Delicate Sound of Thunder

My short story “Charlie’s Voice” is now online at Story Station. As I mentioned yesterday, this is a YA site and the story probably qualifies as YA, but it’s also good for an OA audience, too (old adults!) as that’s what I wrote it for originally.

I couldn’t fathom the plot of The Closer last night–or at least the crucial discovery about how the victim died. We never found out why he was outdoors at the time, though that’s a minor issue. The bullet wound, however, looked like it came from a low angle, shooting up into his skull. If the shooter fired “over the heads” of the carjackers and the bullet traveled two blocks, I would have thought that it would still be ascending or on a downward arc of its trajectory, which means the bullet should have entered from the top of his head.

Tricking the suspects into confessing to a felony murder by association is getting a little old as a plot device, too, although the two actors who played the gangbangers were very good and amusing to watch as they thought they were being clever.

Seems like my essay in progress might end up close to the target of 2500 words after all. I added quite a bit to it this morning and hit 2400 words, though some of that will certainly go in the editing phase. I still have some more to write, though, so it should be comfortably at the limit when all’s said and done.

Woke up to the sound of thunder this morning, a welcome sound after the recent drought. It’s been raining fairly steadily ever since, which is very good. Sometimes we just get a brief deluge, most of which runs off immediately, and the ground doesn’t really get wet more than a few millimeters down. This gradual, persistent rain might actually do us some good. It’s also nice to go outside and lunch time and discover that is below 80° instead of pushing for 100.

My computer monitor died this morning. No services will be held in its memory.

I had an editor offer the opinion that it was a challenge for someone of one gender to write convincingly from the point of view of the other, and that I hadn’t done a convincing job of it. Problem was, the story’s protagonist was male. Hmmm. Makes me seriously wonder about the validity of any of the editor’s other comments. Unfortunately, since I’m one layer removed from the editor, I can’t even flaunt the mistake in his/her face. Boy, what I wouldn’t give to be able to correct that person’s assumption face to face. I don’t even know his/her name, alas.