Finished up revisions to the second short story that I had to proof this week and got it back to the editor. That’s probably about as much writing work as I’ll get done today. Got some very good news from my agent yesterday afternoon, which means I’ll probably have to shift gears for a while before long. I did finish up my review of Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale, too.
A detailed review of Shivers VI appears at Dark Scribe. Every story is covered. The reviewer calls my story “gruesome and gleeful.”
Lots of people getting in on the act for April Fool’s yesterday. My favorites included the report that the long-lost John D. MacDonald final Travis McGee novel had been found (on the sunken remains of the Busted Flush), Gmail’s “Motion” product announcement, and WestJet’s plan to push helium through the air vents to lighten planes and save money. The fake announcement of Dark Tower cast members (including Oprah Winfrey, Ray Romano and Justin Beiber) was taken more seriously than one might have expected.
Torchwood is back this July on Starz after a far-too-long hiatus. A teaser trailer has been released for the new season, Miracle Day. It makes me think of that old zombie movie line about there being no more room in hell so the dead start walking the earth. This is the opposite: what happens if no one ever dies again? Bad news, one can’t help but thinking.
This week’s The Mentalist was one of the better episodes. Patrick stepped out of himself for a bit and showed that he was capable of caring for another human being: medical examiner Steiner, with whom he’s crossed paths before. However, Patrick determines during this new meeting that Steiner is ill so he invites him to join them on the case. Sort of a last hurrah, a last adventure. He treated Steiner (albeit at someone else’s expense) to fine scotch and Cuban cigars in a room unlike any Steiner had ever seen before. The final scene, with Patrick performing a truly symbolic piece of magic as Steiner dies was well done. The murder of the week was so-so, although I liked the scene where the con man tried to convince Cho that he had been a victim of alien abduction. The Rigsby/Van Pelt stuff is feeling a little old. Why shouldn’t she marry the FBI guy? And if her fiancé flaked a little during the shootout, so what?
Blue Bloods was okay. I like the Reagan family dynamics more and more. However, they really defanged the drug lord. He was supposed to be such a hard case and his organization virtually unassailable, and yet people were coughing up addresses and locations left and right with nary a water board in sight. It felt like this could have been a two-part episode that was crammed into one.
