And then there were four

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Bev Vincent

In a recent interview, Stephen King talks about how he develops novels. As he goes to sleep at night, he tells himself the story, getting a little farther each night. (I first heard and wrote about this approach when I was working on The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, in the section on The Green Mile.)

So I decided to give this a try last night. I’ve been thinking about a story lately, but I needed something to give it that final kick it needs before I can start. I knew the characters—very well, in fact, because I’ve written about them in three early tales. I knew the story’s gimmick (my particular approach to the anthology theme), but I didn’t know the context. So I lay there going over it in my mind. But the dogs next door kept barking. Not just barking—growling, as if they were facing down skunks or possums or something. I wanted them to shut up so I could concentrate. Except I started to imagine my main character lying in bed and hearing something similar. Given my take on the theme, it started to make sense. Something dropped into place and I knew where to start.

However, I didn’t start writing this morning. I had other matters to take care of first. I wrote my entry for my next Storytellers Unplugged essay instead, and I also wrote out the background for the story. I wrote down the biographies of the four characters who are important to this fictional universe, collating details from the earlier tales. One of these characters (always off-screen, but a major presence nonetheless) is now deceased, which is the reason why the characters are where they are for this story. I even came up with a title; however, that will only remain if the story ends up being about what I think it will be about and not something else. If all goes well, I should be ready to start writing next week. This weekend will be about proofreading and writing some book reviews.

I think I understand what Abi was trying to do at tribal council on Survivor. By cutting off Skupin and telling him how stupid he was, she was trying to make herself so hateful that the other players would want to take her to the end. I think she underestimated how someone might not think logically after that and decide to get rid of her rather than spend another few days with her. Even Denise, normally level-headed and calm, would rather have gone swimming in a school of great whites than spend the afternoon alone with Abi when the others were off enjoying pizza and swimming with whale sharks. I wonder if they ever figured out what kind of creature bit her.

The most interesting part of this week’s outcome is what happened at Ponderosa. Everyone else was civil and ready to bury the hatchet (not in Abi, mind you) except for RC. She took great pains to explain to Abi the reality of the carefully orchestrated misunderstanding about the immunity clue that set Abi off in the first place. RC firmly believes that everyone at Ponderosa would still be playing the game if not for that. She then forbade Abi from talking to her any more. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hold a grudge like that before.

American Horror Story almost started making sense this week. With the introduction of Dylan McDermott’s character, the modern story is connecting with the past. There was a satisfying (if temporary) shift in the balance of power between Lana and Thredson (that name has to be an anagram, but the best I can come up with is Shred Not. Or Ed Thorns). The former Sister Jude did something we’ve all wanted to do since the beginning of the season. And then the ending arrived and all the logical explanations went south again. Not a complaint, mind you. The show is astonishing.

My favorite episodes of NCIS are the ones involving FBI agent Fornell. The convoluted past he has with Gibbs (they share an ex-wife) makes for some great banter. Throw said ex-wife into the episode and it’s pure gold, especially when she and McGee are discovered cuddled up on the couch. My favorite two lines from the episode both came from Fornell. First, upon running into Diane unexpectedly while investigating the attempt on his life, he says, “That’s funny. She looks just like our ex-wife.” Then, while describing her to someone else, he says, “Ever notice how she doesn’t get sick? Even germs don’t like her.” But then, to bring the whole thing full circle, comes the scene where Gibbs pretends to propose to her to get her away from a guy planning to kill her. Nice touch.

Last night’s episode of CSI reminds me a lot of a recent episode of Elementary. In both cases, someone used a private charter plane as a murder weapon. Different motives, though.

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And nobody came

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Bev Vincent

The cold front arrived in full force this morning. It was 28° when I got up, and I heard there was snow in north Texas, as much as 2-5″. None here, of course.

I finished tidying up an interview I conducted for Cemetery Dance this morning. One more polish pass and I’ll send it off. I’m getting prepped for a short story that features characters from three previous works (two published, one in submission) by rereading those stories and making notes for continuity. I never consciously decided to use these characters more than once, but I’ve found a way to do so and it might be cool some day to bundle them all up into a collection of sorts.

