Bev Vincent

I didn’t get much writing done over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t get work done. My main focus has been on a re-read of a book that I’ve been asked to review. The review is due at the end of the month, so I’ve been plowing through it and taking notes. It’s a 550-page book, so that’s been taking up most of my time.

In this information age, so much data is available to us. If we don’t know the answer to a question, we have ample resources to look it up. Sometimes, though, we are provided with too much information. Here’s a case in point: some family members were traveling, so I subscribed to a flight update on the United mobile app. In general, it lets you know when a plane leaves and when it lands. If there are changes to the itinerary, you find out quickly.

Over the course of about five minutes, I received a series of updates concerning the first flight that I have chosen to render here in the Pythonesque style which best suits it: The flight is going to be 14 minutes late. No, 12 minutes. Wait, only 11 minutes. Sorry, we were right the first time: 14 minutes. Hang on—12 minutes. Definitely 12. Or 11. But probably 14 minutes. I submitted a suggestion to their app page: Suppress any updates within a five-minute period where Δt < 5 minutes. It reminded me very much of a favorite XKCD comic.

I went to World War Z on Saturday morning. I haven’t read the book, but was intrigued by the ant-like scenes I’d seen in the trailers. I had no real idea what to expect except zombies. I quite enjoyed it. It was in 3D, and that was handled well. There were a series of set pieces in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Korea, Jerusalem and Cardiff, all of which worked well for me. I appreciated the leverage that was used to get Brad Pitt’s character to cooperate, even though he had retired from his U.N. position. The lack of entrails and brain matter was a welcome change. I really liked the female Israeli soldier who becomes his sidekick and was happy to see Peter Capaldi (The Hour) show up in the Welsh segment. Other than him, Pitt and Mireille Enos, the cast was mostly unknown to me. I did not spot Matthew Fox—apparently most of his stuff was lost in the reworking of the last half hour. David Morse had a meaty but brief appearance. The fast zombies were super creepy (and, for some reason, I was reminded of Justin Cronin’s leaping vampires). The Jerusalem segment was beautiful to look at. I’ve heard a few complaints about the Welsh segment, but I thought that was one of the tensest parts of the film. My biggest complaint had to do with the survivors of a plane crash, which seemed a bit too convenient. I couldn’t help but think of my short story “Zombies on a Plane,” either. I liked the solution to the problem, though I patted myself on the back when I thought I deduced something from the New Jersey segment that would be crucial later on. It wasn’t. Apparently there’s interest in a sequel. I’d go.

Only one more episode of Zero Hour left. I’ll watch it for completeness, just to see where they decided to go with the story, but I think they were right to cancel it. I’m hanging in with The Killing, but I’m not particularly engaged by the story this season. I did like the way Mad Men wrapped up. Don hit bottom and then showed the first signs of a bounce back up again. He’s free of all encumbrances and is learning to see the value of the truth. The look Sally gave him in the closing shot was fantastic. I thought the Peggy story was a little bit off-key, although she was looking pretty Draperlike at the end. And when did Pete become the show’s comic relief? Bad enough that his mother “jumped the shark” but he also allowed himself to be played right off the Chev account.

Saw the trailer for a movie called R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department) starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as a couple of afterlife cops who bring miscreant dead people to justice. Looks like it could be funny. Also stars Mary Louise Parker and Kevin Bacon. Apparently based on a graphic novel or comic.

I watched The Hobbit for the first time yesterday afternoon. Far too long, and far too much added to it that wasn’t in the book. I wasn’t particularly enthralled by the battle sequences. I like Martin Freeman and he makes an engaging if somewhat Arthur Dent-ish Bilbo. I really think the whole thing would have been better served by a single three-hour film than—what?—over eight hours spread out over several years?

My review of the first episode of Under the Dome went live on FEARnet a short while ago. I’m using the word “review” loosely, as it’s actually a long essay that touches on the series and its place in King’s adaptation pantheon, as well as how it compares to the book. And so on. Once I start going, I don’t seem to be able to stop. I saw an interview with Timothy Olyphant the other day and he kept stopping himself. “I’m afraid I’m starting to babble,” he’d say.

The show Orphan Black is getting some belated love as the Emmy season approaches. I like this article in which Patton Oswalt and Damon Lindelhof argue for a nomination for Tatiana Maslany. I’ve been recommending the program to friends and the response from them has been overwhelmingly positive.  One of the best quotes from the piece comes from Damon Lindelhof, who says, “You could stick an episode in front of somebody who was uninitiated and say, ‘This role is actually performed by these triplets.’ And they would believe you. It’s easier to believe they’re super talented triplets than it is that it’s just one person.”

