Post holiday randomocity

Well, I'm back from my little trip to visit my folks. It was uneventful, which is always a Good Thing.

I didn't take my computer with me so I didn't get any writing done for a few days--I did bring a couple of books with me and managed to finish reading both of them. Read one of them in one day. It's been a long time since I've done something like that. For the record they were both 87th Precinct novels, which I recommend to you once again.

And right now I'm finishing up my laundry, and then I'm going to relax a while before diving back into this world I've created with The Harvester of Faces.

Do me a favor and listen to this. Of my own tunes this is one of my favorites, and comes the closest to the type of music I like to listen to. If you dig it, too, feel free to download it and share it with anyone else who might like it. You'd be doing me a favor.

I've made a couple of astonishing discoveries about myself over the past few days:

• While I will watch--and enjoy--it on TV, I really don't give a rat's ass about college football. I don't know when this happened. I used to have pretty strong and often controversial opinions about it. Those days are gone.
• I don't care all that much about those big, blockbuster movies anymore. Those used to be the only ones I really wanted to see--now I find them tiresome. There are exceptions, of course--I'd like to see The Avengers, for example, because I dig Joss Whedon's style--but for the most part they just make me feel tired. I like more personal films now, which I also find a bit surprising. I shouldn't though, because the two screenplays I've written that I'm happiest with--Seer, and Seer II--are both small, personal films. So, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

And it's almost time to put another load in the dryer. Until next time . . .

The Harvester of Faces progress report and randomocity

I've started the rewrite to this project today.

I know, I wasn't completely through with the first draft, but that's okay. I made some decisions about the story, and tweaked the plot and the circumstances, so I think it's time to take it to the next level.

This story is one I've wanted to tell  a long time, and it sort of scares me--not so much because it's a scary story (though it is) but I wonder if I can actually tell the story as well as it deserves to be told. It's a good story. Hell, it's a great story, and it has everything: some sex, some violence, a monstrous serial killer, and a political message that's near and dear to my heart. Not to mention some other stuff, about the formation of new societies and the birth of a culture, the formation of a collective subconcious and the beginning of a mythology. And some scary shit, on top of all that.

Whew! Let's hope I can pull it off. Writing the first draft sort of clarified some things for me with it, and there are some areas I neglected that I'm going to address with the rewrite. After that it'll probably require a couple more rewrites to sort of focus it where I want it focused.

Let's hope I can pull this off. If I can, it'll be a great book. If I fail, it'll be the other thing.

This is a short week for me, with the holiday--I'll be visiting my folks for a couple days. I'm not planning on doing any serious work on this thing during that time, though I will be thinking about it, probably constantly. Nothing inspires me more than returning to my hometown for a little while. When I get back I'm sure I'll be in a perfect frame of mind to knock out several chapters.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can maintain my focus on what is important in this thing.

Have a happy holiday!

Monday Monday randomocity

So, the election was last week, and I'm still quite astonished at some people's reaction to the outcome.

I've defriended a couple of people on Facebook simply because I got sick of the sheer vitriolic hatred from them that kept turning up in my news feed. Someone who hates like that--seething bitterness and rage--is someone I just don't want to be around or have any involvement with. People like that are poison.

Not to mention the folks who have defriended me. I know of a couple, anyways. Oh, well. I won't miss them.

I'm also quite astonished at the far right's astonishment at the results. Everyone else on the planet saw this coming except them. Why? Because they only believe what they want to believe. The pollsters they were using figured that out quickly and decided just to feed them highly skewed results to make them happy. The alternative was not to work at all, I suppose. Of course, the ones who did tell them the truth were either ignored or were told that they were biased. (Ironic, since they consider anything that doesn't go their way biased--no matter how true it is.)

That seems to be one of the biggest differences between lefties like me and righties. I'm not going to lie to myself to make myself feel better--I'd rather have the truth up front and raw so I can deal with it. They'd rather only hear what they want to hear, even if it isn't true--and if it isn't true, there is no power on earth that will convince them of that. I know this from bitter personal experience--for example, one (former) friend of mine simply refuses to accept any evidence that disproves something he believes in. I've long since quit having anything at all to do with him.

Ah. Arguing politics is pointless. Still, it's hard not to, these days.

Anyways, I've resumed work on The Harvester of Faces first draft. I had to back-track and rewrite the last few bits I'd done--it was not working. It's better now, I think. We'll see. I'm hoping to be done with it by around xmas. Maybe a bit before.

It's raining and chilly. Late fall weather.

That's all I've got on my mind tonight. What's up with you?

Mr. President - just a quick note

Congratulations, President Obama! Your victory last night changed my project, The Harvester of Faces, from a terrifying distopic vision of the future to an alternate world story. And I'm glad.

Yes, hope is stubborn, and I wake up this morning feeling it once again. Thank you, and good luck!

Saturday morning doing laundry randomocity

Progress report on The Harvester of Faces first draft--I estimate I'm just over half-way through. We're now out of the 'whodunit' phase and into the 'running-our-asses-off-to-get-away-from-a-psycho' phase. In other words, we  have now figured out who, now we need to figure out why before the sumbitch twists our heads off. Which he is fully capable of doing.

As the above title indicates I'm in the middle of doing laundry. Since I can now do it at home instead of having to go out I find it sort of relaxing, now. It's kinda of cool, too, in that I can sit here and write and get up to unload or load a machine periodically, usually right about the time I need to get up and move around a little bit anyway. So, it works out.

Also, I got one of these phones this week, and it was only partially because my goddaughter appears in the commercial you'll see at the link (she's the kid in the purple shirt). It's my first smartphone and it's so frakkin' nice to have an alternative way to access the Internet if (when) my connection here at home goes down. I'm still fiddling around with it--setup was a little tricky because I have zero experience with these things, but it's up and running now. I'm going to enjoy this thing, methinks.

I got my Obama/Biden bumper sticker on my truck--we'll see how much trouble it gets me into. Around here nobody will notice, probably. It's when I venture outside of this area that I'll start getting the nasty looks.

Don't forget to vote Tuesday if you're in the US and haven't taken advantage of early voting (which I did--see a previous post).

I didn't have even one trick or treater for Hallowe'en this year. Not that I was looking forward to it, but normally I'll have at least one kid knocking on my door. Not this time, though.

By the way, if you are old enough to drive and you aren't driving your younger brother or sister around, you have no business out trick-or-treating. At that age you should be at a Hallowe'en party. Or watching scary movies on TV or something.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a good Hallowe'en and your weekend is nice, quiet, and fun.