doesn't mean. You have a university kid whose biological father (who he knew as his uncle until the revelation) contacts him. The kid's pissed that the people who raised him never thought it was important enough to tell him who he really was. After he runs away, he's declared dead. He's working with his father (but is he really his father?) on some elaborate scam involving identity theft. The kid travels around the country under different aliases, making transactions, creating lives for these fabricated identities. Then there's the guy whose twin brother is scizophrenic, who likes to tell him made-up stories about things that supposedly happened when they were kids. So the brother has his original memories of childhood and, imprinted on top of them, the wild fantasies his brother has spun. Confusion ensues. The mentally ill brother has been traveling around the country, adopting different pseudonymns, and fooling people into believing he's a professional this or an expert that. And then there's the young woman who's traveling with her former high school history teacher, a man who probably isn't what he claims to be (what history teacher could afford a $70,000 car?). Speaking of identity, we watched The Burning Plain, with Kim Bassinger and Charlize Theron. The movie was a tad confusing at first, because it's told out of sequence and there are characters who are supposed to be older versions of themselves but it takes a while to unravel who's really who. An interesting film about rejection (Bassinger's husband couldn't make love to her after her breast was removed for cancer treatment) and new love, about children disliking the people they love, about love happening between people who were supposed to hate each other, about punishment gone wrong, and about chances to atone. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
10:26 am	He never saw it coming One of the best blindsides in the history of Survivor last night. You could just see it in his face as the votes came against him one after another after another. Wiped the smug grin off his face. Two immunity idols gone in one fell swoop -- I wonder if they'll be tossed back into play again. Laura's victory in the immunity challenge was the first event that set it all rolling. Brilliant. Good to see Fringe back after its World Series hiatus. I guess I'd call this one a standalone as it didn't seem to play into the Walter/William mythos, and introduced a bit of otherworldly influence. Neat effects when the actors turned to smoke and crumbled, but I didn't fall for the fake-out with the little girl at the end. A lot of new characters and situations to keep up with on Private Practice, as the practices divide like miosis. I'm glad Amy Brenneman's character has returned from the abyss, and her patient's solution for an awkward problem was unorthodox, to say the least. Annoying guy in a wheelchair -- hasn't that been done before? Oh, yeah--on Judging Amy! I posted my review of Ian Rankin's The Complaints last night and listed the book for $5 on eBay. It's not available stateside yet, so here's a chance to get it early and cheap! A week from today I'll be heading off to Atlanta to Stephen King's Under the Dome signing. It's been quite a few years since I've been in Atlanta, and this will be a quick trip -- arriving on Friday afternoon and leaving before noon on Saturday. Still reading Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply. Not clear yet who the story is going to ultimately be about. The former schoolgirl who has run off to Nebraska with her former teacher or the guy who's up in the Arctic Circle looking for his paranoid delusional twin brother. Or the boy who had his hand cut off (above or below the wrist?). (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
2:47 pm	Cup of Global Domination When I won the Apex Digest Halloween short story contest in 2006 for “Sufficiently Advanced,” I not only won publication of the story at pro rates and an invitation to their next anthology, I also received a ton of booty. For days afterword I got boxes with prizes donated by various sponsors, including signed books, artwork, etc. One of my favorite items was a ceramic mug that bears the same motto as the one in this post: Nothing like a cup of global domination in the morning,” along with the Apex alien logo. Well, the domination continues. Yesterday (while ego surfing, it must be confessed) I discovered that I won this year’s contest, too, for a story called “The Fingernail Test,” which will be published in Spring 2010 in the anthology Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, edited by Jennifer Brozek. The theme of the anthology and the contest was stories where urban legends were revealed to be alien in origin. Since I’ve been writing a lot of crime fiction lately, I decided that a crime story was in order and it apparently worked for the editor. Speaking of Global Domination, I watched the first episode of V last night. It was o-kay, but not great. Enough to keep me hanging around next week, but barely. I pleased to see Alan Tudyk among the cast–and relieved to see from the previews for next week that he’s not gone from the show. Only four episodes before a lengthy hiatus, so it might fall off my radar in 2010 unless they really pull out all the stops. I received my contributor copies of New Love Stories, which contains my story Bed and Breakfast, a romance story with a twist. I haven’t had time to peruse the rest of the stories, but I like the way they photo illustrate the stories. They use the same models to create several different images that accompany the text. There isn’t a huge market for short romance fiction, so I was pleased to find this magazine and thrilled that they accepted my first submission to them. I was amused to discover that last night’s episode of Criminal Minds had the same title as my essay for the 2010 Stephen King Library desk calendar: The Eyes Have It. A similar concept, too–the removal of eyes. Jay Franco, who edited the calendar this year, wrote a lengthy blog item about it. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
