I’m off to Necon in a couple of days. I have a Kaffeeklatsch on Friday at 10 am, where William Carl, Frank Michaels Errington, Tony Tremblay, Frank Raymond Michaels and I discuss the best books we read since this time last year.
Later that afternoon I’ll be interviewed for the Taco Society Presents as part of the launch of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, the anthology containing my short story “Truth or Dare?”, which debuts at Necon. The antho can be pre-ordered on Amazon right now! 100% of all proceeds will be donated to The Jimmy Fund. Many of the contributors will be at Necon, so we’ll be signing the anthology during the mass signing on Friday evening.
We watched an odd movie last weekend: Certain Women. It consists of three (very) loosely linked stories set in Montana. It stars Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart, and the odd thing about the film is that these aren’t exactly stories. They start out with interesting premises, but ultimately they don’t go anywhere. It has a vaguely Lynchian feel, mostly because of the long, awkward pauses in dialog (especially at the very end of the third vignette, which is pretty much ALL pause.
Speaking of odd, I watched Bordertown on Netflix, a Finnish crime series (11 parts that comprise five stories) set in a small city on the border with Russia, near St. Petersburg. The main character, Kari, is one of those intuitive detectives who can put all the pieces together like Sherlock Holmes does. Kari’s trick is a memory mansion, in which he lays out a grid with tape on the basement floor and moves around from segment to segment while he envisions evidence. He also has a repertoire of odd hand gestures (he tends to grip his head). Physically, he reminds me more than a bit of Graham Joyce. Some of the stories get wrapped up a little too quickly for my liking, but it’s an interesting series. One of the other main characters is a former FSB agent who ends up in Finland because of the first case and stays on.
I was very pleased to find out who would be playing Doctor Who next. Jodie Whittaker was excellent in Broadchurch, and I’m sure she’ll bring something fascinating to the show. Alas, we have to wait nearly half a year to see her in action.
