Work proceeds apace on Missing Persons. After this morning’s session, I have only about sixty pages left to read through. That’s right on track to get to the point where I can print it out this weekend and do an intensive readthrough. The manuscript has been reduced from 369 pages to about 285, so at least it will cost less to print, reproduce and submit! I regret the loss of some nice scenes, but they were just that—nice scenes that didn’t really contribute to the overall plot. Maybe I’ll find a way to reuse them in something else some day.
I finished Season Two of Doctor Who a couple of days ago. Everyone cried during the last five or ten minutes, on both sides of the screen. Next up will be the 2006 Christmas episode, several months down the line, and the new companion won’t be featured on that episode. The cliff-hanger/teaser was a nice emotional rebound from the anguishing moments before, but, gawd, we have to wait so long.
We had a nice dinner last night at Buca di Beppo, a chain Italian family restaurant. The name loosely translates as “servings big enough to feed a gazillion people.” You can either order a small size of something (enough for four starving teenagers) or large (enough to feed the entire attendance of NECON). Our server had a Johnny Depp/Pirates vibe going. Goatee, hair tied back in a small pony tail, soft-spoken, and he called us all “friend” every time he spoke to us. “Done with that plate, friend?” Come to think of it, he also reminded me of Desmond on LOST, who calls everyone “brother” (or bruthah, in his Aussie accent).
I just received word from the editor that Destination Prague, the Doctor Who antho that contains my story “Leap Second,” will be published in March 2007. My short story “Harming Obsession,” my first professional fiction publication, will be reprinted in Post Mortem magazine, issue #5.
I found Cemetery Dance #55 at Borders yesterday, though I haven’t received my contributor or subscriber copies yet. In addition to my usual multi-page meanderings, I have three book reviews in the issue: TWOC by Graham Joyce, Heretic by Joe Nassise and 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.
Stay tuned for my Storytellers Unplugged essay tomorrow, in which I discuss the fine art of author readings.