Getting Away With Murder

I received my contributor copy of the 2010 SK Library desk calendar yesterday. The image here doesn’t capture the cover’s beauty. It is a hologram with amazing depth. The maze looks like it goes all the way through the book. My contribution is an essay called “The Eyes Have It,” which can be found on the July 5-11 pages.

I’m editing and revising Chapter 2 of the novel, tightening it up and dabbling in all the little details that I need to pursue from Chapter 1 and set up for the subsequent chapters. I’ll probably send it off to my agent next week.

As you may have noticed, a bunch of us killed Brian Keene yesterday. Brian has assembled all the suspects on his blog. Some of them are laugh out loud hilarious.

I was sad to see the poker girls get ousted from The Amazing Race, and even more surprised to hear how much they were despised by the other players already at Elimination Station. Mostly because they lied in the early stages about their profession. Tiffany almost got the bell to ring, but they were, in the end, defeated by their lack of physical strength. I thought they had a wonderful attitude. It was also neat to see how well everyone was getting along at the Dubai airport when the two brothers “came out.” I had to laugh at the dad from Montana who quipped, “I guess now would be the time to tell my son he’s adopted.”

One more episode of Mad Men left. It was so funny to see the guy who’s supposed to be monitoring the TV ads get distracted when one of the most momentous events of the 20th century was playing out on the screen right beside him. Looks like it’s down to the wire for Don and Betty — will they reconcile or go their separate ways to their respective paramours? And will the firm be sold yet again? I’ve decided that I would pick John Hamm as my choice for Roland Deschain.

I watched Black & Blue, the first episode of the British series based on the Rebus novels of Ian Rankin, last weekend. It wasn’t a terribly strong adaptation, partly because the guy who plays Rebus isn’t quite right for the part. I understand that he was replaced after a few episodes, though I don’t know if it was voluntary or not.