But she just drops her pearl-black eyes

Posted on | 1 day, 22 hours ago, in the early evening | 1 Comment

Yesterday the husband and I RAN ALL THE ERRANDS. We also removed an entire stuffed SUV’s worth of unwanted things from our living space – which was rather satisfying, I don’t mind telling you. Bonus satisfaction: We managed to sell most of it.

We started with a jaunt down to Buffalo Exchange (a second-hand clothing store), where the husband dumped off an epic heaping pile of coats, jackets, and other assorted Items What Do Nothing But Take Up Space Since Nobody Ever Wears Them; and I in turn unloaded two full trash bags of the same. Then we went to Half Price Books and liberated ourselves of quite a few (I don’t want to blow your mind, but) books. And CDs. In fact, the husband unloaded his entire CD collection, and has now gone digital. Hooray for fewer things to pack up next time we move.

And holy crap, y’all – we no longer have media crammed sideways onto shelves. And also, I can actually hang up my own damn coats in my own damn coat closet without using those dorky little extender thingies.

Plus: I am now about $140 richer, so put on your good wig, Margaret – we’re goin’ to the Sizzler!

Or not. Because we also went by the auto stereo place, in order to fulfill a promise we made to each other back before Christmas – that we’d replace the crappy factory original radio in our car. It’s truly embarrassing. The LED display doesn’t even work; you kind of have to guess what station you’re listening to, what time it is, and what CD track is playing. (So there’s that, I guess. It has a CD player. Fat lot of good it does us, since we now have approximately zero CDs.)

Anyway, we’re using our thriftily gotten gains to replace it with something better for the sake of future road trips … and also for the sake of fewer awkward conversations about the digital jumping beans that presently convey the station via cracked-out interpretive dance.

So that’ll be nice.

Today has been much more sedate. I sat inside, exchanged a number of Important Emails, and actually started a short story that someone asked me for a few weeks ago. Will wonders never cease, yes, I know. But it’s nice to be writing again, and not just editing or doing research. Honestly, I enjoy both of those things – but I hadn’t actually composed anything new since December, and I was starting to get twitchy about it.

And now the husband is home from work, so the time has come to log off and talk about supper. Have a good night, everyone, and I’ll try to be better about this blogging thing now that my schedule is beginning to unclench. Note use of word “try” and please don’t hold me to it. I am, after all, still kind of sick.

Category: misc

Another Media Ramble

Posted on | 3 days, 22 hours ago, in the late afternoon | No Comments

Or, as an alternate title, “This many things make a post.” A rambly one, without any half-decent transitions between topics. But it’s a weekend, and I have an hour to kill (for once) so hey. Post.

For starters, how about a little pimping? Here goes – real quick: The Con or Bust auction is sitting on three books from yours truly (kindly donated by Tor, as I couldn’t scare them up in time) – Boneshaker, Dreadnought, and Ganymede. Go check ‘em out, and bid. Support an excellent cause and, I should hope, pick up three books that won’t make you want to poke your face with a stick.

So. Have at.

Next. Last week I made one of those, “What I’ve been watching while my brain recovers from deadline hell” entries and it proved rather comically popular, so what the heck, I’ll give it another go.

Ahem.

Last night, the husband and I went to see The Woman in Black, and holy shit you guys, Hammer can set a tone. It was great to see a true Gothic story done so beautifully, so creepily, and so earnestly – and all in all, I enjoyed it quite a lot…though the longer I thought about it after the fact, the more I felt that the pacing of the mystery reveal was a little odd.

(Also, I kept wanting to yell at Daniel Radcliffe that he needed to ask some freaking questions, already … rather than just assuming that turn-of-the-century rural English people were all quacking mad. I say that, but hell. For all I know, maybe they were.)

Regardless, WIB is chock full of outstanding visuals, and built with a fine-tuned sense of the slow-burn scare. I’m not going to lie to you – it gave me a very good feeling about this studio handling Boneshaker.

And now back to the smaller screen.

I didn’t catch Grimm last night – see above re: going to a movie instead – but last week’s episode was both the best and worst I’d seen yet. The first twenty minutes had some truly terrible dialogue … the kind of dialogue that makes me want to throw shoes at our perfectly innocent television … but then it picked up with the kind of fan service that actually made me laugh.

Someone, somewhere, went wandering around the internet and noticed that (a). Monroe is vastly more likable than the eponymous detective, and (b). people feel that Grimm is too much of a goddamn altar boy. In last week’s episode, voila! We got both a Grimm/Monroe supper chat, (“What’s my favorite color?”), and Grimm’s first lie – even if it was by omission. (“You … you killed him?”) Better than nothing, but might be too little too late.

On a brighter note, the husband and I have recently – after copious suggestions from numerous friends – started watching Justified. I’m a little sorry it took us this long to get around to it, frankly – it has some of the best scripting I’ve seen on American television in awhile. Maybe I’m biased because I’ve lived in Kentucky, have family from Kentucky, and still have family in Kentucky … but I’m always amazed when Hollywood manages to treat Appalachia with any degree of fairness, accuracy, or respect.

I’m not saying it’s perfect, mind you. For one thing, Kentucky isn’t actually, technically the south – and the show doesn’t seem to notice. Still, it isn’t lazy like that very often, especially once you get past the first few episodes.

(One major side-kudo I have to give Justified: All the secondary, just-passing-through characters are marvelously drawn. No one’s a throw-away, and if you’ve spent any time in the region, pretty much everyone rings true. That’s no mean feat.)

Also new in my queue, there’s Alcatraz. I’m in love with the premise, if not the entirety of the execution; but I adore the cast and am willing to give it a bit of room to grow on me. The pilot was impressively tight, though it would’ve been a better sell if they’d given it two hours instead of just the one. I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong.

Speaking of 2-hour pilots, I caught The River and was … mostly keen on it. Much like Alcatraz, I adore the set-up but I’m iffy on some of the production. Even so, I’m glad to see thoughtful suspense and horror finding its way to pop culture as of late, and I think this can be a good example of a traditional story told in a non-traditional manner. Let’s see where it goes.

Hm. What else? Oh yeah – the vintage/retro/noir episode of Castle was ridiculously charming. Thank you, and please give me my Captain Obvious badge. I’ll put it on my WRITER vest.

All right, folks. That’s all I’ve got for now.

I’m a little sick, and getting sicker (of course! Because it’s right before Valentine’s Day!) and I think I’ll settle in for the afternoon with a pile of books, a box of decongestants, and some notes. And maybe a nice, comforting glass of wine. Or two. Have a good one, and enjoy the rest of your weekends.

Category: misc

Rock and Roll Porn and a Motorbike

Posted on | 6 days, 23 hours ago, in the late afternoon | No Comments

I’d like to pretend I’m taking a few days off, because Jesus, wouldn’t that be nice? After all, I did hand in those revisions. And yes, well. But. Here in the real world, I’m spending this week playing catch-up on all the things I’d back-burnered over the last couple of months.

Since Monday morning I’ve done two interviews, one video chat, a dentist appointment, two trips to the post office with contracts/paperwork/important whatnots, a jaunt to the grocery store, a metric assload of laundry, two trips to the bank, one much-delayed hair appointment, and one ridiculous martini night with friends – so it’s not 100% work/no play/Nicholson-with-an-axe time over here.

I promise.

I’m even watching a bit of TV. Might blather about it later on this week. Consider yourselves warned.