What if you held a football game and nobody came? I was going to watch Monday Night Football last night but one of the teams didn’t show up. That would be the Houston Texans, who got royally thrashed by the Patriots. If only they’d stayed in Texas a few more days, they might have gotten used to the cold weather before heading up to New England. By the time it was 21-0 and the second quarter wasn’t done yet, I gave up and went to bed. That’s a time-honored tradition for me. My parents used to comment how, when I was a kid, I always went to bed if my hockey team (usually the Montreal Canadiens) was losing. No chance of that this year since the NHL strike is still ongoing.

I received the package of page proofs for The Dark Tower Companion yesterday. I don’t have to get them back to my editor until the first few days of January, but I’ll probably try to finish up with them before Christmas. It’s an impressive stack of paper. Printed on only one side, so twice as thick as the book will be, but it’s still a ream of paper that I have to scrutinize for typos, formatting errors and other glitches.

Only one episode left to this season’s Homeland. This one hasn’t been as good as the first, in part because they force the characters to do things that stretch credibility. Like the painfully long scene in the Vice President’s office. This season reminds me more of 24 than of the first season of the series. But there are still some excellent moments, such as the scene between Jess and Brody in their car after they are out of protective custody. That was good stuff.

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United Nations

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Bev Vincent

Winterish weather is on its way to Texas. It was 81° all weekend, but a front swept through overnight so it was only in the forties and fifties today and we’ll have a three-to-six-hour freeze tomorrow morning. People are already walking around dressed like we’re in a blizzard. No precipitation expected, though.

I finished Guilt by Jonathan Kellerman and moved on to The Black Box by Michael Connelly. Harry is working on a cold case concerning the murder of a foreign journalist during the 1992 L.A. riots. I remember flying back from Tokyo the day after the riots started. We were supposed to change planes in L.A. but changed our itinerary to go via San Francisco instead since we heard reports that people were shooting at planes.

I didn’t get my page proofs on the weekend, so I worked instead on an interview that I’m conducting for Cemetery Dance. It isn’t due until the end of January, but I have it more or less wrapped up and ready to go to them.

An unexpected end to The Amazing Race. The “goat farmers” never seemed like contenders. They were on the verge of elimination more than once and they never won a leg. Then they messed up the pizza delivery challenge. It all came down to a surprisingly challenging puzzle at the end. If any of the players had paid attention to the hellos and goodbyes, it could have been a breeze, but none of them did so it took around three hours to complete. No taxis deciding this contest: it was pure determination. I was sort of hoping team Texas would win, but after strong showings through the rest of the race they came in third.

Only a handful of episodes of Fringe left, and the cast promises that it will get much darker before the end. At least Peter has that probe out of his brain. It was great seeing Jill Scott this week. She played Mma Ramotswe on the HBO series of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. And I loved the bit where Olivia did her best MacGuyver, jury-rigging a weapon out of spare parts and a souvenir.

Only one episode left in the current season of Dexter. I’m still rooting for Hannah. I think she’s a great addition to the Dexter mythos. Is there any possibility that Deb drugged herself to get Dexter to turn on her? By her own admission, Hannah is so good at her job that she’s never before failed. The LaGuerta thing is coming to a head, too. Another close call in a shipping container, but he’s not out of the woods yet, despite his and Deb’s best efforts to re-frame Doakes.

Last night’s The Mentalist was a previously unaired episode of Weeds. I like the fact that Lisbon has a hammer in her office desk drawer. They aren’t doing a very good job of hiding Amanda Righetti’s pregnancy. When was the last time Van Pelt stood up?

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Proof

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Bev Vincent

Winter is coming, they say. We may get temperatures in the 30s after the weekend. Can’t happen soon enough. It’s going to be over 80 all weekend. No wonder I’m “bah humbug” when it comes to Christmas. It’s hard to get in the mood when it’s this warm. As it stands, I’ll be putting up the outdoor lights this weekend wearing shorts.

My author copies of Twenty-first Century King arrived a couple of days ago. Unlike most chapbooks, this one has a glossy, thick cover. A handsome booklet, I must say.

I thought I was going to get more of a break from The Dark Tower Companion, but my editor emailed yesterday to say that he was about to send the page proofs. Not sure if I’ll get them tomorrow or not, but I know what I’ll be doing for the next X days after I receive them: poring over the 560 pages for errors and glitches.

I received an electronic galley of Guilt, the next Alex Delaware novel by Jonathan Kellerman, so I put The Casual Vacancy aside for a few days. I’m sure it won’t take me more than that. I usually tear through his books. This one starts off with the discovery of a baby’s skeleton buried beneath the roots of an old tree that was recently damaged by a storm. The evidence indicates that it’s been there since 1950-52. So, a very cold case. Still, promising clues come along quickly (perhaps a tad too conveniently), but there aren’t going to be many living people left as witnesses—or suspects, for that matter.

