This morning I found a new market for the story that was rejected yesterday and then wrote a brand new 250-word flash fiction story for the CBC Literary Awards flash fiction contest. They provide a prompt of a few words for the beginning and a couple for the end and writers have to fill in the rest. I always enjoy little exercises like that, and this month’s prompt was appealing, starting as it did with a malevolently grinning snowman.
Received my six-month royalty statement from Penguin for The Road to the Dark Tower yesterday. Still moving copies six years after publication. Could earn out before I retire at this rate! Maybe the film release will breathe new life into it in 2013.
Eureka has a one-off Christmas special tonight. I’d almost forgotten about it. Everything else is reruns. Time to catch up on Men of a Certain Age, I guess.
The return of The Closer was entertaining. Once again Brenda got the bad guy to implicate himself through trickery. I have to wonder how many of those tricks there can possibly be before they run out. I’m glad they seem to be softening Raydor’s character a little. She was too much of an evil witch when introduced. Their con game on the reluctant witness was funny. Sanchez in a “blue hoodie.”
Nathan Fillion was going to live-Tweet last night’s episode of Castle, but apparently he fell asleep before it came on. The glamorous life of a successful actor. At least, I hope he didn’t fall asleep during the show. Nah—it was a pretty good one. Can’t imagine what his tweet might have been when Beckett surprised Castle by unfastening another button before they went into the bar, as he suggested.
It was good to see him doing some writerly things again—like, you know, actually writing. And taking notes when they were interviewing the former mobster. “This guy is gold.” I was about half a step a head of them before Castle found the hidden door. I figured the recently discovered basement must have held more than the new owner let on. Got a big kick out of the kid who mixed the old hootch with root beer. And at Beckett dousing Castle’s flame when he tried to jury rig a torch. “Not so fast, Indy,” she said, whipping out a flashlight instead.
The “drunkest murder suspect this year (including St. Patrick’s Day)” was a hoot, and the ending was over the top but so much fun, with Castle getting a bottle of the much-coveted booze and inviting the gang to head over to The Haunt to share it. It just happened to be nine o’clock on a Saturday, apparently (or 9:15, rather), which led him to start a sing-along of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” The men were all up for it, but it caught Beckett by surprise when they turned to her. One of the guys was a decent singer.
