It is surprisingly difficult to deem a short story “finished” and to send it out into the world. My writing progress for the weekend consisted of taking a 4300 word short story and turning it into a 4000 word story. This is part of writing: unwriting, or editing, or revising. I don’t know how many distinct drafts I created over the weekend. At least three in print and maybe six or seven on the computer. I finally decided I had reached the point where it was time to set it free, so I submitted it. It went to a cool “tie-in” project, so fingers crossed.
I’m working my way through The Abominable by Dan Simmons. It’s a big, dense books, so it’s taking a while. I’m about 400 pages in (out of ~650). Like The Terror, it is a “cold” book. Frostbite cold, at times. I’m working my way up Mount Everest at the moment. The detail of what it’s like to climb a mountain is amazing.
I’m not sure my heart can withstand five more episodes of Breaking Bad and three more of Dexter.
The big events out of this week’s Breaking Bad were the “confession” and Jesse’s awakening from his trance. Of course Hank’s “interview” with Jesse went nowhere (too soon). This led to the most awkward double date ever and the handing over of the damning video, which has just enough truth in it to make it hard to refute, even if Marie thinks the optimal solution is for Walt to kill himself. Of course Walt had to figure out what Jesse told Hank and of course he’d try to play him like a violin, but finally Jesse said, “enough” and called Walt on his BS. It’s impossible to tell whether the hug was real or not. The bit with the cigarette pack was a little too subtle, if you ask me. Confused a lot of people, judging by online commentary, primarily because the connection between Saul’s bodyguard and the ricin cigarette has never been underscored. Still, Aaron Paul had two of the best scenes of the series, one with Walt and one with Saul. And yet I think he’s not going to strike the match. Walt’s house didn’t looked burned in the semi-season’s cold opening. Speaking of cold—I’d be afraid that vending machine gun would blow up if fired.
I was hoping Dexter and Hannah would make it to Argentina, but now that they’ve stated that as their plan with three episodes to go, I doubt that’s going to happen. I loved the dinner scene between Hannah and Deb. That was priceless. I had my suspicions about his neighbor’s boyfriend, but never made the connection to the brain surgeon. The preview that contains scenes from the last three episodes is dizzying. It looks like everyone is going to be involved, including Deb’s boss, who has been floating along without having much import through these first nine. It looks like U.S. Marshall Curtis Lemansky (sic) wandered in from an episode of The Shield.