The guy everyone kept forgetting was still on the beach got evicted from Survivor the other night. He made so little impression on the game that I’ll bet some of the players even forgot he was still there. Timid? I’ll say. Oddly enough, I now think Abi will make it to the final two or three. Who wouldn’t want the most despised player sitting next to them in front of the jury. And, unlike Russell, I doubt that she’ll be surprised or outraged when she doesn’t win. Right now my money’s on Malcolm. If he can survive to the end. He probably has a big target on him since he’s such a strong player.

This week’s episode of Law & Order: SVU qualifies as one of the worst ever. It was so-so up until the last six or seven minutes, which will go down among the annals of TV history as among the soppiest, most melodramatic scenes ever. Patricia Arquette starred as a woman who has been a prostitute for a quarter of a century or more who helps SVU catch a spree killer. Then SVU stages an intervention for her. Bleh. It was impossible to watch.

Brad Dourif (Deadwood) was the psycho of the week on Criminal Minds. He was turning people into marionettes to re-enact the scene where a robber killed his parents when he was a kid! Strange, strange, strange.

I am pleasantly surprised by Elemental. It’s more like The Mentalist than Sherlock. So long as they resist the temptation to pair up Sherlock and Watson, I’ll keep watching.

Quite a season finale for Sons of Anarchy. Nothing turned out the way I thought it would. Jax found a way to take Clay out of play more or less permanently. At the same time, he solved the Tig vs. Pope problem, although he took a lot of risks in doing so. He counted on Pope behaving a certain way and if he hadn’t, Tig wouldn’t have survived.

There was a neat scene at the beginning that cross-faded from Tara to Gemma to show how much they resemble each other. However, Tara can’t hold a candle to Gemma. When they tussle, Gemma wins. Win Tara tries to stand up, Gemma knocks her down. The jury’s still out on who’s responsible for Tara’s arrest. Sutter seems to imply it was Gemma, but I’m open to the possibility that it was the retired marshal whose sister was killed by Otto.

Another nice touch came in adjacent scenes when Clay reassured Juice in a paternal way and then Jax reassured him with the same gesture, except it seemed more like a king to one of his minions. And Otto…whoa. “Way to commit.” (I keep forgetting that it’s Sutter who plays Otto.)

Apparently Katey Segal sang the version of “To Sir, With Love” at the beginning. A cool rendition of a Stones song at the end, too. I was thinking that next season would be the last, but Sutter is contracted for two more, and he’s not sure that’s enough to tell everything he wants to tell. He’s trying to negotiate either one more season or else longer sixth and seventh seasons.

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This is December?

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Bev Vincent

There are two reasons why I find it hard to believe that this is December. First of all, it seemed like only yesterday it was September. Or August. Secondly, it’s been over 80° every day for the past week. Supposedly it won’t get above 75 on Wednesday, but even that seems too warm for this time of year.

I received my semi-annual royalty statement from my agent for The Road to the Dark Tower on Friday and with it, for the first time, was a check. After eight years, the book has finally earned out its advance. I’ve always been pretty sure this day would arrive—it still sells, on average, about a copy a day—but I’m pleased that it has come to pass. My agent tells me that most books never earn out, so it’s quite a thrill to have that happen with my first.

We watched a few more episodes of the first season of Treme this weekend. There’s not much good news for anyone on this show, but the music is great. Loved the recording session when Davis did his version of “Shame, Shame, Shame” for his political campaign. Lots of cameos and prolonged appearances by real musicians, too, including Elvis Costello, Dr. John and Steve Earle, who also had a part in The Wire.

Down to the final four on The Amazing Race, and I don’t think I’m rooting for anyone in particular. Just want to see how it turns out. The Chippendales are the sentimental favorite, but just about anyone can still win it, after this week’s non-elimination pit stop.

