I made two more editing passes through my newest short story, one with a pen last night and one on-screen this morning. I keep finding better ways of saying things. Word choice seems especially important in this story, for some reason. It always is, but I feel like I’m circling in on the best words in a lot of places and not quite there yet. I can’t submit it until next Tuesday, so I expect I’ll dither over it some more between now and then.
I have two new ideas for short stories. One is a YA thriller, which would be a departure for me (though I think my recent story Charlie’s Voice is YA and I’m thinking about marketing it as such) and the other is a caper that was inspired by a couple of songs I’ve been listening to recently. The first has a long deadline, and the other has none whatsoever, so I’m dithering over which one to start first. Lots of dithering going on.
My friend Sarah Langan, author of The Keeper and The Missing (aka Virus), wrote a fine essay called Why I Write Horror for The Humanities Review. Check it out!
I posted my review of The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow last night. It’s a fun book with a jaunty tone and a serious undercurrent. Highly recommended. I started The Fifth Floor by Michael Harvey (author of The Chicago Way) last night. It’s a contemporary detective novel set in Chicago that focuses on solving the age-old question of what really started the great Chicago fire. Seriously. It’s quite good so far, and the author clearly knows the city inside and out. The title refers to the location of the mayor’s office—the main character’s nominal client is an abused spouse whose husband works in the mayor’s office as a fixer of inconvenient problems.
Tonight is Burn Notice night, though I probably won’t get to see the episode until the weekend. Also, The Closer returns on Monday and, God help us, Big Brother 10 on Sunday. TV is such a wasteland this summer that I might fall prey to this guilty pleasure and watch it. There’s a 75-year-old man who comes from around here as one of the contestants this season.
