Homework turned in

I finished polishing the essay I’ve been working on lately and submitted it to the editor this morning. It not only has to be reviewed by him, it also has to pass a three-person editorial board, so it will be a while before I hear anything back, I expect. It came in at 6500 words. When I picked it up after several years in the drawer, it was around 5000 words. At its heaviest, it bloated to 8000 before being trimmed back to fighting length.

I finished and posted my review of Brad Thor’s The Last Patriot last night. It’s not often a book raises my hackles like this one did. It seems to pander to a certain audience in a way that I found somewhat alarming. That, coupled with the fact that Thor isn’t a particularly strong writer, makes this my first predominantly negative review in a while.

I finished The Closer last night.. I was wrong about the interrogation—there wasn’t one. Looks like they’re setting up for one of those disbanding season finales. Priority homicide is on the block. Remains to be seen whether they’ll resolve this during the two episodes or leave it hanging, as with NCIS and The Unit.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d watch the new Raising the Bar, but I decided to give it a go. Not bad but not addictive yet. I didn’t notice where it was supposed to be set, but wherever it is seems to be fairly small. The public defender always has the same judge and he’s sleeping with a prosecutor. The district attorney is a sleazeball beyond redemption. The public defender is a crusading idealist. The judge is a whack job. The characters are going to need to evolve beyond stereotypes if I’m going to stick with the show.

I tried to watch Sarah Barracuda’s speech last night but I just couldn’t bear it.