Pick the devil you run with

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Two or three weeks ago I received a letter from Elections Canada telling me I was being dropped from the registration list. Two days ago I received my voting package for the forthcoming election. Mixed message? Do I dare vote?

Interesting developments on Survivor. They let us think that Matt was in trouble, with his cut foot and all, and he seemed shaky at first (and Sarita looked rock steady) but in the end Redemption Island was bested by Matt—briefly. I hope he didn’t dismantle anything he set up during his previous stay!

Lots of politicking after the merge, with Matt as the swing vote. With everyone courting him, it seemed the most logical thing to do was cut off the head of the beast, which Rob did with aplomb. And still, no one knows he has an idol. And Ralph proved that whatever success he’s had in the game so far is 100% good fortune by tossing out his immunity idol on behalf of someone who didn’t receive a single vote. Well played, sir, well played. Even David was impressed by Rob’s gambit, calling it “genius.” If David was really smart, he’d be thinking about maybe aligning himself with others. And LOL at Rob for coming up with a name for the tribe that meant something to him and Amber but nothing to the rest of the world. Murlonio indeed.

I have to confess that even if I was famished I’d be concerned about eating chicken “later today” that was sitting out in the heat, unless that container was refrigerated somehow. The biggest surprise of the episode was the fact that Redemption Island was back in play. I wonder when the ultimate victor will get rotated back into Murlonio. If it’s late enough in the game, that person might have an edge, especially if it’s Matt.

All manner of interesting developments on Justified this week. We find out that Carol can handle herself in a tussle, Mags can sing (sort of—and wasn’t that an ironic song choice?) and Boyd can dance, for instance, and that Coover knows what it’s like to smoke a dead person. Mags, it seems, has always wanted a little girl instead of the big lummoxes she was saddled with, and Loretta quite fits the bill. By the end of the episode, though, she’s down one lummox instead of up a daughter.

The coal mine deal, it turns out, isn’t about coal, at least not from the Bennett perspective—it’s about access to the coal, and smart old Boyd figured that out and convinced Arlo to sign over his rights, which puts Boyd on Mags’s side in the subsequent negotiations instead of with Carol. Loved Boyd’s sideways smile when Mags told Carol to “sit down while there’s still pieces of you big enough to find.” Mags gets her deal, plus a piece of the action, enough to set her up for life. She’s so happy with the outcome, she “gives” Boyd the county to do with as he pleases—except, of course for the family business, which is weed.

“Save all your love for your dog?” Carol asks Raylan when he tells her the very noirish way he intends to spend the evening. “I used to have a dog,” Raylan says wistfully when she comes up with a better way to spend the hour or two before she heads to the airport. He resists her charms, even though he’s having trouble connecting with Winona and feeling stalkerish in the process.

Speaking of weed, Loretta has learned a few tricks in her time with the Bennetts, coming up with a sophisticated plan to incapacitate Coover while searching for her father’s watch, which she saw him wearing at the “whoop-dee-do.” Little did she know that Dickie was passed out drunk in the next room, not that he posed much of a threat. Once roused, Dickie managed to get Coover all calmed down and then he went just a bit to far and got him riled up again by teasing him about being jealous of Loretta. Was almost the last thing Dickie ever did. Chasing after Loretta, as it turned out, was the last thing Coover ever did. Raylan ends up tussling with Coover one more time, but he gets the upper hand when Loretta produces a gun from somewhere.

Isn’t it the ultimate irony that Coover should end up in the same spot as Loretta’s father? I don’t think you could write it any other way. Mags was more upset to learn that she had lost her surrogate daughter, I think. I loved the way she went from teary-eyed to cold when Raylan told her there was no way she would ever get to see Loretta. “Let’s go.”

So, things are gonna get interesting fast, methinks. The open question of the season is whether or not Raylan stays in Kentucky when everything gets settled, or if he’ll be moving on. I can’t see them getting rid of such a great batch of secondary characters. All of them would have to go, pretty much: Art, Tim, Arlo, Eva…everyone. My bet is on him staying.

