I finally got around to starting to read Peter Straub’s novella “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” which will appear in Conjunctions #56: Terra Incognita: The Voyage Issue. As you may recall, Peter gave me the manuscript of this 16,000 word novella at World Horror. It’s been sitting on the pull out drawer of my desk ever since, and I keep meaning to get to it and for one reason or another I didn’t, until now. The novella takes place at various different times on board a boat (or, rather, boats) on the Amazon. Ballard and Sandrine are lovers, though Ballard is a good twenty years older than Sandrine. The setting is mysterious. They never see anyone else on the boat, though their meals are provided for them at specific times. They hear chirping sounds that they believe is the language of their servants. There are strict rules about where they can go on the boat and when. And then there’s this room with a gurney where violence transpires. I’ve read three time periods so far (the story is non-linear) and it seems almost like a type of purgatory. They have vague memories about things they did in the past…but memory can get vague with time, can’t it? The boat seems the same, but it has a different name in each time frame. Fascinating story. One of my favorite lines is a favorite because of the way it is punctuated. Books are shelved in one room, but all the dust jackets have been removed “which he minded, a bit.” For some reason, I love that comma.
Signed the contract for the essay I’ll have in next year’s Stephen King desk calendar. Great gig.
Took part in a Twitter chat with Justin Cronin yesterday. He’s promoting the paperback release of The Passage, which contains a sneak preview of the second book, The Twelve, which won’t be out until summer 2012. The only problem with a Twitter chat is that to anyone who follows your feed it must seem like eavesdropping on one side of a telephone conversation.
Stumbled upon the second period of the playoff game between Boston and Tampa Bay last night. It was 2-1 for Tampa, though apparently Boston dominated 19:30 of the first period and put one of the two goals against them thus far into the net themselves. By the end of the second, it was 6-3 for Boston. Great period. Some of Boston’s goals were beautiful. Excellent passing, perfect execution. They ultimately won the game 6-5, but I didn’t stick with it past the second period.
Some interesting teases in the season finale of How I Met Your Mother. Lily’s pregnant, thereby providing the life to balance off the death of Marshall’s father. Barney will, someday, get married (and apparently that’s also the day that Ted will finally meet the eponymous mother). They faked us out a bit with the woman who received the orchid (instead of Zoe). And Robin is clearly not over Barney and, perhaps, vice versa. Since she’s “Aunt Robin,” should one assume that she might be the unseen bride?
Gibbs’ rule #16: if someone thinks he has the upper hand, break it. For most of this season of NCIS, Gibbs has been building something in his basement. That’s not unusual; he always has a boat in progress. However, this year it was different, though we never got to see what it was until last night. Seems Mike Franks’ death wasn’t totally unexpected (as I suspected after last week) and Gibbs was building his coffin. Friends help friends hide the body, I guess. Lots of action and surprises in the finale. Biggest surprise was the way the P2P killer surrendered himself, though that proved to be a tactic to get inside NCIS. We learned that EJ was the daughter of SECNAV (you think she might have mentioned that, Tony, her lover, mused). She also dug some sort of transponder or microchip out of her dead agent’s body. We can only assume that will come up again. Things usually do. Then there’s Tony’s new assignment at the very end, courtesy of the new SECNAV. Apparently the name in the file is someone we know…but who?
Speaking of NCIS, apparently the real deal is now involved in the case of that child’s body discovered in Berwick, Maine.
