Hello, Dolly

(to be said in the same tone as “Hello, Newman”)

Hurricane Dolly upped the ante to Category 2 a while ago, but she came ashore far enough from us to not cause any worries. I’m hoping we get a good soaking rainfall at least. We could use it.

Finished off my TV show catch-up from NECON weekend last night. Law & Order: Criminal Intent was fun, with Bobby Goren getting to revel in his childhood fascination with magic. He even had Eames smiling at one point, which is a rare sight. Christopher Lloyd was good but underutilized as the old school magician. In Plain Sight was okay, too, though I had an inkling about where the story was going to go as soon as the burned corpse was found. With Ross MacDonald’s books, I’ve grown to distrust any dead body that has been disfigured. You can bet it isn’t who people think it is. In my next book I’m going to write in a mutilated corpse that appears to be someone—and have it turn out to be, yes, exactly the person it is supposed to be.

I pitched an essay to a friend of mine who edits a review magazine recently, and he seemed inclined to look at it. The essay is from a few years ago, intended for a collection of essays that never got off the ground, so I need to update it, but that shouldn’t take very long. Might be my next project while I’m editing a short story, too.