I’m just now getting caught up on the current season of Dexter. It’s a pleasant surprise. Last season was okay, but I guessed the “big secret” long before it was “revealed,” so that took a lot of the suspense out of it. Given the cliff-hanger ending to the season, though, it was no big mystery that Dexter was going to start off dancing as fast as he could, and for a while it looked like he was going to pull it off. And then Debra (worst. detective. ever. by her own admission) finally put the pieces together and they had their heart to heart. In the books, Debra has known about Dexter since the Ice Truck Killer, so it’s interesting how the writers have addressed this revelation. She went through all the stages of grief, including the cussing up a storm stage. Dexter found the test case to prove his value to humanity, and Debra came to a point where she actually asked Dexter to kill someone who had escaped the law. All the secrets have come spilling out, including Debra’s big admission to Dexter (what a great scene that was). I don’t think there’s ever been a season when Dexter has admitted his nature to so many different people. And now LaGuerta’s on his trail, and how the hell can that work out without someone else going on the table or Dexter going on the run?

I really liked the complex arc with Isaak and its bittersweet resolution. It’s always fun seeing Jim Beaver (Hannah’s father) show up and do something interesting for a few minutes. Quinn’s storyline is pleasantly diverting (it gets the cameras in the strip club a lot, at least). By the way, is anyone struck by how gaunt Desmond Harrington looks? His cheeks are almost shrunken.  I like that certain subplots (like the one with the intern) have been wrapped up without dragging on for too many episodes. And I really like Dexter’s relationship with Hannah. Especially the way she forced him to call into question his dark passenger concept, which came to a head when Dexter was about to execute the phantom immolater. If it weren’t for the writer’s death, I might be tempted to think that Hannah wasn’t really a killer at all these days. She definitely killed the wife in the motel when she was fifteen and probably poisoned the counselor after she got out of juvenile detention, but we haven’t seen her act. For a while, I thought maybe the handyman had killed her old boss and her husband. It will be very interesting to see what the next two episodes—and the one more season—have in store for our favorite sociopath. Debra’s on a mission to bring Hannah to justice, LaGuerta wants to exonerate Doakes, and Dexter thinks he’s in love.

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Twenty-First Century King

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Bev Vincent

I’ve been writing and publishing book reviews since 1999. It all started when a friend of mine became an editor with a community newspaper in a town near ours. He asked me if I would contribute a review every now and then for the weekend paper. Thus began my tenure with the Conroe Courier, which lasted for six years until they phased out the book review section of the paper.

After that, I started contributing reviews to a number of different venues. A few months ago, Brian Freeman from Cemetery Dance asked me if I would be willing to bundle up my reviews of Stephen King’s works into a chapbook. Why not? I decided to limit the collection to books published in the 21st century (which, by my ad hoc definition for this collection, starts in 2000). That gave me a loose theme and a title, Twenty-First Century King. As it turned out, there were 21 reviews and the word count ran to 21,000 words. Any numerologists out there? CD announced the chapbook today and it is in stock and ready to ship. Limited to 750 copies, all signed by me. (That’s the massive signing session I alluded to a while back). Follow the link for the product page.

I revised my new story a few more times this morning and sent it off to market. Fingers crossed.

My buddy Jeff Strand texted me before Survivor aired last night, saying, “Does it make me a bad person if I kind of hope that Abi Marie wins immunity tonight?” I didn’t think that was likely, given that Abi hasn’t come close to winning anything. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? So much so that a few people accused the producers of rigging things to turn out this way for dramatic effect. Then she came up with this idea to lie about what was on her “hidden advantage” scroll, a lie that seemed bound to fizzle at the immunity challenge, and yet she came up with a clever way to bluff through that, too. I’m not sure anyone believed her, but it was a valiant effort, and it paid off. The next question, then, was whether or not Penner could salvage the day yet again, but his luck finally ran out. He was so busy pointing out the flaws in Lisa’s game to her that he overlooked his own: his unwillingness to pretend to commit to an alliance. All isn’t lost for Penner, though. He whistled his way into the night and then turned Ponderosa from a toxic environment into a place where everyone now seems to be getting along.

I finished Weeds and was very pleased and surprised by the finale. After the tumultuous encounter between Nancy and Andy at the end of the previous episode, they jumped forward in time. It wasn’t all happily ever after, but it all made sense (except for Silas’s wife being so hateful toward Nancy). Much of the old gang was back in one form or another (but not all), and the future has some cool technology, although not all of it reliable (witness the SNAFU at the dry cleaners). Bringing everyone together for Stevie’s sort-of bar mitzvah (because he was only Jewish by association) was a good idea. It didn’t give Nancy closure—it gave her an opening. She no longer has to do crazy stuff to support her family. Now she can find out who she really is just for herself. An intriguing and, no doubt, daunting propect.