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How could I get that wrong?

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Broke my promise to myself: I didn’t get around to working on the novella this morning. I got my “assignments” for World Horror in Austin in a few weeks so I had to do some prep work. The program hasn’t been announced yet, so I won’t spill the beans. Should be a ton o’ fun, though.

Got paid for an essay that will appear in a magazine at the end of the month. Can’t say more about it yet because the issue is going to get a big launch. Took my ill-gotten gains and splurged on a used iPad. I figure it will come in handy at World Horror. I like my little iPod Touch and this is basically a more fully featured, larger version of that. Didn’t feel the need to shell out all that moolah for the newest generation, and I don’t need 3G.

You’d think by this stage in my life I’d have this whole sleeping thing worked out, but apparently I slept “wrong” last night and woke up with a weird muscle ache in my right shoulder. Guess I need to practice more.

I’m not sure why everyone on NCIS is so bent out of shape about the new kid on the block, EJ. Well, everyone except Tony, who “gets her,” and by that I mean he’s romantically involved with her. Gibbs seemed to hate her on first sight and he basically tells her to end the relationship. He was never that way when it seemed like Tony and Ziva were getting close. I wasn’t expecting a cliff-hanger episode. When they figured out the clue about the pilot, I figured he was going to be the killer instead of just another victim. The killer seems to have an ice cube fetish. He left a flower in an ice cube tray, left the pilot in the deep freeze, and sent Tony a drink with an eyeball in an ice cube. I know: it’s Mr. Freeze!

Complicating matters is the fact that Ziva’s new boyfriend (Enrique Murciano from Without a Trace or C.I.Ray as Tony dubbed him) is the CIA liaison to NCIS on this port-to-port killer case, which was news to Ziva but not to E.J. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I hope Special Agent Bennett becomes a regular.

Episode trivia: It was David McCallum (Ducky) giving voice to the creepy talking doll at the start.

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Femme fatale

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Got tangled up with paperwork this morning, so I didn’t get back to the novella yet again. Tomorrow, I promise (myself).

After several days with the A/C activated and actually having it run a few times, we had to turn the heat back on again last night because the temperatures dipped into the low forties. A cold front came through in the afternoon and it was supposed to bring some rain but I think we managed about 13 drops all day. Gonna have to water the poor, thirsty lawn, I think. We’re about 40% behind on rain year-to-date.

This week’s episode of The Event felt like one where all the pieces were being moved into position. After the wholesale slaughter of the previous week (I think the two sides scored about equally in the body count from the falling monument and the exploding buses), it was time to regroup. The third bus ended up on Wisteria Lane (or something that looked very much like it). Simon, after realizing that he was compromised at the White House, tried to build a mini-resistance but that didn’t go so well. Simon’s escape reveals to viewers that there’s someone else inside the White House helping out. Are we meant to believe it’s the president’s wife? Too obvious? At least he turned the new senator from Alaska into an ally.

Meanwhile, over in France, Dempsey is smashing relics and reading ancient manuscripts. Turns out he’s sort of like the Seneschal from The Da Vinci Code, the latest in a long line of people preparing against alien attacks. It’s really been hard to figure out who is on which side as this show progresses. Dempsey looks like a bad guy, but maybe he’s a good guy? Albeit a murderer who experiments on children? I thought he was trying to create a fountain of youth. Maybe he is. Who knows? You always know that when someone says “kill her” and that person ties the would-be murder victim up and sets a fire and leaves without making sure the job is done that the person (Vicky in this case) is going to survive. How TV-Batman. I guess Sean has been watching Justified, learning torture techniques from Mags Bennett. Alas, we have to wait two weeks for the next episode.

