I finished my first new short story in a while. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks and doing the necessary research, but it took me a while to get around to putting pen to paper. On Friday morning, I wrote the first half of the story longhand. Then, when I was in the shower, I realized that I had begun the story in the wrong place. Usually this means that I’ve started it too soon, but in this case I started it too late. So during breakfast I wrote another several hundred words. I finished the first draft, a very rough draft, that evening.
Since then I’ve been proofing and revising it mercilessly. Generally my stories get shorter upon revision, but this one got longer by about a third. It took me a while to get everything to flow the way I wanted it to. Lots of awkward transitions. But I finally got it to the place where it was time to let it go, so I submitted it this morning.
I have a couple of other short stories I want to write. I have a long flight ahead of me this weekend, so I’ll probably get a little writing done then, as well as a lot of reading. I’m about ⅔ of the way through the third Game of Thrones novel. I just reached the Red Wedding, which I’d heard about when it happened on the TV series. The funny thing is that I expected it to take place during Joffrey’s wedding, not when it actually did, so I was quite taken by surprise. I’ve been studiously avoiding all the spoilers out there, especially this week after the finale. I know that Joffrey will get his due, but I really don’t know much else about what’s going to happen, so I’m enjoying this immensely. I’m a few episodes into the second season of the TV series, too. Now I know how to imagine Brienne of Tarth.
I saw all of the Lord of the Rings movies when they came out in the theater and have the extended cut DVDs of all three. Also went to see the first two Hobbit movies but, for some reason, when the third one came out I didn’t get around to seeing it. A couple of months ago I stumbled across it on HBO and recorded it. I had some free time on the weekend, so I finally decided to watch it. I think Game of Thrones has spoiled me. That TV series looks so grim but real, whereas the world of The Hobbit feels fake to me now. I was acutely aware of the special effects, and the dialog felt stagey and artificial. About 45 minutes into it, I’d had enough, and I deleted it from the DVR. I’d also recorded Mad Max: Fury Road, which I saw in the theater when it came out, so I watched that instead. I liked it very much the first time, and I think I got even more out of it the second time. Good film.
I finished The Path on Hulu. An okay series, but I’m not sure I’ll bother with the second season. I watched the first episode of the new Orange is the New Black and will probably continue with it this week. Saw the two-hour premiere of the second season of Aquarius and the second episode. I think Hodiak (David Duchovny) is one of my new favorite cops. They’ve given him some terrific lines. The first episode of Queen of the South was okay. It reminded me a little of Burn Notice. Based on the previews, it looks like the rest of the season will take place in America, whereas in the novel, Teresa hid out in Europe. The new season of Murder in the First is off to a good start. Imagine having your lover as the prosecutor against you in a vehicular homicide case! And I’ve seen TV shows that rip stories from the headlines before, but never so blatantly as on this week’s Rizzoli and Isles, where the story was based on the Michael Peterson case that was documented so well in The Staircase back in 2004. I wrote about the documentary back in January. Peterson is a novelist whose wife reportedly died after falling down the stairs and a friend of the family died under suspiciously similar circumstances a number of years earlier.
I’m off to see the new Independence Day movie with my buddy Danel Olson tonight. I have modest expectations of the film.