10:24 am	Dying is easy; comedy is hard Finished another editing pass through Chapter 2 of the novel in progress, adding in all the things I remembered needed adding when I finished yesterday morning’s session. Then I came up with another three- or four-line exchange, which I dutifully wrote down on a sticky note for tomorrow’s session. I see that Simon & Shuster has decided to go the e-Galley route for some publications. Yay! “To use GalleyGrab, media sources must register–a process required only once–to then access a galley using a link provided to them. The link becomes invalid on the book’s publication date.” They’re not phasing out hardcopy galleys; this is just another option. I like. I hear via the Twitter-vine that the next Doctor Who special airs on Sunday, November 15th. I think that’s the same day that The Prisoner starts up on AMC. Then, via the CBC, I read that David Tennant has been cast in a new NBC comedy. He’s going to play a Chicago lawyer who coaches his clients to represent themselves in court in the new NBC sitcom Rex Is Not Your Lawyer. “The comic role has Tennant playing a lawyer so prone to panic attacks he cannot be relied on in the courtroom.” Hmmm. The writers always come up with interesting scenarios for Dexter. This season, he is on the trail of a highly successful serial killer who he both wants to bring to justice (his own particular kind of justice) and study. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. I watched another of the Rebus shows, Dead Souls. I remember the novel much better than I did Black and Blue, so it was fun to play along. Still don’t think this is the best actor to play Rebus, and the dream sequences were both annoying and irrelevant, but it was a stronger show than the first one. Good episode of NCIS last night, too. Whenever Gibbs’ old boss comes back on the scene, things always pick up, and seeing the guy in the room with his son’s mother-in-law and then later on the beach: funny stuff. I recorded V to watch this evening. I caught a little bit of the original series on SyFy to refresh my memory of it. Boy–I haven’t seen Faye Grant in forever. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
1:10 pm	Getting Away With Murder I received my contributor copy of the 2010 SK Library desk calendar yesterday. The image here doesn’t capture the cover’s beauty. It is a hologram with amazing depth. The maze looks like it goes all the way through the book. My contribution is an essay called “The Eyes Have It,” which can be found on the July 5-11 pages. I’m editing and revising Chapter 2 of the novel, tightening it up and dabbling in all the little details that I need to pursue from Chapter 1 and set up for the subsequent chapters. I’ll probably send it off to my agent next week. As you may have noticed, a bunch of us killed Brian Keene yesterday. Brian has assembled all the suspects on his blog. Some of them are laugh out loud hilarious. I was sad to see the poker girls get ousted from The Amazing Race, and even more surprised to hear how much they were despised by the other players already at Elimination Station. Mostly because they lied in the early stages about their profession. Tiffany almost got the bell to ring, but they were, in the end, defeated by their lack of physical strength. I thought they had a wonderful attitude. It was also neat to see how well everyone was getting along at the Dubai airport when the two brothers “came out.” I had to laugh at the dad from Montana who quipped, “I guess now would be the time to tell my son he’s adopted.” One more episode of Mad Men left. It was so funny to see the guy who’s supposed to be monitoring the TV ads get distracted when one of the most momentous events of the 20th century was playing out on the screen right beside him. Looks like it’s down to the wire for Don and Betty — will they reconcile or go their separate ways to their respective paramours? And will the firm be sold yet again? I’ve decided that I would pick John Hamm as my choice for Roland Deschain. I watched Black & Blue, the first episode of the British series based on the Rebus novels of Ian Rankin, last weekend. It wasn’t a terribly strong adaptation, partly because the guy who plays Rebus isn’t quite right for the part. I understand that he was replaced after a few episodes, though I don’t know if it was voluntary or not. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
