Things fall into place. There’s a moment when it seems like all the deadlines are going to collide and I’m going to—god forbid—turn something in late. I don’t do that. I’m never late. Early, perhaps. Never late. Even getting close to being late makes me nervous.
I did a major rewrite of my Cemetery Dance column for Issue 58 this week. Issue 57 is reportedly starting to ship. I turned this column in originally at the end of 2006, but production delays knocked the magazine off schedule so my editor gave me a chance to update the content, since mine is one of the more time-dependent contributions in the magazine. I have this game I play when I write the essay, trying to guess what will be past tense by the time the issue comes out and what will still be in the future.
I promised to have the article back in to Robert Morrish today, and I finished my last proofing run last night during Grey’s Anatomy. I also have a Storytellers Unplugged essay due first thing tomorrow. I wrote the first half of it a couple of mornings ago and, because I got the CD column finished last night, I was able to write the second half this morning. I still need to reread it and polish it up some more, but at least I have something to post. The essay is called Wish I had Joe 90’s BIG RAT, and maybe a handful of you out there have a foggy clue what that’s all about! Check it out tomorrow.
My new FM transmitter for my iPod is working out pretty well. On longer drives I run the risk of having to change the station when I enter the range of a station cohabitating the channel I’m using, but it essentially means that I can take almost every CD I’ve ever purchased in the car with me. It’ll get a good test run when I drive to Shreveport next Wednesday afternoon, which should take about six hours. I’ll have more to say about that later, though perhaps not until I get back.
Tomorrow I’m going into Houston to the MWA/SW luncheon. The guest speaker is a jury consultant, which relates to a story I’m trying to write for the 2008 MWA anthology. She was supposed to speak a couple of months ago but called away to Dallas to work a case.
Lost was interesting this week. If you haven’t seen it, read no farther. I had guessed the Jack/Claire connection a while back, based on the episode where Ana Lucia goes to Australia. It’s one of those things that isn’t likely to play into events on the island, though, since neither of them have any way of putting things together, unless someone does genetic testing at some point. I’m not sure about Locke any more—he seems to have an agenda again, and that’s never a good thing. Can’t wait to see next week’s show, though I might have to time shift that one because of my trip. The epilog this week was terrific and inexplicable. I know a lot of people are losing interest in the show, but I’m still hooked big time.
Since I’ve been catching up on old Law & Order episodes, I’ve been seeing Lost cast members everywhere. In particular, I’ve seen Ethan, Ben, Juliet and even Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave. I’ve taken to calling the show Lost & Others. No, not really.
Also hooked on Grey’s Anatomy. I like the way they take a patient injury/illness and use it as a metaphor for what’s going on with the cast. As in the “fragging” incident last night. I also like the way that they always manage to, within the limits of, what, 44 minutes of screen time, devote significant emphasis on each of the major characters or character groups. That takes skill.
