So, Lost is back, and well worth the wait. Interesting story advances in last night’s episode that simultaneously seem to elucidate what’s going on with “the others” and confound me about them at the same time. Clearly they got Juliet to the island by means of subterfuge and kept her there against her will—but why? Since the others can (or could, in the days before the sky turned purple) leave at will, why do they remain in isolation?
I’m starting to like Tom, once you get beyond the fact that he kidnapped Walt and shot Sawyer. He’s probably the most sympathetic other at this point.
Got a kick out of Sawyer calling Kurt’s guard “Aldo,” a reference to one of the gorilla characters from Planet of the Apes. Saw the bus gag coming the minute it was suggested, but the guy was so close to Juliet when it happened that I was still taken by surprise. Didn’t expect it to happen yet.
I’m grinding away at my latest short story still, polishing it like a gemstone. When I was a kid I had one of those rock polishing kits. You put the rocks in a metal cannister with a bunch of gravel and put it on a motorized turner. After a month, you changed out the gravel for a different kind of gravel, and gradually moved up to smoothers and polishes. Simulated erosion. Presumably if you left it going long enough there’d be nothing left.
Fortunately, while polishing a story there’s little (but perhaps finite) chance of grinding it away to nothingness. You always have the option of adding to the raw material, in essence making your rocks bigger (no funny comments, now) after they’ve been ground down. That’s been the process with this story. Up to near 5000 words, down to near 4000, up to 4800, down to 4200, back up to 4700 and so on.
I’ve finally reached the ending again after a few days’ worth of editing. I’m completely rethinking the final two pages, but I didn’t have the gumption to tackle that major rewrite this morning.
Picked up my copy of Gunslinger Born at the local comic shop, which is just a hole in the wall in a strip mall. I don’t know how the guy can pay the rent. I went to a much bigger shop last month to get the free sketchbook, and that place was a going concern. I’ve never seen anyone else in the one I went to last night. How much profit can there be on a single copy? The comic, by the way, is gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to the following installments.
