I received a very nice check in the mail last night from my agent for the second printing of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion. The neat thing about the way this project worked was that B&N bought all the copies from the printing, so there are no returns, no earning out of advances. Sweet deal.
I found the first review of Thin Ice today, on the blog Connie’s Reviews. She has some nice things to say about my story: “‘The Bank Job’ by Bev Vincent is a very cleverly written plot with the story centering on the power of loyalty and friendship among men. Vincent’s story is one of my favorites and I thoroughly enjoyed the humor he injects in his cast of characters. The story sound so ‘Jersey’ I loved it! A quite unusual story.”
I heard today that AMC isn’t going to renew Rubicon. Bummer.
It’s rare for something to happen on a TV program to make me jump, but I admit I jumped when Ray touched the two women in the bed on CSI last night and they came to life. They never really explained the amount of blood on the bed to my satisfaction. I know head wounds bleed, but not that much. The second storyline, with Sylvester and Tweety as the culprits, was funny. I had a hunch Tweety made the 911 call, but I liked the way it played out.
Some programs seem to have general thematic repetitions this season. With NCIS, it has been fathers. With Law & Order: SVU it’s been women that Elliott Stabler can’t stand. Last week it was Marcia Gay Harden as the FBI agent who keeps blowing him up and this week it was Christine Lahti as the recovering alcoholic D.A. He absolutely cannot help himself from bringing up her drunken past when he’s frustrated with her. He works for a division that handles sensitive cases, but he’s never been terribly sensitive. I liked the idea of a club called The Library near campus, so students could call their parents and tell them honestly that they were at the library. Elliott’s daughter schooled him on legal procedures. Lahti’s character got off the zinger of the night when the perp tried to say he was using a drug as an alternate to Viagra, calling it a “limp cock and bull story.”
Simon Baker directed this week’s episode of The Mentalist. Other than a couple of unusual cuts, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so I guess he did a good job. I had to laugh at Lisbon’s reaction to the deer they encountered: Does it bite? I’ve seen that sheriff’s office before on this show in a different context. Must be part of the TV company’s backlot. Having the guy who used to be Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager play a fake psychic trying to out-Patrick Patrick was fun, right down to the familiar pats on the shoulder. The episode featured another Star Trek alum, too. The fire at the end was a huge surprise. I half expected the guy to have cut his own throat and painted a Red John smiley face on the wall, but not that. Tiger, tiger, burning bright indeed.
The wisdom of Sam Axe: I ever tell you you’re the reason I drink? Plus, “You know what always cheers me up? Stealing a chemical weapon from a bunch of crazy South Americans.” But the quotable moment of this week’s episode of Burn Notice came at the end when Michael’s mother Maddy set him and Jesse straight about their little feud. “I’m not talking about closure. I’m talking about good old-fashioned gutting it out. You know what families do when people lie and betray each other? They suck it up and they move on. If you’re good, shake on it. If you’re not…too bad. Shake anyway.”