A fun, light episode of Castle with a good twist ending. It only seemed like Rick was going to make a joke about the murder victim (Gordon Burns was found in an oven. So, yes, Gordon burns.) but in fact he knew the guy as a reporter and a writer. The background for the episode was a pizza war among four rivals, all of whom called themselves Nick with various superlatives attached. The guy who was mobbed up was a relatively familiar actor, so I figured he was the one to keep an eye on. And Wendy from C.S.I? You know she’s more than just the old girlfriend. Still, I never figured her for the femme fatale, though I did, for a moment, entertain the thought that the assault in her apartment was a little hinky.

So, not only did Castle have a lot of imaginary friends as a kid, he still does. And he’s jealous of Beckett’s nifty NYPD app—so much so that he petulantly refuses to let her play with his Angry Birds app. Lots of literary allusions this week, from Moby Dick to any number of noir crime films. Decent B story with Alexis and her teenage travails. Winner, winner, pizza dinner, and all is well with the world. Line of the week: Ryan, saying to Castle, “Did someone find naked pictures of you again?”

Watched the special episode of Body of Proof that was on Sunday night after Desperate Housewives. A cagey scheme, since Dana Delaney used to be on that show, to try to boost the new one with the audience from her previous show. My DVR was smart enough to record it, which surprised me. Ain’t technology grand. I was astonished to discover that I can rewind live television! If I turn on the TV and a show is already on, I can rewind it even if I haven’t been recording it. What’ll they think of next? Anyway, the second episode of this show didn’t do much to distinguish itself. I notice that it’s a brighter show than most lab procedurals. C.S.I. is blue and dark for the most part, but there’s plenty of light in Body of Proof. Even indoors. The ending of this one was terribly lame, though. I didn’t buy the story at all.

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Who Killed Rosie Larsen?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Bev Vincent

AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review published my short story Matthias Comes Home From the War today. AE is a relatively new pro-paying market and I’m very happy to help the launch their third issue.

Didn’t do much writing this weekend, though I did tidy up a few little side projects that have been lingering in my INBOX for a while. On Saturday I watched the old spy thriller The Fourth Protocol, starring Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine based on the Frederick Forsythe novel. Brosnan is baby-faced and earnestly serious as a Russian spy in the UK charged with detonating an atomic bomb at an American air base so the Americans will be blamed and kicked out of England, thereby upsetting the NATO alliance. All very Cold War-ish, but it holds up pretty well. Caine is his usual reliable self as the British spy who uncovers the whole scheme but is on the outs with his power-hungry new boss.

Elton John was the host of SNL this week. I never watch the show and I was surprised to discover that I had only heard of two of the regulars: Kristen Wiig and Seth Meyers. EJ played two songs from The Union with Leon Russell and appeared in most of the sketches, which were, by and large, a pretty dismal and dreary lot. He was clearly ill at ease during his opening monologue but still managed to get off a few good ones. The impromptu punk rock song at the end of the Royal Wedding sketch was a bit of a revelation. The only time he seemed to be acting (instead of just reading off cue cards) was in the closing Western segment, where he actually did a voice. They picked two lively songs, so that was worth watching but the rest? Meh.

I dropped The Event after the sixth episode, but a friend convinced me to give it a second chance, especially given what happened in the most recent episode. So, I did a marathon, watching episodes 7 through 15 over a two-day period. The mid-season entries were still a bit on the lackluster side, but it really does pick up and the most recent one was nothing short of dazzling. A real game changer.

One of the things I find most interesting about the show is that there aren’t many characters to solidly root for—at least not without reservation. Once you understand what everyone wants, then it’s easy to see why they’re all at odds and no one is particularly more right than anyone else. I would say that Leila is the most sympathetic character overall, since she wants to find her family and, once that is accomplished, to understand exactly what her family is. Sean Walker is nominally the star, but would be more sympathetic if the actor were a better performer.

The President is presidential, but he hides behind the same buzz words (national security) to justify deeds he doesn’t want to explain, and he’s growing increasingly callous and bloodthirsty. Virginia Madsen’s character, the widow of a former congressman, is put up as kind of a villain, but in the real world she is completely justified in what she’s doing: trying to ferret out a government secret.

