My write-up of the Dollar Baby Film Festival at Comicpalooza is now up at FEARnet.
I really meant to submit a story to Fearful Symmetry, but a lack of time and inspiration thwarted my plans. This week I did manage to get a 3500-word first draft of a new story finished, but the more I worked on it the less it seemed suited to a horror anthology. I haven’t even had time to read through it from beginning to end yet. I sent it to a buddy who generally likes my stories and he didn’t care of it one bit. He told me at quite some length all the things he didn’t like about it! I’m going to put it aside for the time being because I have an essay to finish up before I set my sights on the novel. I’ll get back to it in due course.
My doctor recommended something called “reformer pilates” as a core exercise to strengthen my back muscles and reduce the chronic pain I’ve been experiencing for a few years. He said he didn’t have any “sexy solutions” to the issue. I’m willing to give it a shot, even though some of the machines that are used look like torture devices. Reformer pilates uses springs and benches, apparently. He didn’t recommend mat pilates since much of the work there is aided by gravity and doesn’t provide the same sort of core body strength. I was amused to see that the Wikipedia page for “pilates” had the following note at the top: This article is about the physical fitness system. For its inventor, see Joseph Pilates. For the Roman governor, see Pontius Pilate.
The other night I watched the Doctor Who Revisited episode about the fifth doctor, the one that I consider “my doctor.” The one I used when I wrote a story for Doctor Who: Destination Prague. Then I watched the classic episode “Earthshock,” which I hadn’t seen since I watched the entire Peter Davison run as prep for writing “Leap Second.” A solid Cybermen episode with a shocking conclusion.
We’re in the doldrum period between the finales of the regular season and the beginning of the summer season. My DVR only has nine shows listed on the schedule for the next two weeks, and that’s including the return of The Killing, Burn Notice and Major Crimes. I’m enjoying the new Canadian series Motive but it’s on hiatus until after the NBA playoffs are over. Haven’t had a chance to see last night’s Hannibal yet, but I hear the series has been picked up for another year, which is great news. Also hear that Firefly’s Jewel Staite will be on The Killing this season. Hopefully not killed during the opening credits.
It’s hard to believe that World Horror is less than two weeks away. It’s always seemed a long way off and now it’s almost here. I have a fairly full slate of activities. I’m introducing the Grand Master at the opening ceremony, have a reading on Friday at 10 am and panels at 9 am and 3 pm. I’ll also be manning the HWA booth on Saturday from 5-6.
