Whipped into submission

I wrote my first Cemetery Dance column in over a year this weekend. This one is for issue #60. My column for #59 was written after I returned from visiting the set of The Mist. The online version helps address the issue of time-sensitive material, allowing me to use the column for more leisurely matters. This column, which clocked in at about 4400 words, came together faster than I expected.

I also got on top of my short story submissions. The list of fallow stories I keep on a notepad by my keyboard as a reminder had grown to an unacceptable length. Two stories are going by postal submissions and I got another two or three in to new markets electronically. I have a 6000-word courtroom story that is in need of a home, but there aren’t many places for something like that. I also have two other stories that I want to look at again before I submit them anywhere, but at least the list is manageable now. When it grows to over half a dozen stories, it gets a little overwhelming.

We watched The Kite Runner this weekend. A pretty good movie, though they didn’t explain to my satisfaction how the kites actually cut each other down, which is a moderately important element of the story. I was interested in the way the exiled Afghanis brought their culture and community with them and lived in sort of an enclave of old ways, even in the new world. The ending was pure Hollywood, glossing over the fact that the young boy wasn’t going to be miraculously okay after what he endured at the hands of the Talib cleric. All the same, it provides an interesting look behind the scenes at a place on the planet often in the news but poorly understood on this side of the great east/west divide.

Last night’s new Law and Order: Criminal Intent was very good. I enjoy seeing Eames and Goren wrestle with their issues without confronting them head on. Goren taking a moment to compliment Eames on a deduction. Falling back into the rhythm of working on a case as a united front against the perps. Finding a common antagonist in the form of their captain, who is too intimately involved with one of the subjects in the case to see what’s going on. And a very funny “This isn’t how it’s supposed to end” piece of metafiction at the finale. The Goren/Eames relationship isn’t back to where it used to be, but it’s healing.