We’re supposed to sympathize with Sophia, but she has her own agenda and doesn’t hesitate to make the tough decisions when backed into a corner. As a mother, she’s somewhat emasculating. It’s no wonder Thomas turned out the way he did given how relentlessly unsupportive and critical she is toward him. Blake Sterling is probably the most straightforward of the political cadre. Some of the characters are allowed to redeem themselves in our eyes, especially Vicky, who was once a threat and is now and ally, and who looks pretty good in a blond wig and a fancy gown.

Remains to be seen whether the show will go on after this season, but I’m glad I gave it a second chance. Not terrific, but not totally dismiss-able either.

Now, talking about terrific, the opening two hours of The Killing were fine television. The new AMC series is a remake of a Danish series that was very well received in the UK. The American version, though set in a very rainy Seattle, has the feel of a British crime series. Something like State of Play, for example. The main character is a homicide detective on the verge of giving it all up to move to California to marry. Her paperwork is all filed and she’s ready to go when this last case lands on her desk. She’s a fascinating character. Taciturn but sensitive. She doesn’t analyze crime scenes the way they do on the typical procedural. She accumulates all the facts and lets them percolate. She is experienced enough to have a kind of intuition. Her sidekick isn’t exactly a partner. He’s supposed to be her replacement, but because they are overlapping they act like a team. He’s from narcotics, and is younger, shiftier, edgier.

The story of the murdered girl’s family is extremely well done. We get to see them before they find out there’s anything to be worried about, then during the purgatory of “not knowing” and then the dreaded news arrives and it sinks in gradually. It all feels very real and very true. Fine performances by the parents, and it will be interesting to see how they deal with the loss as time goes on. Then there’s the third storyline about the candidate for mayor whose campaign is implicated in the murder. His PR guy is real so-and-so, which means he probably isn’t the killer though we’d all like him to be.

The story is playing out slowly, over 13 hours I believe, so it’s not a murder-of-the-week situation. I hope viewers get behind it, because it’s good stuff.

Posted in The Event, The Killing | Comments Off on Who Killed Rosie Larsen?

It’s there, then it’s gone

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Finished up revisions to the second short story that I had to proof this week and got it back to the editor. That’s probably about as much writing work as I’ll get done today. Got some very good news from my agent yesterday afternoon, which means I’ll probably have to shift gears for a while before long. I did finish up my review of Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale, too.

A detailed review of Shivers VI appears at Dark Scribe. Every story is covered. The reviewer calls my story “gruesome and gleeful.”

Lots of people getting in on the act for April Fool’s yesterday. My favorites included the report that the long-lost John D. MacDonald final Travis McGee novel had been found (on the sunken remains of the Busted Flush), Gmail’s “Motion” product announcement, and WestJet’s plan to push helium through the air vents to lighten planes and save money. The fake announcement of Dark Tower cast members (including Oprah Winfrey, Ray Romano and Justin Beiber) was taken more seriously than one might have expected.

Torchwood is back this July on Starz after a far-too-long hiatus. A teaser trailer has been released for the new season, Miracle Day. It makes me think of that old zombie movie line about there being no more room in hell so the dead start walking the earth. This is the opposite: what happens if no one ever dies again? Bad news, one can’t help but thinking.

This week’s The Mentalist was one of the better episodes. Patrick stepped out of himself for a bit and showed that he was capable of caring for another human being: medical examiner Steiner, with whom he’s crossed paths before. However, Patrick determines during this new meeting that Steiner is ill so he invites him to join them on the case. Sort of a last hurrah, a last adventure. He treated Steiner (albeit at someone else’s expense) to fine scotch and Cuban cigars in a room unlike any Steiner had ever seen before. The final scene, with Patrick performing a truly symbolic piece of magic as Steiner dies was well done. The murder of the week was so-so, although I liked the scene where the con man tried to convince Cho that he had been a victim of alien abduction. The Rigsby/Van Pelt stuff is feeling a little old. Why shouldn’t she marry the FBI guy? And if her fiancé flaked a little during the shootout, so what?

