One thing I’ve discovered in the writing life: if you query a market about a long overdue submission, chances are you won’t get good news in return. The story in question was submitted to a specific issue of a magazine not due to be released until Spring 2011, so I was patient, thinking they wouldn’t necessarily make final decisions until late this year. But when I pinged them today I found out that they weren’t going to take my story. However, they had some encouraging words about it—it just wasn’t a fit with the other stories in this themed issue.
The folks involved with Level Best Books and the Al Blanchard Award sent out a stream of press releases this week about the Thin Ice anthology and the award. At least one made it to a receptive ear: The Woodlands author wins prize for crime story, with accompanying photo.
Two out of the final three teams in The Amazing Race are all female. In fact, five of the remaining six contestants are. There’s never been an all-female winning team. That might change next week. Team Tattoo were never in it during the final leg. Their six hour penalty made them miss the best flight, and they were nine hours behind the others when they got to Korea.
Down to the wire on Dexter and everything’s starting to go sideways. Dexter got on the wrong scent when he thought it was Quinn who was on his trail. That false trail might be Quinn’s undoing yet. Liddy was his friend, Deb has seen them together. The signout log for the electronics is under Quinn’s signature and Liddy’s blood ended up on Quinn’s shoe. That’s not going to look very good for him. Poor guy. Just when he found the guts to man up with Deb and tell her she was just like another guy. “You don’t play games where I have to figure out what it is you’re thinking. You just say it. Usually with a lot of really filthy words that I’ve never heard before.”
Idle musing: When does Dexter ever find time to work?
And then there’s Deb, who begrudgingly admires the supposed vigilante and her loving, supportive friend. It takes devotion to kill someone together, she says. That’s some pretty serious shit. What word would you use to describe that but love? I’m willing to bet that Deb discovers Dexter’s secret next week. That would make for an interesting story next year, and the show was just renewed for season six.
Lumen apologizes to Dexter for putting him in the position of having to lie to Deb. (Not the first time he’s had to do that, he says.) He apologizes for putting her in danger. (She’s had worse, she says.) When they go shopping, he doesn’t buy her jewelry, he buys her a nifty little pocket knife. They hang off each other while they use toy soldiers to plot out their next murder. Surely it’s love.
Funniest scene of the show: Liddy telling Dexter’s nanny to go ahead and get a magician for Harrison’s birthday party. Jordan is unraveling, blowing a gasket. For the first time he has to get his hands dirty. And bloody. “Is this the only kind of love I’ll ever find?” Dexter wonders as he tracks the drops. “The kind that ends in blood?”
The six-part run of The Walking Dead is history, and we have to wait until this time next year for its continuation. We start with a flashback showing that a hospital is a bad place to be when the zombie infection starts and end with a live scene showing that the CDC is a bad place to be when the clock runs to zero and the power goes off. No zombie-related deaths, but one actress quit her job by deciding to stay behind when “facility-wide decontamination” starts.
What do we think the doctor whispered to Rick? How about the possibility that Rick’s wife is pregnant? The day will come when Rick won’t be so grateful to the doctor for figuring that out, if that’s the case, although it took a long time to convey that message if that’s all it was.
I liked the computer-generated demonstration of the death and zombie resurrection. I also got a kick out of Rick’s kid’s reaction to sipping wine. My daughter did the exact same thing back in the day. Ewwwww. And the things men leave in their pockets when they throw their pants in the laundry basket. Were did I put my hand grenade? I do have one story logic question, though. If they’re so short on gasoline, why are they driving five vehicles?
My favorite bit, though, was when Rick tells his wife they don’t have to be afraid any more. They’re safe here, he says. This just minutes after Shane attacked her. We’ve seen the enemy and he is us. Shit, the survivors can’t even listen to the doc’s request to go easy on the hot water. Except for Daryl. I think he went very easy on the hot water…by avoiding the shower all together.
Ominous words: this is our extinction event. This is what takes us down. It will be interesting to see how this picks up next fall. Some people are a little miffed by how the series is diverging from the graphic novel but not me. I’ve never read the graphic novel.
The Closer is back. That was one nasty fight Lt. Flynn got into at the beginning of the episode. Guy brought a knife to a gun fight, fortunately. Chief Pope to Brenda: Ah, good. Proceed with your outrage.
