Signed Dark Tower 1-7 for the Haven Foundation

Eureka wears its heart on its sleeve. They could use a sledgehammer to drive home the theme each week, but they stop just short. I don’t care—I just enjoy the show. It makes me laugh. Had a good chuckle when Jack, with dust still falling from the ceiling due to an explosion in the bathroom, asks his female deputy, “What did you eat?” Good to see Matt Frewer back for this episode, too. I get a kick out of him.

Big Brother wrapped up last night. I find it interesting that none of the jurors raised the issue of what giving $½ million to a 21-year old might do to her. Probably because most of them are not much older than that themselves. Age never seemed to enter into their considerations at all—at least not that we were shown. The big reveal about Eric went over really well. No one was irked and most people were amused and astonished. I wonder if they’ll try to pull that one off again another year. It was a good season, more interesting than usual due to the dynamics among the characters. Danielle’s little trill of “awkward” was amusing when Nick came on to greet her toward the end. Dick’s mom came off looking and sounding astute. I think Dick is a lot smarter than a lot of people give him credit for. He hides it well behind his boorish behavior.

I spent the morning revising the opening section to my new story this morning. I liked all the parts that I’d written, but it was a little bit like playing with LEGO blocks. I had all the pieces, but they weren’t quite in the right order. I moved a lot of sentences around for better flow and threw away a couple of extra bits I had left over when I was done. Net loss of about 30 words out of 800. Tomorrow I hope to get moving forward again. I’ve got only about 80 pages left in Exit Music, which I hope to finish tonight. It’s a very good book. A satisfying mystery and Rankin came up with a fascinating way to focus on Rebus’s dysfunctional relationship with his nemesis toward the end.

I’m helping to spread the word about this eBay auction for hand-signed hardcover first trade editions of the Dark Tower books. These are the Viking 2003 editions of DT1-4 (including the revised and expanded The Gunslinger and the Scribner Grant 2003/2004 editions of DT5-7. Proceeds to benefit The Haven Foundation.

The Haven Foundation, created by Stephen King to provide financial assistance to writers and artists “experiencing career-threatening illness, accident, natural disaster or other emergency or personal catastrophe,” has announced that they are now able to start making grants of up to $25,000 a year to those in need. Seed money for the foundation was raised in part by last year’s Harry, Carrie and Garp readings at Radio City Music hall.