5:17 am	The Keg of Knob Creek He delivered the insult casually, as if it were a matter of little import. “I’m writing a story with someone else first,” he wrote in a brief e-mail message. “I think I can slot you in some time in 2011. Surely no later than 2012.” People know me as a calm, placid man, slow to anger, uneager for confrontation, but this . . . this was the final straw. Of course, I gave no sign of my rage at being so casually dismissed by the great Brian Keene. He who had collaborated with so many others in the past. Just about everyone on the planet, in fact, except me. My idea was a good one, a strong one, with real potential, unlike the drivel he had slapped together with those other hacks. I would have my vengeance upon this man, but in a manner in which no one would ever be the wiser. As Montresor pointed out, “A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.” We continued to exchange friendly e-mails. I kept up my end of our exchange with good humor and a sharp wit. The smilies I embedded in my messages would seem to him like I was in good spirits at our friendly banter. Little did he know that I was grinning at the thought of his demise. I knew his weakness, though, and I would use it to my advantage. I put my expertise in search engine research to good use and soon had all the intelligence I needed to put my plan into effect. It was late one evening at the convention. Keene had been regaling the others—most of them his former and current collaborators—with tales of his prowess as an auteur of some renown. He was even friendly to me and proclaimed that one day he and I, too, would work together on a piece, though his statement sounded patronizing and his smile ungenuine. I returned the smile, equally as artificial, and drew him aside from his circle of fawning acolytes at the earliest convenience. “You’ll never guess what was just delivered to my room,” I said, circling my arm around his shoulder. “A keg of what passes for Knob Creek.” “A keg? Surely not?  Does such a thing even exist?” “So the seller on eBay proclaimed. But I am unsure.” “Impossible,” he said. “I have my doubts, too. I thought I would ask Steve Shrewsbury to confirm it.” “Shrews? No way.” I shrugged. “The crowd in the bar said this his taste for bourbon is a match for yours.” “Never. Knob Creek? I must see this at once,” he said. “Where is your room?” “In the basement,” I said. “The better rooms were reserved for your collaborators.” “We worked together once. Remember Looking Glass? I kept my smile fixed and nodded. A round-robin novella hardly qualified as a collaboration. “Lead the way,” he said, so I guided him to the elevator, which descended slowly into the bowels of the hotel. Keene staggered and lurched beside me as we traversed the long, dank corridor to the very end, toward a room adjacent to the furnace. At one point he seemed on the verge of retching. “Come, let us return to the lobby,” I said. “You look ill. I’ll get Shrews to come in your place.” “Enough,” he said. “A little too much drink will not kill me.” “True,” I replied. “And if this is indeed a keg of barrel proof bourbon, it will cure what ails you.” He withdrew a flask from an inner pocket and took a quick sip to gird him on the way. He did not offer to share it with me. Just as he had not offered seriously a collaboration. Once more I took note of his unsteady bearing and encouraged him to turn back. He laughed and drained the flask. When he finished, he performed a crude gesture. I did not react. He peered at me. “Are you not of the brotherhood of Keene collaborators?” “Ah, yes, of course.” I withdrew a copy of Looking Glass from my pocket. “Our collaboration.” “Indeed,” he said and steadied himself upon his feet. “The keg. Let us proceed.” The basement walls were of bare brick and the floor of cement. The owners of the building had not even deigned to run a rude carpet along its length. As we approached the room, I readied the key. The chamber was dark, dank and spare, without even a window to provide faint illumination. I switched on a lamp. Its weak bulb threw off feeble rays, barely strong enough to push aside the shadows. The room resembled a jail cell. On the floor: the oaken keg, charred and stamped with dates from the twentieth century. I had a tumbler at hand, a cheap plastic object that had once been wrapped in plastic and formerly occupied a place of ignominy, next to my bathroom sink. I held it beneath the tap and twisted. Dark, reddish-amber fluid glistened in the feeble light. I held it up to my nose to savor the aroma, and made as if to drink. “No, pass it here,” he said, greed burning in his eyes. Without even pausing to appreciate the nectar’s essence, he threw back the entire glass in a single draught and then commenced to cough. “Smooth,” he croaked once he regained the power of speech. Tears streamed from the corners of his eyes. It took only a few moments for the tetrodotoxin to kick in. Extracted from the internal organs of numerous puffer fish, the potent neurotoxin had the desired effect. Though lethal in larger doses, a clever chemist such as myself knew the proper proportions to administer. From that point onward, Brian Keene was conscious but completely under my control. His will became subjugated to mine. We would, at last, be true collaborators. I flipped open the cover of my laptop computer, launched Word, and typed in the title of the story that he and I had discussed but which he would never commit to writing. “Zombies on a Plane.” It was a brilliant idea. I guided Keene to the chair. He followed