Spent the entire morning session vetting editorial comments for a short story that will be published shortly. Quite a lot of tracked changes, most of which I’m okay with, but I need to make sure that the few deletions don’t cause continuity problems. Hope to get it back to the editor tomorrow.
The sequel to the date-less check story I mentioned earlier. I got it back from the bank, filled in the missing date and redeposited it today. Thanks to a change in the exchange rate, I got $1.20 more this time than I did last week.
Shivers VI received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The anthology contains my story “It is the Tale,” which is one of the “other 18” referenced in the review, the closing line of which says, “The uniformly high quality of writing makes this volume a must for any horror fan.” The second printing of the trade paperback is nearly sold out.
An excellent episode of Survivor last night. What were the odds of both contestants hitting blind matches right out of the gate? Something like 350,000 to 1, I’d guess. Rob continues to impress with the way he’s thinking the game through from all angles. I liked the grin on his face when he threw the hidden immunity idol over his shoulder into the active volcano, like a sacrifice to the gods. Philip had another mini-meltdown this week, all over a spoonful of crispy rice. If he really was a secret agent, I think we now know how foreign agents might have extracted information from him. Just dismiss him as irrelevant, treat him like the “red-headed stepchild” and he’ll cave in a minute. Rob’s tribe got off to a bad start, but they’re in the driver’s seat now, especially if Matt comes back after the merge. Rob has the idol. I’ve forgotten where the other one is. Is there still one hidden at the other camp? Jeff Strand will know! Jeff!
The first post-Prentiss episode of Criminal Minds was decent, too. Again the camera lied to us, but not for too long, and I forgave it after we got the perspective without the delusions. One of the more interesting depictions of a mental illness. Can you imagine having people jabbering at your relentlessly like that, especially if they’re telling you to do bad things.
