On Saturday, my latest Storytellers Unplugged essay went live: The Agent Panel. It’s a recap of a panel at the Houston Writers Guild conference I attended a week or so ago.
I finished and submitted the story I’ve been working on lately, and now my desk is clear. It’s back to the novel. However, I’ve decided that instead of plunging in, trying to unravel and reweave the first draft without a plan, I’m going to break it down and outline it. One of the changes my agent suggested is fairly major–an influential character will no longer die in the first chapter, so now I have to bring the character into the story, which is a fairly complicated revision. I’ve never been big on outlines–but I’ve never managed to produce a saleable novel, so maybe it’s time to try a different approach!
We had very heavy rains yesterday. I was going to do some yard work. Darn. Hate it when that happens.
A diligent editor contacted me over the weekend to say he had no record of paying me for a story. I hadn’t been expecting payment until publication, but it’s always nice when an editor stays on top of things like that. When I logged the payment, which was sent moments after I confirmed it was due, I noticed another story published last year still has payment outstanding. I’m not always very diligent about staying on top of such matters, I’m afraid. Sometimes things slip between the cracks. A polite reminder sent off to the editor in question.
My coffee table stack of recent anthologies that contain one or more of my stories is growing. Currently I have Evolve, Dead Set and When the Night Comes Down. Soon to be added to the stack: Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, which has my contest-winning tale “The Fingernail Test.”
I finished Robert B. Parker’s Split Image and read most of Charlie Huston’s Already Dead this weekend. It’s the first of his Joe Pitt novels featuring a vampire who functions as something of a private investigator in the underworld. New York has been divided into vampire gang turfs, but Pitt is a “rogue,” not aligned with any of the gangs, and he survives only because he provides valuable services. Huston’s explanation of how vampires are created and exist (zombies, too), is interesting. I see elements that also come up in Sleepless, his most recent book. Not bad, though a little overcomplicated.
On Friday night we watched Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore’s latest movie. Though it contained a few interesting set pieces, I found it overall less satisfying than his earlier films. For one thing, I don’t share people’s indignation over companies taking out life insurance against their employees. Since it is legal for them to do so, I don’t know what the uproar is about. The family isn’t losing out, as far as I can see. I know it’s an emotionally charged issue, but it simply doesn’t bother me. Also, there’s a lot of gnashing of teeth over the bailout, but that’s old news and a lot of the money has been or will be paid back. It’s not a popular opinion these days, but I think the bailout served its purpose.
On Saturday, we watched Coco Avant Chanel, a biopic about the early years of Coco Chanel staring Amelie’s Audrey Tautou. It starts with Coco and her sister being dropped off at an orphanage, then jumps ahead a number of years to when she’s a young adult trying to sing in burlesque clubs. She insinuates herself into the home of a rich patron, who uses her as entertainment for his guests as she uses him as a lever to get to Paris. Along the way she falls in love with another man. From what I’ve read, it’s mostly fact based, though it glosses over a few incidents. It also doesn’t advance to the point where Chanel fell out of favor with the French because of her activities during the second world war. Tautou is quite good in this–Chanel is fairly grim for most of the film, but Tautou keeps her fascinating. The biggest problem I had with it was figuring out when things happened–how much time elapsed from one stage to the next, especially near the end.
I wasn’t as enthralled by the third episode of Doctor Who. I totally didn’t buy Winston Churchill. However, I do like Amy Pond a lot. She and the Doctor are becoming almost a team. She’s cheeky and bright and animated, and you can just see a lot going on behind those eyes of hers. Ashes to Ashes episode 3 was good. That DNC guy is a intriguing addition to the storyline, the way he keeps everything stirred up all the time. I think an entire episode went by without Alex cogitating one bit over her place out of time.