American Horror Story just keeps getting stranger and stranger. And stranger. And weirder. And stranger.

And there’s something weird about BBC America on our system. The sound reproduction isn’t always all that great, which means I end up using close captions so I can understand the thick British accents on The Hour. The NY Times review of the first episode talked about the show’s poor timing in that the BBC and hour-long news programs (which is what the show is about, in a way) specifically, haven’t had the best press of late.

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Sons of Chaos

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Bev Vincent

Tune in to this spot tomorrow for big news (for me, at least). And, no, it won’t be because I won the Powerball lottery draw. Well, it could be because of that—I bought a few tickets for the first time ever—because the odds are about 8.75 million to 1 against, but the thing to which I refer is a sure thing. I’m not sure I’d want to win $500 million, anyway. Too much money. A person would have to spend all their energy figuring out what to do with it and making sure other people weren’t misusing it. $20 million would be nice, though.

I finished The Racketeer by John Grisham and moved on to The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling, which is been at the top of my TBR stack for too long.

I finished the first draft of a short story yesterday morning and revised it this morning. I don’t often write stories that fast, but this one has been rattling around inside my head for quite a while, though I could never seem to get myself to sit down and write the durned thing. Mostly because I understood the “big picture,” and I knew the opening section, but I had no idea about how it was all going to come together. On Monday, I told myself I might as well write down the part I know, and I did, which amounted to about 1300 words. Then, yesterday, I first reread the part I’d written the day before and then I plowed ahead with no idea where I was going. Lo and behold, it all fell into place and I ended up with a 2800 word first draft. Then I struggled with the title. I did come up with one, but I’m not 100% sold on it. Also, I usually delete about 10% of the total upon revision, but after today’s session I still had 2800 words. Not all the same words I started with, but the same number. That’s interesting (to me, at least).

I’m in the middle of the eighth and final season of Weeds. It’s a funny, quirky series, where the characters tumble blindly from one bad decision into the next. The cliff-hanger at the end of Season 7 was interesting, and I like where they’re going with Season 8. I’ll be curious to see what they decided upon as a conclusion. I can sort of guess, but not with any degree of confidence. I think it will have something to do with a certain bullet. I haven’t always liked all the characters (I found Elizabeth Perkins’ Celia Hodes tedious) and their related storylines, but there have been some great moments. I also like the way Mary Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin swears. It’s like she’s not sure she can say the words and she stutters up to them or draws them out, curling up her lips in the process. I wonder if that was a creative decision relating to the character or if that’s the way Parker swears naturally. I hope some of the characters from the first few seasons show up in the finale, too. The decision to make Nancy and her family flee California left some good characters behind.

The Hour returns for its second season tonight. The show stars Dominic West of The Wire. I hadn’t heard that it was renewed or even that there had been any plans for it to continue. I only found out about it from a sidebar ad on a page I visited yesterday. A rare instance of internet advertising actually catching my attention.

Only one episode of Sons of Anarchy left this season, although chaos is a better word for their situation. I never thought I’d see what happened early on in this week’s episode, and the final scene was just ugh. Big black blobs. What a reminder. So, Tig. What’s going to happen with him? That’s the main question I’d like to see resolved next week. The rest is mostly bookkeeping. The Irish are mad, the Mayans messed everything up, the Chinese seem to be happy with how things are going. Pope is okay so long as Jax falls in line. Nero’s back in the game. Belfast’s population might increase by one. Wendy’s return to favor is brief. What a mess.

A good episode of NCIS this week. I was sure the missing girl’s father was going to be somehow involved, mostly because he was acting like a jerk. Everyone had a chance to act maternal or paternal without getting overly sloppy about it. Rizzoli and Isles is back with a decent first episode. I’m glad they’re sort of dispatching with the baby. In the books, Rizzoli is a mom, but I’m not sure that would work on the TV series.

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Eye of the Tiger

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Bev Vincent

I think I wrote a song in my dreams last night. I woke up remembering only the final line and melody, and it was nothing I was familiar with. The more I mentally repeated that line, the less well it fit with the tune, and it made no sense whatsoever. Now I remember none of it.

