I didn’t really know Charles N. Brown from Locus magazine, but I’ve been reading his magazine for the better part of 25 years now. It’s the only magazine to which I actually subscribe. My favorite part of the magazine, outside of the information datafile at the beginning, was the editor’s column/rant. I met him once at a World Fantasy convention, but didn’t really get a chance to do anything more than tell him that I had been reading his magazine for decades. He said some nice things in Locus about The Road to the Dark Tower, which meant a lot to me at the time. Hell, simply having my name show up in the magazine was one of the highlights of my career to that point.
Sadly, he died on the way home from Readercon: here is a preliminary obituary. The magazine will go on, but it won’t be quite the same without his larger than life presence.
I believe that the episode of Eli Stone that aired on Saturday was the last of the batch. As swan songs go, it left a little to be desired, but the ultimate scene with Eli’s father was nice. I was hoping for more resolution between him and Maggie, but I guess the promise that something might happen has to be enough. I thought it was a thoroughly decent show, but I guess the strike hiatus ruined any chance of it gaining traction.
Eureka is back for a ten-episode run on SyFy. I’m not sure that Friday night is the best time for it, but I’m not really all that conversant with the general TV viewing habits of the American family. I know that I never watch any TV on Friday nights, so it will always be time shifted for me. I’m glad that the android sheriff concept was deemed only sufficient for a single episode, because I think that Sheriff Andy could have gotten very annoying very fast, but in a sense I hope they manage to keep him around Eureka for the occasional callback.
The sordid world of the poetry community came under scrutiny in Law and Order: Criminal Intent this week. To quote Sam Ax, they’re a bunch of bitchy little girls. Impossible to get away from the stereotype of the lonely rich housewife falling for the pretentious and sarcastic poet. I do like the way that the bad guys all underestimate Goldblum’s cop–not his intelligence, per se, but his worldliness. The guy plays the piano, can dash off poetry, etc.
I’m in the final stages of two short essays I’m working on for an upcoming non-fiction project I was asked to contribute to. One needs more work now that I have clarification on one facet of the essay, but the other one is almost finished. I just need to tighten it up some more. My goal is to complete them this week, then spend the rest of the month prepping a number of short stories for things that have tangible deadlines. Then, it’s onto the novel, with as few distractions as possible. August 1st, that’s my goal, and I’m very goal oriented.
