I’m reaching the end of my first pass through the first chapter of the novel. So far I’ve cut about three pages from it, and I suspect more will get lopped off during subsequent revisions. Since the scene’s place in the chronology of the book is different now than when originally conceived, I also have to consider some of the events that have already taken place that were in the scene’s future in the first draft. I just realized that this morning while in the shower. I can’t pretend those things haven’t happened, or at least the narrator should make some passing reference to them.
I watched the last six or seven minutes of Mad Men last night. It’s interesting that Don, who can be so emotionally distant sometimes, understands what’s happening to his daughter better than his wife does.
NCIS did something interesting — they wove a primer for the show into the season premiere, a neat cheat sheet for anyone who’s never seen the show before. The “new hire” that they left in the interrogation room–I wonder if we’ve seen the last of her. I think not, but I might be wrong. I gave up on the new spinoff after about ten minutes. I was skeptical going in, and I didn’t see anything about the characters that made me want to hang around with them. They were all gloss and no substance in the back-door pilot last season. Besides, I’m so busy I don’t need another TV series on the schedule.
I used the hour to catch up on Castle from the previous night. I thought Michael Connelly aquitted himself very well in the poker scene. The show got off to a solid start, I thought, re-establishing the rules between Castle and Beckett. He’s an interesting character–lots of flash on the surface, but genuine and honest when he allows himself to look under the lid.
This is the mock-up cover for the Evolve anthology that will launch at WHC2010 in Brighton. It contains my story “A Murder of Vampires.” The stories are all supposed to take place in a version of modern reality where the existence of vampires is accepted. Mine is a gritty, sorta noir story that takes place in a vampire ghetto.