I was skeptical about the series Hannibal when I saw the first promos for it, but I’m glad I went along for the ride. The show is dreamlike and chaotic, violent and stylized, glamorous and gritty. The only thing that would make it stronger would be if we didn’t have some idea of where Will Graham would end up. There is basis for this story in Red Dragon, which mentions in passing that Will was institutionalized after his involvement in a serial murder case. The last moment of the finale, which has a hint of a smile cropping up on Hannibal’s face, is almost like an admission of an inside joke—as if he appreciates that this is a kind of twisted joke that anticipates something in the future.

NBC is burning off the four unaired episodes of Zero Hour—two last Saturday, one tomorrow and one next weekend. To my surprise the most recent episode revealed the mysterious treasure the twelve clocks are protecting; however, when they did, it was sort of a “meh” revelation. OK, it’s not like that hasn’t been done before. The revelation about the main character’s kidnapped wife was a much bigger and more effective surprise.

I picked up King & Maxwell, which airs after Major Crimes and stars Jon Tenney (Fritz from The Closer), Rebecca Romijn and an unrecognizable Ryan Hurst (Opie from Sons of Anarchy). It’s not a bad show. Tenney and Romijn play former Secret Service agents who are private detective partners and Hurst is an autistic savant who balances their books and hacks into computers for them. They have good chemistry and thus far there’s no attempt to go down the romantic road.

My wife and I watched the three episodes of a PBS series called The Bletchley Circle before I left for New Orleans. It’s about four women who were (unbeknownst even to their closest friends and spouses) code breakers at Bletchley Park during World War II. Several years later, one of them, using her pattern-recognition skills, thinks she can help Scotland Yard find a serial killer. She can’t crack it on her own, though, so she contacts her former Bletchley colleagues and they set about searching for patterns and clues. A decent mystery/thriller. They’re making a second series—four episodes this time.

We also caught up on Longmire, which we both enjoy. Everyone has serious baggage. Now we have to wonder what Vic is hiding…or hiding from…and who found her?

My message board, which was behaving badly last week, is now back to normal. I worked with support at my ISP, but they weren’t able to figure out why it was throwing errors. Then it just started working properly again. I figure it must have been some weird server error, but I’m just glad it’s behaving, because I wasn’t looking forward to migrating to a new board.

Episode 19 of the Lilja & Lou Podcast features a lengthy interview with me about The Dark Tower Companion.

I’m back from four days at the Stoker Weekend/World Horror Convention in New Orleans more or less intact. I was generally kind to both my liver and my brain, so the only aftereffect I’m feeling is sleep deprivation. This photograph was taken at the airport—it’s the first thing you see when you get off your plane. Says it all, I think.

My flight got in ahead of schedule on Thursday, so I didn’t have to rush to get to the hotel for the opening ceremony. My role at that function was to announce the Grand Master and read his message to attendees, because he couldn’t attend. The honoree was Dan Simmons, who I called “The Grand Master of Everything” in my appreciation/tribute for the conference souvenir book. Afterward, I had drinks and dinner with Jay Clarke (Michael Slade), who I first met at WHC2001 in Seattle.

Friday was my busy day. I was the token non-editor on the “themed anthology” panel, which was surprisingly well attended for a 9 a.m. event. Not so my reading. Tod Clarke told me a week or so ago that he would be at my reading and I almost (but didn’t) respond, saying, “Oh, good—at least there’ll be one person in the audience.” As it turns out, that’s all I had. Then I was on the rather glum “remembrance of those who could not be here” panel in the afternoon, which was poorly attended. The mass signing was a smash hit, though. I got Rick McCammon to sign my copy of Dark Dreamers, which I treat as an autograph book and then signed quite a few copies of The Dark Tower Companion and other things people brought by. I gave away the three copies of Twenty-first Century King that I brought with me. I didn’t bring books to sell, as I discuss in my new Storytellers Unplugged essay, A Writer, Not a Seller.

Saturday was more laid back. My only commitment was to work at the HWA table in the late afternoon, but when I showed up they were dismantling the table to set up for the Stoker banquet, so that was canceled. I went to back-to-back readings by Robert McCammon and Tom Monteleone, two of the best public readers I know (Tom’s story was an especially funny tale of the Lovecraft mythos being turned into a Broadway musical). I went to several Guest of Honor interviews: those for Glenn Chadbourne, Caitlin R. Kiernan, McCammon and Ramsey Campbell, all very entertaining. I used my free time from my volunteer position to attend David Morrell’s reading, which he decided to turn into a talk instead. I also attended his kaffeeklatsch the previous day, a concept that I hope gets picked up in the future—a small group (perhaps a dozen) gets to sit with one of the guests of honor for an hour in an intimate setting. Alas, there was no kaffee, a bone of contention with some.