without complaint or struggle. It was poetic justice—the zombie master was my zombie. “Write,” I said, and his hands groped for the keys and began to punch out words. As he worked, I drew a second glass of poisoned bourbon from the keg. In fact, it was nothing more than Old Crow, the cheapest rotgut I could find. After a while I took my turn at the keyboard while Keene stared into space. He mumbled a few words at one point that sounded like “Knob Creek,” but I could not be sure. For the next few hours, we went back and forth in that manner, the words falling into place on the screen like bricks in a wall. At the stroke of midnight I typed, “The End.” “I must go now,” I told him. “Back to the bar. They will be wondering where I went.” I passed him the plastic glass and urged him to empty it, which he did without hesitation. This time he did not even choke or retch. He gasped one final breath before collapsing to the floor. I pushed his slack body under the bed, barely more than a prison cot, and gathered my belongings. It was the work of another hour to return all of the boxes, crates and decrepit furnishings to the storage closet that I had claimed as my guest room. Many of the items had not seen the light of day in years, and I figured it would be many more years before anyone else excavated the room to discover what lay beneath. After I finished, I locked the door and disposed of the key in the furnace. Then I returned to the lobby, carrying beneath my arm the laptop computer that bore the fruits of our labors. Brian Keene’s last collaboration. THE END Notes: With apologies to Edgar Allan Poe. Every time I read “The Cask of Amontillado,” I am awestruck by the story’s impact and power, as well as its brevity. “Brian Keene Must Die” day was inspired by a similar event last year in which Jack Haringa was dispatched all over the internet. We even published a book, the benefits from which went to benefit the Shirley Jackson award. While there probably won’t be a similar book this time around, if you feel like contributing a little to support the award, visit this link. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
12:07 pm	Tomorrow there will be fiction Halloween seemd to get off to a late start around here. It was well past 6:30 when the first munchkins showed up at the door. Or was it 7:30. I got confused because, industrious soul that I am, I reset all the clocks late in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what time it really was. We had a respectable turn out, probably as many as 30 or 35. We group of three made a return visit and I think it was by accident. After I mentioned the fact to them, I heard one call out “Mom” in that three-to-five syllable rendition that teenagers employ when their parents have done something to embarrass them. Another youngster, perhaps three or four years old, was prompted by his mother to say “Thank you.” Hearing the familiar phrase, he immediately looked up and said, “You’re welcome!” The community had held a Halloween extravaganza at one of the local malls the previous night, and the costumes were very impressive. We went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant and sat facing the window as the diorama unfolded before us. There were jugglers and other entertainers working the packed crowd. The juggler was standing atop a 3′ diameter ball as he did his tricks. At one point we saw a youngster take a stab at the ball with his light saber, which was fortunately too blunt to do any damage and he was corralled by his mother before he could dislodge the juggler. We watched The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. It was goofy, light entertainment of the sort we tend to enjoy. Not zany or madcap goofy, just mildly goofy. I thought there were going to be a lot more Canadian jokes, but Bullock’s character’s nationality was only mentioned a couple of times and was never the object of humor. I was disappointed. Despite that lapse in judgment, we enjoyed the film, which had fun performances from Betty White, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson and a guy who played the stripper in the local club, the operator of the electronics shop and the minister for the wedding. I watched the first four or five innings of the ball game last night. Actually, I flipped back and forth between that and Oceans Eleven, but I gave up on both. I was also reading at the same time while handling the trick-or-treaters at the door. Malcolm Fox is the protagonist of Ian Rankin’s new novel, The Complaints. Rankin made several conscious decisions to distance Fox from Inspector Rebus. Fox works for Internal Affairs, which Rebus would never have done. Fox doesn’t drink (any more). He isn’t a music aficionado. He’s younger than Rankin’s other series character. And yet, after a point, it becomes hard not to project Rebus onto Fox. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I suspect it’s not what Rankin was striving for. Yesterday I finished the first pass at Chapter Two of the novel in progress but I plan to expand upon it today. One of the advantages of the end of daylight savings time is that we got up early and have some extra time to work today. I’ve already written the first draft of a 1000-1500 word story that will be posted here tomorrow as part of a LJ-community “event.” So, stay tuned for a number of works of short fiction throughout our corner of the blogosphere. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
