My September essay at Storytellers Unplugged went up this morning: It’s hard to tell the truth. The podcast version should be up at Podango and on iTunes shortly. If you’ve been following along, you might recognize the story that forms the center of this month’s essay. Next month I’ll be posting a short story for Halloween instead of an essay; some of my colleagues at SU will be doing the same.
I thought I was almost finished with “Adrift” after a few readthroughs on Friday, but when I reviewed the manuscript on Saturday I found one really bad transition. While fixing that, I ended up rewriting one full page in the middle of the story. It was nearly the end of the day when I decided to get it off my hands and back to the editor. Then I revised my SU essay and recorded the rough cut of the podcast, which I edited and smoothed out yesterday.
We watched a movie called Venus on Saturday night. It stars Peter O’Toole as an old man who falls for a young woman (barely more than a teenager), the great-niece of one of his lifelong friends. Due to recent prostate surgery, he’s impotent (and incontinent), so there’s little risk he can make good on his desires, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. For her part, the young woman enjoys having someone being nice to her for the first time. It’s a little Lolita-esque, with the power in the relationship shifting back and forth, but it’s also charming and funny. O’Toole is a joy to watch as a man in his twilight year.
I started reading Exit Music by Ian Rankin yesterday. It’s the most recent Inspector Rebus novel, the one where he faces mandatory retirement by the end. It’s not out this side of the Atlantic yet—Rankin is one of the few authors I won’t wait for, so I order his books from Amazon/UK and pay the shipping to get it a few months early. It’s interesting to watch the jostling between Rebus and his protege, Siobhan Clarke, prepare for the new status quo.
I’m cleaning off my shelves! Here are ten books I listed on eBay yesterday:
- The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
- Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman
- The Friends of Meager Fortune by David Adams Richards
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Haruki Murakami)
- Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino, with publicity material
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami
- The Intruders by Michael Marshall — UK ARC proof
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan — ARC proof
- The Terror by Dan Simmons — US ARC proof copy
- Coronado by Dennis Lehane — Galley / proof / ARC
