Great plans

I thought I’d get a lot of writing/editing done on Saturday after spending a little time on taxes. Turns out that I pretty much spent the whole day working on taxes. By the time I was finished, I had no energy or enthusiasm left to be creative, so I watched some taped TV shows from last week instead. I’m pretty much finished with the taxes. Now all I have to do is a process akin to story editing. Go back over the whole thing repeatedly to make sure there are no mistakes, omissions or other gaffes.

Sunday was better. In addition to the usual Sunday tasks, I managed to get two more chapters of Missing Persons ready to send to my agent. I haven’t heard back from him on the previous batch, so I’m plowing on ahead undaunted. Getting close to the end…I hope!

I spent this morning’s writing session working on my Storytellers Unplugged essay for Friday. Now all I have to do is polish it and keep my fingers crossed that no one steals my topic between now and then!

Grey’s Anatomy was fantastic on Sunday night. In a previous entry, I scoffed at the fantasy scene from the beginning of part 1, suggesting that it was gratuitous and only there to lure in football fans. Shame on me—the scene paid off in a way I don’t think anyone could have anticipated. In spite of the fact that I anticipated what was going to happen late in the show before it happened, it still took my breath away when it happened. I do think there was some faulty writing with that scene—even I know that bomb disposal experts have containment chambers that they put things in before doing anything risky with them—but sometimes fact gets in the way of drama and all is forgiven by me. I like that they didn’t show a scene between Shepherd and Burke where they agreed to switch to first-name basis. Instead it was presented as a fait accompli. Burke’s sensitivity toward Christina Ricci’s paramedic character at the end was also a nice touch. Being in love serves him well. I do think Shepherd should have kissed Meredith instead of reciting their last kiss together—or maybe after getting brownie points for having such a romantic memory.

Damned Nation is shipping. Check it out! Buy copies for friends and enemies alike. It’s Hell on Earth.

I’ve posted another flash fiction story on my web page. This one is called The Illusion. It’s another of my failed Wee Small Hours submissions, inspired by the transit strike in NY a couple of months ago. Enjoy!

Now reading: Terrorist by John Updike. An 18-year old living in New Jersey, son of an Irish woman and an Egyptian absentee father, embraces Islam and starts down a path toward extremism.