Congratulations to Joe R. Lansdale, who was just announced Grand Master of the World Horror Convention. Hisownself lives up the road a piece from here. I first encountered him at a local writer’s guild meeting many years ago, back before I was writing. He was funnier than most stand-up comics, telling amazing-but-true stories out of his life in East Texas, the funniest of which was about the day the blind man knocked on his door saying he’d been hired to mow the church lawn next door and would Joe be so kind as to point out where the flowers were so he didn’t cut them off. I had lunch at a table with him and Bill Crider at another convention a couple of years ago. His Hap and Leonard books are well worth checking out as an intro if you haven’t read any of his stuff yet. The opening to Two Bear Mambo is among the funniest things I’ve ever read (I think it’s that book—it’s the bit about Leonard burning down the crack house. Again.)
I tried to watch the NHL All Star game last night, but it was so light and fluffy I couldn’t bear more than a few minutes of it. The players might as well have all stood in a queue and fired shots at the goaltenders. No one wants to get hurt in a game that doesn’t influence the standings, so there’s no there there. Hockey Lite. Meh.
I didn’t finish the short story in progress this morning, but I did a major overhaul of the second half and, in the process, trimmed about 300 words. (Odd bit of useless information: the word count went from 3986 to 3689. A numerical anagram. Yeah, I notice these things.) The story’s finally falling into place. The element that I randomly plucked to represent the story through the title has become more of a motif than I envisioned in the beginning. I love it when that happens. I think the story will be 4000-4200 words when I finish the first draft.
Tonight’s episode of C.S.I. is called Redrum, apparently because the night’s mystery is investigated backwards.
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