My interview at Level Best Books went up today. Check it out. I talk a bit about setting stories in New England and about writing in general.
Isn’t that one of the most handsome covers you’ve ever seen? I think so. Click on the image to see a larger version. This is Deena Warner’s artwork for the collection of Hitchcock-inspired poems that will be out next year from Dark Scribe Press. It features my first-ever published poem, “24 Hour Psycho.”
People in the UK are reporting seeing the Stephen King biography that features interview segments with me. It’s on the Bio channel over there.
Today’s title is the name of one of Robin Sparkles’ songs on How I Met Your Mother. They make fun of the TV show she was on as a teenager, picking out all the lewd undertones, which is reminiscent of a real-life show from the sixties that was covertly very naughty. Alan Thicke was a guest star as the show-in-a-show’s host.
I forgot about this project, but apparently it is filming. Rise of the Apes, a prequel to Planet of the Apes, comes out next year. Based on the description it looks like a riff on Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. I also understand that most of the apes will be motion capture and CGI. Andy Serkis is performing as Caesar, the role created by Roddy McDowell. Some photos here.
I wrote my Storytellers Unplugged essay this morning. It will appear in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning.
I was amazed that a team on The Amazing Race could oversleep by a whole two hours and end up winning the segment. I think that’s the first time since I started watching the show that’s happened. Luck was on their side: the thirty minute penalty the other team sustained was enough to get them in first place. The bit about not paying taxi drivers to show them the way is a relatively new rule. It’s getting down to the wire now. I hope an all-girl team wins just to spite the volleyball team members, who are adamant that they don’t want any all-girl team to win this year if it couldn’t be them.
I don’t think I liked last week’s episode of Criminal Minds very much. It was one of those pastiche episodes that riffed off Psycho and Sunset Boulevard, but it didn’t work. Garcia being outed as a closet stage actress was lame, too, especially when she got stage fright about a press conference. The funniest part was Reid stuffing his face while entertaining the possibility that the unsub had eaten the victim’s lips.
This week’s House was good, with the possible smallpox case. House doesn’t often have a patient die on him. New kid on the block saves the day. She adds an interesting dynamic to the show. Based on the number of movie previews I see featuring Olivia Wilde’s name, I’d hazard a guess that she ain’t coming back any time soon. House’s quip of the evening: “I saved you from the horrible post-differential traffic jam.” And Wilson told one of his patients that he had to go see “a very sick man,” and we had no doubt who that was. Getting tired of the Cuddy drama, though. Talk it out, get over it.
Fi had an interesting way of storing her phone on Burn Notice. The cleavage pocket. She was also irked by the fact that some (other) psycho would be the first person to bring explosives into her new house, instead of her. Guess she didn’t have to worry about that long, given the fate of said new house. Jesse seems a little hotheaded and bitter. Maybe a loose cannon now. Michael’s mom, in response to why he did the things he did: “Whatever. Maybe you’ve got some repressed crap.” And when he asks her how she found a replacement set of sunglasses exactly like his old ones: “It’s called shopping. We all have our strengths.”
People are wondering whether Dexter and Lumen are going to get romantic.
Lumen now knows him better than just about anyone else, except perhaps his father. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” she asks. “How quickly you can get used to the supremely weird.” She knows that he would be in the room killing the bad guy even if he’d never met her. Dexter wonders if she can make him whole, which probably means that she can’t or won’t. “Can anyone live with the truth of what I am?” Maybe Deb (see below), but I fear that Lumen won’t.
I found myself wondering where (and when) Dexter gets his enlargements done. CVS? He always has big pictures of his victims’ victims. And where did all the suitcases come from? The ones he used to export the body from the hotel.
Dexter is fascinated by Deb’s lack of emotional response to shooting a bad person. “I’d empty a fucking magazine into him…okay, maybe that something worth talking [to the shrink] about.” I wonder if Deb is going to find out Dexter’s secret at some point, like she does in the books. Laguerta throwing Deb under the bus bodes ill for her job and for her marriage, especially since Angel grew a pair and plans to side with Deb. “You’re like my kid sister…but better, because I actually like you.” Deb has been falling behind on expletives this season. She caught up this week.
Liddy (G. Gordon? aka Peter Weller) plus telephoto lens equals Oh My.