2:32 pm	Fall Forward / Spring Back I know, I’m messing with you with the title. Screwing with the mnemonic. I’d forgotten that this was time change weekend here in the U.S. An extra hour to do with whatever you want this weekend. Spend it wisely. We received two automated phone calls from the local emergency measures organization, one warning about possible tornados and the other advising of flash flooding. It rained really hard most of the evening, but we’re not in a flood prone area. One of my coworkers lost two massive trees (and electric power when one of the trees took out a line) and another coworker’s house was struck by lightning and lost some electronics. If the rain had been snow, we’d be in the same situation as the folks in Colorado. At least it’s starting to cool off a little, getting back to more temperate and Halloween-like temps. The networks had fun with Halloween this year, and they spread the love around for all the various tropes. My favorite was Castle, with the vampire theme, but props to C.S.I. for having a murder that created a zombie. The victim was hit so hard on the head that he got up a few hours later, brushed his teeth, made a bowl of cereal, poured himself a cup of coffee and went out into the driveway for the newspaper before he realized he was (all but) dead. The Mentalist went the haunted house route. For the most part, they’ve discarded the Red Jack subplot, with only the occasional concession to Jane’s obsession, but it looks like there might be something about it again next week when Jane follows Charlie’s Angels and just about every other crime show with the “put him in jail” gimmick. Once Survivor gets to the point where one team has been obliterated, it’s almost painful to watch. Hopefully the merge is coming soon, which will revitalize the competition and pit everyone against everyone else. I really thought they were going to get rid of Jason. It might have been a smart move with the merge pending, because this is the point where you want to start picking off the people who are physically strong–or at least should be. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
11:25 am	Cool as a cucumber It’s unseasonably warm today. It was in the high seventies when we went to breakfast this morning and it’s over eighty, now, although it’s also raining. The snow that fell in Colorado is headed our way in the form of heavy rain, adding to our already soggy October. I watched Law & Order: SVU last night, the only original program running against the World Series. One of the better episodes of the season, although that’s faint praise. They always have to degenerate to this stunned look of disbelief among the primaries in the closing moments. I liked Elliot’s “No, I’m fine” response to the FBI agent who asked “Do you need a drive home,” aiming the question at Olivia. Didn’t get any new writing done this morning as I was bogged down in research for the next scene. I felt like I didn’t really get anywhere because of a zero word count, but it’s all work toward the final goal. I also wrote up a little article about the Companion for the company newsletter. I did watch a little bit of the World Series game last night. I got a huge kick out of Cliff Lee’s nonchalant catch of Johnny Damon’s popup. Shrug. No big deal. It was a priceless moment. Vaguely happy that the Phillies won the game, too, though I don’t really have any investment in either team. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
3:06 pm	Repeats Wrote nearly 700 words of the beginning of Chapter 2 this morning. Progress is a little slow at the moment as I attempt to figure out how to dovetail this new beginning into the existing first draft. I’m coming at it from a different direction but I ultimately sort of have to end up at the same place, after a fashion. In essence, I’m going to take the first draft apart and reassemble it in a new way, so that means picking and borrowing text from that old draft from time to time. It’s an interesting process. Received an e-mail rejection letter this morning with an apology for how long it had taken the editor to respond. Seven whole days–imagine that! When you have stories that have been dangling in the wind for nearly seven months, a week seems like ultra-speedy response time. I turned the story around and found it a new potential home. What’s with all the repeats on CBS this week? Monday night comedies: all reruns. NCIS — the #1 rated program on television: reruns. Tonight: ditto. I can see tonight, with the World Series starting up, but what was the deal with the other nights? At least tomorrow is back to original material for CSI and other shows. Not having a great deal of time to read, but I’m working further into The Complaints by Ian Rankin. I reached the point where Fox realizes that the cop he’s investigating as a potential pedophile is investigating him for potential involvement in his sister’s boyfriend’s homicide. Awkward? I posted my review of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. If you haven’t read the first two books, and especially if you haven’t read the second book, you should probably avoid the review for the time being. Originally published at Bev Vincent. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)