We had a quiet long weekend, just the two of us. Except for one excursion to the movie theater, we didn’t leave the house. We cooked up meals (a ham instead of a turkey, which provided ample leftovers in the way of sandwiches and soups), played cards, read, watched programs and relaxed. When the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. today, I was dead to the world. I normally get up at that time during the week, but four days in a row of 7, 8, 9, and even 10 a.m. risings spoiled me. I did manage to get a running start at a short story that has been rolling around in my head for several weeks now, writing about 1300 words.

I finished Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. It’s an unusual novel, and it’s hard to say much about it without spoiling it. The answers to some of my questions about its structure are revealed in the end, though I can’t say they are entirely satisfactory. Also, a lot of the text is taken up with stories written by one of the main characters, except they’re paraphrased by the first person narrator, which is an unusual approach. It’s a spy novel, but not a thriller, and the political stakes are somewhat low. I’m not even sure how to review it because of the “big reveal.” I’ll have to give it some thought.

I moved on to  The Racketeer by John Grisham, which is a bit of a change of pace for him. I’ve just reached the point where my suspicions about the main character are starting to prove out, though I don’t know exactly what he’s up to yet. It could turn out to be a clever caper.

We went to see Life of Pi on Saturday night. The 6 p.m. showing was in 3D—we didn’t plan for 3D, or against it for that matter, it just happened. The previews before the feature were utter crap, and it took me a couple of days to realize why. The movie is rated PG, so the previews had to be toned down as well. I have to say that it is one of the most spectacular films I have ever watched. Visually stunning. The 3D is mostly subtle, enhancing the depth of field. There’s only one instance of something poking out of the screen (a long pole), but the flying fish really did fly through the theater. In the opening scenes, which show the zoo owned by Pi’s father, the animals looked almost artificial, but that was because of the unusual extra dimension, I think. The ship sinking is dramatic and exhausting. The narrator is charming, and his interlocutor an eager set of ears. There are various incarnations of Pi as he ages, but the brunt of the film focuses on the young boy on the boat with the animals. The tiger is a blend of CGI and live action, but he is menacing, with rippling muscles. No Disney tiger this. At times, Ang Lee pulls back the camera and shows you the world as Pi sees it. Vast, empty ocean. Endless sky. A mystical world of underwater life. It is breathtaking to behold. Besides all of the visuals, the filmmakers are as faithful to Yann Martel’s novel as they could possibly be. The shipwreck is more dramatic, and there’s an early scene with Richard Parker that isn’t in the book, but for the rest it’s all there, with the animal violence tamed down a bit for the PG rating. The island of meerkats is stunning. If you’re going to see it, see it on the big screen, with or without 3D. It needs be seen on that scale.

Thanks to a friend abroad, we go to see the third season of Downton Abbey early. PBS is running a 90-minute teaser (Downton Abbey Revisited), hosted by Angela Lansbury. It was on last night, but I missed recording it, but it’s on again next Sunday night. It’s a very solid season, with Shirley MacLaine appearing in a few episodes. Of course there are a couple of catastrophes to deal with, one introduced almost immediately and the other sprung about halfway through. The Bates in prison subplot carries on, and a few new characters are added to the mix, mostly downstairs, while others from the past are brought back after an absence. Maggie Smith gets off a few dozen good zingers.

Our daughter has been watching Treme, so we decided to give the first season a shot. We’ve seen the first three episodes so far. It’s fun to see Lester Freamon and Bunk Moreland from The Wire back in action in new roles, along with other familiar actors, including John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Khandi Alexander. Season 3 is airing now and I hear that it’s been renewed for an abbreviated and final fourth season.

For Jeff Strand: How long has it been since a tribe with the numbers has come into the merge and picked off the other tribe completely on Survivor? It always seems like a good idea, but when it comes time to put it into action, something happens to mess it up and the majority suddenly finds itself with the short straw. Interesting group dynamics. This is the least functional Ponderosa group I can remember seeing in a while. RC is acting bitchy, hogging the TV lounge and still “playing the game” even though she’s out of it, and Jeff is completely disconnected from the others. If Abi gets evicted next week, it could be explosive.

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The Ghost of Christmas

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Bev Vincent

My November entry at Storytellers Unplugged is now up. It’s called Taking Care of the Laundry and has to do with how different the copy-editing process was for The Dark Tower Companion compared to that for The Road to the Dark Tower.

I’m about a third of the way through  Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan and the story is really just getting going. A little slow-paced for a spy novel.