Blue Bloods was okay. I like the Reagan family dynamics more and more. However, they really defanged the drug lord. He was supposed to be such a hard case and his organization virtually unassailable, and yet people were coughing up addresses and locations left and right with nary a water board in sight. It felt like this could have been a two-part episode that was crammed into one.

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Blew By You

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Ended up having to proof two short stories. I received the proofs of “Red Planet” for Evolve 2 yesterday as well as the other story I mentioned previously. I got one of them finished and back to the editor this morning, but I still have the other to take care of. That’s tomorrow morning’s task. By the oddest of coincidences, both of these stories are science fiction, which isn’t what I usually have published.

This week’s Justified gave Timothy Olyphant the chance to show his chops as a hung over hurting unit. His performance was very convincing! Raylan also took a great thumping at the hands of Coover, though he recovered from that a lot faster than I expected. He’s in a bad spot, because he’s sure that Art, his boss, knows about the missing money that he and Winona replaced last week, and I can see why given how cranky Art was when he assigned Raylan to guard Carol. Carol is a piece of work, slinking around in front of Raylan in her underdrawers and otherwise trying to seduce him.

The bad blood between the Givens family and the Bennett clan dates back to prohibition. We now know what happened to Dickie’s leg: Raylan hit him with a baseball bat after Dickie beaned him during a baseball game. During that at bat, Raylan said the first pitch was a “Linda Ronstadt” (blew by you), which I thought was funny. Wondered what Coover had inside that bag? Apparently the writers believe it was a badger, though that was never stated. Poor Charlie: Eva isn’t someone whose gun barrel you’d want to stand before.

I thought Raylan’s solution to the old “no cell phone signal” problem was pretty ingenious.  I’m not sure I’d go to Mags Bennett’s “whoop-dee-do,” though. Made me think of a Jonestown massacre waiting to happen. “You all deserve each other,” Raylan says to Carol, Boyd and the Bennetts. “Whenever this shit all blows up in your faces, guess what? I won’t be here to clean up the bodies.” Yeah, right. That’s exactly where he’ll be. “I try to be whatever’s required,” he tells Carol. For her, for Winona, for everyone.

I thought it was appropriate that the town meeting was held in a church. Boyd and Mags both addressed the audience as if they were preachers. And what is the deal with Boyd’s hair? It gets wilder and wilder every week. Looks like he sticks his finger in the light socket every morning.

The “cycle” gimmick on CSI was a little forced, I thought. Of course, this is Las Vegas, where they’ll bet on anything. However, I guessed who would be the natural death shortly after the character was introduced. He was annoying, so he had to die. But it was Doc Robbins for the win.

And what was the deal with the Jabba the Hut references? There was one on CSI and another on The Mentalist. Was it his birthday or something? And I didn’t get him anything.

Law & Order: SVU is mining the cast of Lost for guest stars. First it was Henry Ian Cusick and this week it was Elizabeth Mitchell. She gave a very strong, layered performance, I thought. I was impressed. Got a kick out of Jeremy Irons as the guest shrink who gets far more involved in cases than their real pro shrink ever does. When someone asks him if he’s a psychologist he says, “Psychiatrist,” then waves his hand dismissively. “Same thing. Just a few more days in school.”

Posted in CSI, Justified | Comments Off on Blew By You

A Star is Born

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Spent the entire morning session vetting editorial comments for a short story that will be published shortly. Quite a lot of tracked changes, most of which I’m okay with, but I need to make sure that the few deletions don’t cause continuity problems. Hope to get it back to the editor tomorrow.

The sequel to the date-less check story I mentioned earlier. I got it back from the bank, filled in the missing date and redeposited it today. Thanks to a change in the exchange rate, I got $1.20 more this time than I did last week.

Shivers VI received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The anthology contains my story “It is the Tale,” which is one of the “other 18” referenced in the review, the closing line of which says, “The uniformly high quality of writing makes this volume a must for any horror fan.” The second printing of the trade paperback is nearly sold out.

