I finally got a handle on the short story that was the motivation for last week’s Storytellers Unplugged essay. I started writing it yesterday morning and by the end of today’s writing session was about 80% of the way through and I have a good idea of how it is will end, so that should happen tomorrow morning. Then I’ll spend the rest of the week revising it before sending it out, a week before deadline.
I did a lot (a lot) of research for this one, and almost none of it will wind up on the page. And yet every bit of it will, too, since it informs the whole story. That’s hard to explain, but the story became what it is because of what I learned about the setting. If the upper limit for the story were longer, I might have made more direct use of the research, but I simply don’t have the space, and I don’t think that’s at all a bad thing. Not in the least.
After that I intend to leap straight into another story, assuming inspiration strikes again. I have the setup in mind; I’m just not sure where it’s going to lead yet. C’est normal.
I’m about a third of the way through The Five by Robert McCammon. As is my habit of late, I haven’t read any of the reviews nor the dust jacket copy, so I have no idea what to expect. I don’t even know for sure if this is going to be a supernatural novel or not. There is a hint of something fantastic in one scene in a blackberry field, but I don’t know if that’s going to be developed or not. It’s rocking all just fine without it at this point.
I posted my review of Don Winslow’s Satori, which is an authorized back story of the main character in Trevanian’s Shibumi. Winslow meets Fleming meets Ludlum.
We’re four or five episodes into the second season of Six Feet Under. I’m not as bowled over by this series as I was by Deadwood, but it’s interesting all the same. Will be curious to see how Nate’s illness plays out over the ensuing seasons.
I thought this week was going to be the finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, but I guess there’s one more episode next week. It will be interesting to see what happens in Goran’s final therapy session. They sure rode the Spider-Man debacle hard in this one. No pussy-footing around what they were lampooning whatsoever. They named names. I figured out who the killer was, though, by his pretentious nature. Dramaturge indeed.
The second episode of Men of a Certain Age was better than the first, I thought. Less cringe-worthy, though there were some uncomfortable moments as there always were. I liked the bit about asking Joe’s employee to play on the softball team, and Terry’s showdown between two women during the game. I was sure someone was going to get mowed down.
I can’t say I’m entirely happy with the way The Killing wrapped up for the season. We never promised we’d answer the show’s fundamental question, the producers said afterwards. Crap. Who needs another cliffhanger. I was pretty sure that the politician wasn’t the culprit, but now we have no idea who it is, still, except that it obviously wasn’t the same person who did it in the Danish version. And Linden’s partner: what the hell? His story is way different than the analog in the original. There are still plenty of things from the original to mine next season (I guess there will be one, right?) but I’m not happy that we have to wait until then, whenever then is, to see what they decide to do.
