I finished my latest manuscript at about 9:30 pm on Sunday, April 1. That’s about an hour and a half ahead of my deadline. It worked out just right. I put in two more 14-hour days on Saturday and Sunday and I needed every minute of it. I got down to the last two chapters thinking they would be a breeze to revise since they’d already been edited before, but I discovered that I’d had a brain fart at some point and the last quarter of the second last chapter covered the exact same ground as the first part of the last chapter. Sometimes in almost the same words. So I had to pick the best parts from each and rewrite the last chapter.
Anyhow, it’s done and in the hands of my editor. Now I wait to hear his thoughts. My schedule was such that I never had a chance to print out the whole manuscript before I submitted it. I sent it off to Kinko’s on Monday, so now I have the physical things in my hands for the first time. It’s big.
Cemetery Dance is shipping Crane House this month. This is a round-robin novella featuring Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Al Sarrantonio, Rick Hautala, Brian Freeman, James A. Moore, James Newman, Ronald Kelly, Norman Prentiss, Ray Garton and me. My contribution was fairly early in the process, so I have no idea how the story ended. The book, alas, is completely sold out.
I’ve spent the last few days kicking back and catching up on TV shows from the DVR. Finally saw the last two episodes of Alcatraz. It ended with a very Lost-like scene of a guy gibbering “What year is it?” I don’t think anyone believes for a minute that Madsen’s dead. Good to see Lucy back and engaged in the story again. She’s a good character.
I was amused when Sofie Gråbøl showed up in a cameo as her character on the Danish version of The Killing in a recent Ab Fab. Then there she is again as a district attorney in the US version of the show, though less recognizable. I still believe that the Danish version is oodles better than the remake, but I’m hanging in there to see what they do with it. It’s fairly obvious by now that the killer from the original is not the killer in the US version.
Good to see Mad Men back again after a long, long hiatus. Everyone seems to have found their way back into their characters, with the exception of Betty Draper. Beyond the weight gain (which was written into the story to cover up January Jones’s real-life pregnancy), her whole attitude seemed very un-Betty. Little Sally’s voice seems to have changed, too. I hope Don doesn’t do something stupid in his relationship with Megan, who is trying so hard. She’s good for him and hopefully he’ll notice. All the other drama is normal operating procedure.
Fringe took a turn for the even weirder this week with the introduction of what is basically a New World Order plot. Olivia was quite correct in saying that working for Fringe division causes a person to completely revise their interpretation of the word “weird.” I was quite convinced on at least two occasions that Lincoln wasn’t going to get out of the episode alive (or at least unmutated), but he seems to have survived. I hope the show gets picked up for another season so they can wrap all this stuff up.
Down to just one more episode of Justified. One of the amazing things about the Robert Quarles character is how he can pick himself up when necessary, even after having just ingested a massive amount of drugs. I could have done without the drug subplot, though. It doesn’t contribute much, especially since it doesn’t particularly impair him. I really like how they’ve tied so much together. Loretta, seen briefly at the beginning, is back (Marshall? Do I strike you in any way as a Van Halen fan?). Arlo’s illness is now coming into play (he called Boyd “Raylan” this week). All of Limehouse’s machinations are bearing fruit. He’s eliminating the competition but also arranging so that he’s out of the spotlight again, which is what he wants most, I think. Dicky got his comeuppance, though not the one Boyd and Arlo might have wished. I do question Boyd’s wisdom in repeatedly make the mistake of leaving dangerous people in the custody of others ill-suited to handle the situation (Two saddest words in the English language: What Party?”). Twice this week, bad guys got away. The whole bank job turned out to be a French farce, with everyone in on it and no one actually planning to do it. Alas, the poor cop who missed his kid’s ball game ended up with the short end of the stick. The big question at the end of the episode is: Where’s Boyd? On Quarles’ trail?