An excellent episode of Survivor last night. What were the odds of both contestants hitting blind matches right out of the gate? Something like 350,000 to 1, I’d guess. Rob continues to impress with the way he’s thinking the game through from all angles. I liked the grin on his face when he threw the hidden immunity idol over his shoulder into the active volcano, like a sacrifice to the gods. Philip had another mini-meltdown this week, all over a spoonful of crispy rice. If he really was a secret agent, I think we now know how foreign agents might have extracted information from him. Just dismiss him as irrelevant, treat him like the “red-headed stepchild” and he’ll cave in a minute. Rob’s tribe got off to a bad start, but they’re in the driver’s seat now, especially if Matt comes back after the merge. Rob has the idol. I’ve forgotten where the other one is. Is there still one hidden at the other camp? Jeff Strand will know! Jeff!

The first post-Prentiss episode of Criminal Minds was decent, too. Again the camera lied to us, but not for too long, and I forgave it after we got the perspective without the delusions. One of the more interesting depictions of a mental illness. Can you imagine having people jabbering at your relentlessly like that, especially if they’re telling you to do bad things.

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Burden of … poof!

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Bev Vincent

I finished Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale. Now reading Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens. I didn’t know much about him until a recent 60 Minutes profile. I like reading books by people who are clearly smarter and more widely read than I am. He grew up during interesting times and seems to remember things well. Interesting so far. Reminds me how brutal the British private school system was. Reached the point where he’s starting to find a political voice and get into trouble.

Also reading The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the new No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novel by Alexander McCall Smith.

The full length trailer for the upcoming season of Doctor Who was posted this morning. Favorite part: ominous voice says, “Fear me — I’ve killed hundreds of time lords,” to which the Doctor responds, “Fear me — I killed them all.”

Burden of Proof, the new Dana Delaney vehicle, is neither great nor terrible. It’s in that hinterland of mediocrity and derivativeness. It’s Bones. No, wait, it’s CSI. No, more like The Mentalist. And, obviously, it’s House.

Delaney’s character isn’t quite as despicable as House, but she sure does enjoy rubbing people the wrong way and she has no friends. She goes way beyond the call of duty and gets involved in police business in a fashion no one would ever allow. She identified with the corpse of the week who became a more caring person after suffering a crack on the noggin. She had her own crack: a car accident that left her unable to continue as a neurosurgeon after which she became more interested in her patients, even if they happened to be dead people. She’s estranged from her 12-year-old daughter (and her ex-husband likes it that way), but she isn’t callous. I might check it out again next week, but it’s iffy.

I liked NCIS this week. The killer book concept was fun, providing Tony with references to both The Ring and Ringu. It’s always good when Gibbs and Fornell get together. Too bad there wasn’t a way to make Fornell a member of NCIS. The glue that binds them is a common ex-wife, who was getting married again and sending them both invitations (three to Gibbs alone). After Gibbs makes several disparaging remarks about her, Fornell says, “Before things got bad, there must have been some good times.” Gibbs smiles at a fond memory and says, “Yeah. She caught her finger in a car door once.”

The case had a batch of twists and turns and red herrings that kept me off stride. I suspected the paramedic the moment I first saw him. He didn’t seem to be grieving his wife all that much, but I just wrote it off to iffy acting. Should’ve trusted my gut. The teen-aged arms dealer was a piece of work. Lisabeth Salander meets scary Katy Perry, in Abby’s words.

No Leon this week, and intimations of a new (female) boss next week. Maybe this is the shakeup they’ve been prepping us for?

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On the corner of black and white

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Unexpectedly cool these past couple of days. Barely into the seventies and down to the low fifties at night. I know not many people will sympathize, but after a few days in the 80s when we had to run the A/C it’s a surprise.

Added another 1200 words to the novella in progress this morning. Moving right along. I’m hoping to wrap it up before something else comes along to get in the way. Had a promising e-mail from my agent this morning about a project that might happen in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned.

