Darkly Dreaming

Editing is moving right along. I reached an old chapter this morning, one that was written a long time ago as part of a short story. In my memory it was going to require a lot of work because I had an impression that the voice was different from the rest of the novel, but it only needed to be toned down a tad. There still is one chapter I know I’ll have to rewrite substantially, but so far I’m just moving around sentences and paragraphs, adding a bit more detail and deleting the sort of blather that often ends up in a rough draft.

My short story “Ten Little Phobias” was accepted by Afterburn SF yesterday. The story was written a long time ago for a science fiction anthology that never got off the ground. I polished it up a little once I got the rights back and sent it around to a couple of places, but it’s an odd amalgam that didn’t seem to fit anywhere. The story is a science fiction riff on a classic Agatha Christie novel. I think it will be published this time next year.

I received my contributor copies of Cemetery Dance magazine #58 last night. My column is really dated—The Gunslinger Born #1, Blaze and Duma Key weren’t yet published when I wrote it, and The Talisman was still planned as a miniseries for TNT. I also have a feature review on a hot new book that wasn’t out yet when I wrote the piece: Heart-Shaped Box. My column for #59 will be similarly dated, but I’ll be back on track for #60, as I haven’t written that column yet.

I started reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter last night, the Jeff Lindsay novel that is the basis for season one of the TV series Dexter. I’m watching the series in edited form on CBS and it’s getting down to the wire. Next Sunday is the two-hour season finale. Very good series, and the book is moving along well, too. It’s an odd place to be, inside Dexter’s head. I have the second book on deck, assuming this one plays out well.

House, M.D. was back last night after hiatus. It’s an interesting show in that the characters are completely unreal. The dynamics between House, Wilson and Amber (aka, Cutthroat Bitch) are risible. The way House treats everyone is beyond the pale. And yet the show works once you accept the rules. The bit where his team thought he had syphilis last night was hilarious.

It will be interesting to see where How I Met Your Mother goes after the ending of last night’s episode. The bit with the goat was just plain weird, though. Big Bang Theory was pretty funny in its own peculiarly geeky way.