We went to see A Christmas Carol at the Alley Theatre yesterday afternoon. It’s a familiar story, of course, but they don’t scrimp on the effects or on the ghosts. Some of it is positively creepy, like a good Doctor Who episode. The ghost of Christmas yet to come was particularly effective, a tall, lean skeleton of a creature who rode around the stage on an oversized tricycle with rear wheels that made me think of a penny-farthing. Comic relief was provided by having Scrooge’s housemaid played by a guy in drag. Python-esque and quite amusing. If you’re looking for a way to get in the mood for the season, this would good. Far better than enduring Black Friday Thursday crowds at the malls, in my opinion.

Lorelei is one of my favorite recurring characters on The Mentalist. It’s always good to see Malcolm McDowell, too, but Lorelei brings out a different side of Patrick. He’s attracted to her and seems to be interested in her well-being, but he’s also using her, just like he does everyone else. Although she played the part of Red John’s siren, she’s attracted to him, too. She could have escaped any number of times, but didn’t. It was an odd episode, though. There were a couple of over-long scenes that seemed like they were going to mean something that didn’t. First there was the encounter with the park ranger on the beach. Then there was the staring match with the boy in the convenience store. The only payoff for that encounter was Patrick demonstrating that he could cross his eyes. It seemed like they didn’t have enough script to take up the entire episode, so these things were stretched out. I’m starting to suspect Homeland Security guy. Why? Partly based on his resemblance to the guy in the “origin story” episode from a few weeks back and partly because Lisbon is attracted to him, as evidenced by the way she patted her hair when she saw him in her office.

The long-hairs never had a chance to get back into the game on The Amazing Race. Even if they had somehow miraculously come up with the missing passport, they were too far behind everyone else—even the goat farmers who suffered a 4-hour penalty for failing to complete the synchronized swimming contest. The time zone challenge was a humbler for many of the teams.

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The Majors

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Bev Vincent

I finished reviewing the copyedited manuscript of The Dark Tower Companion over the weekend and returned it to my editor at NAL. I’ll see it again after the proofreader has had a crack at it, and then again in galley form, presumably. Less than five months until publication.

I wrote a 500 word essay for a contest after I finished as a way of changing gears again. I’m going to start working on a novel any day now, though probably not until after the end of the month. I have what I thought was the first chapter finished, but this morning I realized that there needs to be an earlier chapter and I have a lot of it in my head. It just arrived, fully formed. Cool when that happens.

I finished Double Feature by Owen King a couple of days ago and started Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. I’m a big fan of McEwan’s work. This one is a first person narrative about a young woman who brings down the career of a spy. Now why does that sound familiar?

I’ve been watching Weeds in small bites for the past few weeks. With 25 minute episodes, it’s easy to sneak one in here and there. All sorts of surprising performances by players in bit parts. One of my favorites is Lee Majors as the weird guy from the Minutemen. Majors has his moments. He was okay in Fall Guy, but his acting skills have always been kind of iffy. He leaps into this part, though. Albert Brooks was great as Andy’s dad, too. The shift to Ren Mar in season 4 allows them to switch things up quite a bit. I like Mary Louise Parker a lot. Her eyes look almost black and they’re usually so widely open they seem in danger of falling out. There’s one rather disconcerting scene when the family is seated at the table and she’s apologizing to them in turn. The camera is straight on and the other characters aren’t visible. She looks from left to right and for one second she looks straight at the camera, which is generally a no-no. As I said: disconcerting.

I finally got around to watching last week’s two-hour Burn Notice, which was really just two episodes mashed together. There always finding new ways to switch things up and keep Michael from settling down permanently. They even torched his apartment, so that’s different.

The “documentary” gag has been used a bunch of times before. On Castle this week, the film crew wasn’t following Beckett or Castle, but rather the rock band that became wrapped up in a murder investigation. The way most of the characters played up to the camera was a little hokey, but I liked the way Beckett handled it at the end. She seems so uptight much of the time that when she has fun and does something spontaneous, it’s a surprise.

NCIS was a little different this week, too. I didn’t know it was going to be a two-parter, for one thing, but the focus of the episode wasn’t so much on the crime as on the PTSD suffered by the suspected killer. And then the nifty reveal at the end. Well done. Haven’t had time to watch the 90-minute Sons of Anarchy from last night yet, though. There are too many shows on at 9 p.m. Central. Last night there was NCIS and then nothing for an hour and then three shows I like all at once.

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