I hear that Justified has been renewed for a third season. Yay. I also encountered the trailer for The Fall of Sam Axe, which is a made-for-TV prequel movie about Michael Westin’s trusty side kick from Burn Notice. It airs on April 17th. Funny, he doesn’t look younger. I hear, too, that Mad Men won’t be back until 2012 because of protracted contract negotiations with the show runner. That sucks.

I think I’ll check out Body of Proof, the new crime show starring Dana Delaney tonight. Well, I’ll record it and check it out another time since it’s on after my bed time. I don’t intend to give it too many episodes to win me over, though.

The crime story on Castle last night was okay, but I didn’t really care about the resolution. By the end, things had gotten so knotted up that it was easy to forget the guy who died so dramatically in the opening scene. Funny that Castle texted his poker buddies to call dibs on the story, and an interesting showdown between the captain and the D.A. One of these days someone should offer Bruce Davidson a role where he isn’t a dirtbag. Make him stretch a little. There were two excellent developments in the episode, though. First, there was the Alexis subplot where she felt obligated to make amends for her friends. It paralleled the main plot, in that the victim got on the jury to ensure that there wasn’t a miscarriage of justice, but it was good to see that not everything is perfect in Castle-land, that the perfect teenager makes some difficult choices and that nothing is simple for teenagers. Well handled, I thought. And then there was Castle’s charade at the end, pretending not to know anything about Forbidden Planet when Beckett announced she was going to see the film. They have so much in common. I also liked the scene where Ryan and Esposito carried out an inane conversation so that someone hiding at a crime scene wouldn’t know they were onto them.

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Tea for two (thousand)

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Bev Vincent

Finally making some real headway on the novella in progress after some serious renovations. So far I changed it from first person to third person, changed that person from a woman to a man and gave him a sidekick because I thought he needed someone to keep him company during the ensuing 15,000 words. Really changes the dynamic of the story, as might well be expected. Up to 2700 words of the first new draft at the moment, though some of that is renovations to the existing text, and there are a lot more words ahead that I hope to salvage in some form.

Here’s a funny one. Last week I received a check drawn on a Canadian bank for a forthcoming short story appearance. Happens often enough that I no longer worry whether the bank will cash it. They charge $1.50, but no big deal. Check went in and then, five days later, it came back out again. Talked to the people at the bank today—they send checks like that on to an international division and apparently once it got there someone noticed that it wasn’t dated. Signed, countersigned, everything else was fine, but it wasn’t dated. So they’re sending it back to me so I can write the date on it and cash it again. Wow. Talk about picky.

Still reading Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale. Hap is in a very existential place in this book, trying to figure out who he is and why he does the kinds of things he does. I’m having a hard time following all the suspects related to the case they’re investigating and, after a fashion, much of it doesn’t seem to matter. Besides, unlike most writers, when Lansdale hits a slow spot in the book he doesn’t send in a man with a gun…he sends in a lot of people with a lot of guns. And bombs.

One of the problems with this season’s Amazing Race is that I liked all the teams out of the gate, so I don’t want to see any of them get eliminated. Still, last night’s episode had a tough ending. What I can’t believe, though, is that after that horrible challenge where one of the team members had to drink all that freaking tea, they rewarded them with bottles of iced tea when they got to the finish line. Yuck. I’m surprised some of them didn’t burst. There must have been bathroom breaks that we didn’t get to see. Otherwise their eyes would have been floating in their sockets by the end.

Continuing with the tea theme, we had an interesting article in our internal corporate monthly newsletter written by a colleague from Tokyo about what it was like to go through the earthquake and how they subsequently heard about the severity of the calamity and the way things have been disturbed ever since, mostly with the rolling blackouts. He sent a photograph of a McDonald’s in Tokyo that has turned off the golden arches lights to conserve power, for example, and factories are turning off heat, unnecessary lights and vending machines (including the ubiquitous tea machines). On the first night that his house was subject to a scheduled blackout, he compares the scene from his window to something out of a zombie or apocalypse film, enhanced by the fact that he can see a graveyard from his house.

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