This morning was my first trip upstairs to my office computer since last Wednesday—maybe even since Tuesday. I thought I might get some work done, but all I did was bookkeeping. Recording rejections and acceptances in my submission log, for example. Filing e-mails in the proper folders. Catching up, in general. I received my copyedits from Apex for my story in the Gratia Placenti anthology but I didn’t get to them. I did fill out the author questionnaire at Espresso Fiction for my upcoming story Talking Old Soldier, but not much of consequence beyond that.
Last night I caught up on taped shows from while I was away. Burn Notice continues to impress. Bruce Campbell has to be one of the most natural actors in existence. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth, and it doesn’t seem like he’s acting. The plots are more diversion than anything else, excuses to put Michael into conflict with the other main characters and for him to show his chops. I like.
Thumbs up, too, to the outcome of the last two episodes of Big Brother 8. I’m glad the evictee was who it was, pleased by the new Head of Household and unsurprised by his vehement nomination choices. Jen is a bubblehead, by the way. She’s almost sociopathic in the way she doesn’t feel emotions for others or even for herself—unless it pertains to the way she’s depicted in the set photographs. I also got a kick out of the houseguests’ glee when they won “sweet breads” to eat—none of them realized it isn’t a pastry except for Evel Dick.
“Switch” was a nice noir episode of The Dead Zone with fetching Canadian guest star Sarah Allen, who also played the Sheriff’s niece in Secret Window. The entire episode was clearly homage to films like The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, so I wish the writers would have acknowledged that viewers have half a brain and not make Johnny reflect on the Casabalanca-ness in the episode’s closing moments in case we didn’t get it.
The fact that production has shifted to Montreal is influencing the look and feel of the show. “Switch” involved a train trip toward Montreal on a Canadian Pacific passenger train. In the final moments, Johnny disembarks at Saint Bonaface and whips out his cell phone to call Sara. I hope he’s got a good cell phone plan—as people who went to WHC in Toronto discovered, the roaming charges on US carriers for calls made north of the 49th can be hefty!
I received a copy of Destination Prague yesterday. Not my contributor copy, though—that’s still en route from the publisher. This is one I ordered from Amazon/UK. It’s a handsome volume, a sight to behold, and I remain thrilled to be a part of it. Now I have to find some time to read the other contributions.
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