The Spirit of Poe is now available for Kindle. Only $3.99.
I finished the second and third drafts of the new story I’m getting ready to submit. The first version was 5100 words and the third was 4100. Most of the wordage went in the second draft. I’ll read it over once or twice more tomorrow and then get it off to the publisher. The new title works on so many levels. I love it when that happens.
I finished reading Something Wicked This Way Comes to my wife and then read Farewell Summer, the “official” sequel to Dandelion Wine. It’s a slight book: I read the whole thing in about an hour and a half. Slight in a lot of ways. It’s certainly not top-shelf Bradbury. Sometimes it’s hard to go back home again. One thing I would say the three books have in common: They all have characters who either want to stay the age they are now (Doug), get older (Jim), become younger (Will’s father), or convince people to mature (Quartermain). For a change of pace, and to give my tongue a break from Bradbury’s challenging sentences, I’m reading These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach to my wife. It was the basis for the recent film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
We caught up on Longmire (only two episodes left to go this season) and watched Sideways. We’d seen it before, but now that we’ve visited the California wine district, I thought we’d get more out of it a second time. Plus we didn’t remember a lot about it. The male characters aren’t terribly likable. One’s a sad sack and the other is a teenager in adult clothes. Virginia Madsen is always good, and I like Sandra Oh, because she’s usually so different from her Grey’s Anatomy character in movies. The way the movie ends is intriguing. It’s like a literary short story that concludes at the moment of potential change. The hand rapping at the door. Who will answer and how will he be received?
Another good mystery on Inspector Lewis last night. I liked the line about how a clue is just another word for someone else’s mistakes. I had a good idea who the killer was about halfway through, though I didn’t know what his motivation was. I liked how it all tied together. There were fewer red herrings this week, but they were well handled. Poor Lewis. So caught up with the past that he’s not willing to move on with his life.
So far, Season 5 of Breaking Bad is very much the season of Mike. He’s taking charge, doing damage control and basically making sure everything doesn’t blow up. He and Walt have formed an uneasy alliance. Mike knows Walt is bad news and Walt thinks he’s controlling Mike. Things are sure to come to a head. Poor Jesse. He’s come up with some good ideas this season (the magnet, the internal tent that he remembered from Mexico), but he’s still a babe in the woods. Walt planted a poisonous seed of doubt in his mind about his girlfriend that grew so fast he broke up with her. And what does Jesse make of Walt’s reminiscences about Victor. Is he another underling who might be flying too close to the sun?
After five seasons, Skyler finally told Marie what we’ve all wanted to say to her all along. And she did it so well! She’s reached her breaking point…and what will come of that? I thought she’d go nuclear when she saw the baby on Walt’s lap while they were watching Scarface, but she seems impotent. Apparently Bryan Cranston came up with Walt’s line (today’s title) on his own during filming, though it sounds like a prediction for the series.
And who knew Pete could play serious piano?