I sat with Tom Monteleone, Kelly Laymon, F. Paul Wilson, Jay Clarke, Danel Olson and a few people I didn’t know at the Stoker banquet. To entertain ourselves, we tried to predict who would win the 10 awards. Paul and Kelly won, with seven out of ten. I only guessed six. Jeff Strand was in fine form as the emcee, keeping things going with just the right amount of banter. Caitlin Kiernan pulled out a sonic screwdriver during her stint as presenter, which went over very well. Glenn Chadbourne was spotted in a white shirt and jacket, an unusual sight indeed. The food was very good, although most of the people at our table overlooked the roast beef station until we were too full to have any.

Many of the best moments, though, were the conversations in the lobby and elsewhere with people who I’ve either known for a long time or was just meeting for the first time. It was good to finally see Hunter Goatley, who I’ve corresponded with since the late 1980s. Had a nice chat with artist Alan M. Clark and discovered, much to my surprise and delight, that he’s also a novelist. How did I not know that before? And many other chats with friends old and new.

I don’t think I enjoyed New Orleans as much as many others. In fact, I know I didn’t, because I was always in bed by midnight, whereas a lot of people didn’t stagger back to the hotel until 4, 5, or 6 a.m, which was about the time I was going out for breakfast, which was akin to witnessing a zombie walk. During the Stokers, Jeff Strand mused that a Nawlins Chainsaw Massacre at that moment could wreck the horror genre, but I figure Bourbon Street took care of that, killing off countless, irreplaceable brain cells among some of our finer writers. What the alcohol didn’t take care of, the humid heat surely did. Being from Houston, I only found it hellishly hot instead of infernal, like many of my friends from northern climes.

This was my fourth trip to New Orleans, and the only one that I truly enjoyed was a vacation with my wife before Katrina. We had a seriously good time back then. Without her along, I didn’t have much interest in the gimmickry and rambunctiousness of Bourbon Street. I walked the full length of the street on Friday evening and didn’t see anything at all that said to me, “Come in and have a bon temps.” The music blaring from he clubs seemed to be mostly recorded rock. I should have wandered farther afield, I guess, away from the tourist haunts, but I was content to hang out at the hotel with those others who weren’t seduced by the Big Easy’s seedier side.

My write-up of the Dollar Baby Film Festival at Comicpalooza is now up at FEARnet.

I really meant to submit a story to Fearful Symmetry, but a lack of time and inspiration thwarted my plans. This week I did manage to get a 3500-word first draft of a new story finished, but the more I worked on it the less it seemed suited to a horror anthology. I haven’t even had time to read through it from beginning to end yet. I sent it to a buddy who generally likes my stories and he didn’t care of it one bit. He told me at quite some length all the things he didn’t like about it! I’m going to put it aside for the time being because I have an essay to finish up before I set my sights on the novel. I’ll get back to it in due course.

My doctor recommended something called “reformer pilates” as a core exercise to strengthen my back muscles and reduce the chronic pain I’ve been experiencing for a few years. He said he didn’t have any “sexy solutions” to the issue. I’m willing to give it a shot, even though some of the machines that are used look like torture devices. Reformer pilates uses springs and benches, apparently. He didn’t recommend mat pilates since much of the work there is aided by gravity and doesn’t provide the same sort of core body strength. I was amused to see that the Wikipedia page for “pilates” had the following note at the top: This article is about the physical fitness system. For its inventor, see Joseph Pilates. For the Roman governor, see Pontius Pilate.

The other night I watched the Doctor Who Revisited episode about the fifth doctor, the one that I consider “my doctor.” The one I used when I wrote a story for Doctor Who: Destination Prague. Then I watched the classic episode “Earthshock,” which I hadn’t seen since I watched the entire Peter Davison run as prep for writing “Leap Second.” A solid Cybermen episode with a shocking conclusion.

We’re in the doldrum period between the finales of the regular season and the beginning of the summer season. My DVR only has nine shows listed on the schedule for the next two weeks, and that’s including the return of The Killing, Burn Notice and Major Crimes. I’m enjoying the new Canadian series Motive but it’s on hiatus until after the NBA playoffs are over. Haven’t had a chance to see last night’s Hannibal yet, but I hear the series has been picked up for another year, which is great news. Also hear that Firefly’s Jewel Staite will be on The Killing this season. Hopefully not killed during the opening credits.

It’s hard to believe that World Horror is less than two weeks away. It’s always seemed a long way off and now it’s almost here. I have a fairly full slate of activities. I’m introducing the Grand Master at the opening ceremony, have a reading on Friday at 10 am and panels at 9 am and 3 pm. I’ll also be manning the HWA booth on Saturday from 5-6.