So, it’s only been five weeks since my last post, so I consider that an improvement over the roughly half-year gap in 2021. Where to begin? Ok, business. I have a short story called “The Lagrange Point” in the anthology The Fans Are Buried Tales, edited by Peter and Kathleen David. The book was supposed to launch at a science fiction convention this year, but the target convention isn’t doing COVID restrictions and Peter is immune compromised, so instead he switched to the Kickstarter model to pay his contributors. The fundraiser goals are essentially people buying copies of the book, and we’re already about 1/4 of the way to the target. If you’re interested, here is the link. The anthology combines the concept of The Canterbury Tales with cosplayers stuck in a convention hotel by a blizzard. It’s great fun!
“Lucifer!” by E.C. Tubb, one of the stories Stephen King and I included in Flight or Fright, will be adapted into a feature film called 52 Seconds, starring Morgan Freeman. Filming is set to begin in April in Louisiana. Although we played no part in this (other than maybe someone saw the story in the anthology), it’s very exciting!
I’m still sitting on my big news about a book scheduled for September publication, waiting for the green light (and cover art) from the publisher. I have a couple of other short story acceptances that I’m reserving mention of until I get the contract or approval from the respective editors.
I signed up for a 30-day free trial of Showtime so I could binge through Yellowjackets and Dexter: New Blood. The former is like a cross between Lost and Lord of the Flies. A group of high school girls, members of a soccer team who’ve just won their state championship, are en route to nationals when their plane goes down in the Canadian Rockies and they aren’t found for over a year and a half. Only one adult survives the crash. Where Lost focused on the lives of stranded people before their plane crashed, Yellowjackets deals with the survivors 25 years afterward. The first season ends with many questions unanswered, and the most ominous possibilities for what will happen to the stranded girls have yet to be fully realized. It’s gripping, compelling and I want Season 2 now!
Dexter: New Blood is less compelling, alas. It takes place 10 years after the end of the series and Dexter is now living in upstate New York, working in a sports store in a small town, and dating the local sheriff (who bears a startling resemblance to his dead sister Deb). The son he sent off to South America has managed to track him down (everyone else believes he died in the hurricane), setting a series of events in motion. Of course there’s a serial killer in this small town, too. If we treat Dexter’s illness as an addiction, he has a major relapse. Now, instead of seeing visions of his dead foster father, he is haunted by Deb, which is probably the best part of the series. Deb and her creatively foul mouth. I also quite liked the sheriff, who turns out to be a perceptive cop, and could see her leading a series of her own.
I also watched the Danish series The Chestnut Man on Netflix, which is quite good, and caught up with the first half of Ozark, Season 4, which continues to be tense, brutal and compelling. Every now and then I watch an episode or three of Night Court, which is free on IMDb-TV. I loved that show when it first ran and it stands up pretty well considering its age. A season 2 episode features Ray Walston from My Favorite Martian as an eccentric judge hearing a complaint about Harry Stone’s performance in the courtroom. It is genuinely funny with an unexpected gut-punch of emotion toward the end, something the show always managed to do so well.
Last night we watched Carole King and James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name on HBO Max. King and Taylor went on tour in 2010 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their first concert together, at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. They’re both in their sixties but, boy, do they still have it. Such great, uplifting songs. They rounded up a few of their original band from the 1970 tour, including bassist Leland Sklar (you probably would recognize him from Phil Collins videos) and drummer Russ Kunkel. We enjoyed every second of it.
I watched Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, starring just about everyone. It wasn’t all what I expected, and certainly the last 30 minutes went in a very different direction from what I was anticipating/fearing. Pure noir, with some great performances. Not a feel-good movie, though. Noir never ends well. You just never know how bad it’s going to get.
Last weekend we watched The French Dispatch. Interesting but challenging. Mind-bending. We also watched Norwegian Wood, based on the Haruki Murakami novel. I’m getting near the end of Killing Commendatore, his most recent novel, which I’m reading to my wife. “There’s some strange shit going on,” was one of her most recent comments about the book. It’s long but it’s engrossing. An artist who is caretaking a house once owned by a famous Japanese painter finds a painting hidden in the attic. As soon as he unwraps it, strangeness of the sort that only Murakami can create is unleashed. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to describe a book that has an animate Idea (also a Metaphor)!
I’ve done a couple of interviews recently. What is the Stephen King Universe? went up on January 9 and I did another interview for the same channel in which we discuss Billy Summers, although that one hasn’t been posted yet. Then I was on Dark Tower Radio Episode 120: Dark Tower III The Wastelands Palaver. Brian Keene and I will record an episode of the Writers on Wax podcast at the end of the month to discuss the influence of music on our writing and, in particular, Dissonant Harmonies.
I did a length update for News from the Dead Zone at the end of January. Next Tuesday, my review of Gwendy’s Button Box will go up there. I interviewed King and Chizmar about the book a while back, but I’m not yet sure where that will appear. Stay tuned!
