The Middle of the Dark

It's brewing up something wicked out there right now. Yikes. I saw "War of the Worlds" this afternoon. What is it with Steven Speilberg that he has to tie a little bow on the ends of his movies? Why does everything have to end happily, or be explained? "Saving Private Ryan" and "A.I." are two great American movies undone (to one degree or another) by their endings, and "War of the Worlds", unfortunately, is the same deal. A truly powerful, gripping film for its first hour, and even good through some wobbly bits in the middle, it folds its hand at the end. Speilberg flirts with making it a big summer box office FU to the current state of affairs in the world, and maybe the idea of a human insurgency - and human suicide bombers - was too bold, but then why even go there? Why drop bits about 'the terrorists' and 'occupations always fail' if you're weren't willing to follow through? As a fan of the book, the ending

I shaved my head today. Not to the skin, but as low as it could go. I'd been considering giving up on my thinning, balding joke of a head of hair for a while now, and my lovely Bosnian stylist Edina did the honors. I'm also on a new diet, for about a week now. This one's for all the chips. Poker chips, not potato - you get the idea. No more fucking around. My plan is to lose fifty pounds by Lisa's wedding in September. And then from there, the sky's the limit. That's the plan, anyways. I've discovered a great new writer, Maureen McHugh who dabbles in my favorite kind of fiction, the kind where the fantastic intrudes on this supposedly sacrosanct area of literary fiction. Also, the host site, Ruminator does this great 'DVD commentary' type thing that Sugu and I actually talked about once, but not quite like this. Imagine if Shakespeare had done one of these. And author Dennis Cooper has a lot of interesting things to say about the 'r

This is absolutely unacceptable. You all know Karl Rove, Bush's brain? Here's what he had to say about liberals and 9/11: "...liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." There is absolutely no proof of this whatsoever. None. It's fiction. For Rove to traffic in such dispicable lies is unAmerican. To defame one half of the entire country by accusing them of having sympathy for our enemies and contempt for our troops is trecherous. It's treason.

I saw 'Batman Begins' the other day, and it was excellent. It's bar none the best comic book film ever made, and for an hour or so, it was one of the best films I'd ever seen. I'd always liked Chirstopher Nolan a lot, 'Insomnia' especially, and I like him even more now. I was confused about the twist with the baddies, but Ben set me straight. And the surprise at the end had my co-pilot squealing. I finished the first draft of the new short story today; I'm very happy with it (right now), I think I learned a lot writing it. It ended up 28 pages, or just under 7,500 words. In addition to the moon rocks one I'm submitting now, I have this and another I plan to send out over the summer. Bush seems to be in it now. Just a few months ago there was this sea change when the elections in Iraq went off mostly well, when Lebanon booted Syria, and suddenly it looked as if the ends might justify the means. Except they never do, and now Republicans along w

Scientists have discovered another new planet , this time a planet only twice as big and twice as hot as earth. The possibilities for planets seem to be endless. Finding an earth like world, one with oceans, can't be that far off. Meanwhile, NASA is thinking maybe 2015 for a trip back to the moon. Whenever you feel like it, guys. No rush. I'm having a hell of a time - again - with a new short story. I haven't found my sea legs yet with the short stuff, it seems (not that I have with novels). I think most of the problem lies with pace and economy, and also on this one I'm giving past tense a go, which I rarely do, because it for me it has the effect of dragging feet.

Sugu went to the Japanese Toy Fair this past week: But dude, you're supposed to stand inside it, like so: Henceforth, I shall be known as Mint In Box, and Sugu as Loose But Complete.

I recieved a rejection letter for my new short story tonight, and it was actually a nice letter explaining why they didn't like it. But there were a couple things that made me scratch my head. First, they described the story like this: "...humans trying (often in vain) to cope while the world is about to end." This isn't what happens! And then, this little nugget: "To get such a well-worn premise to work, the writing needs to be really brilliant, which yours--while being quite good--just wasn't." So not only did I not write the story they read, I didn't write very well. Ouch. I rushed out and bought the new Michael Cunningham novel yesterday, Specimen Days . I've looked forward to this for quite a while. Polly has him as a teacher and when she told me a ways back that this would involve some sci-fi weirdness, I flipped. The Hours was a watershed book for me. I read it in two days in Dublin and it changed virtually everything I though

Over in the UK a couple guys stole a copy of the forthcoming Harry Potter, and shots were fired. Sounds like a job for Thursday Next. If ever any of my books induces a gun battle, I will consider my life complete. Cathy Wald has a neat quiz up over at Gallycat on the rejections all writers must endure. I think my rejections so far break down something like this: 1) It's too sci-fi to be literary. 2) It's too literary to be sci-fi. 3) Does it have to be about a teenage girl? 4) It's really original and I enjoyed the characters but it's not me. Being a writer requires industrial patience. Especially if you're trying to get published. The last few months I've mellowed a little on I HAVE TO GET PUBLISHED FOR MY LIFE TO BE VALIDATED. Why? What will change? I'll still be broke. The people I try so hard to get the approval of still won't care. The only difference will be I won't have this pressure on me any longer, and it's just pressure I p

Sad I couldn't be there. They look great and it sounds like it was a wonderful time. Congrats again and all the best.

Having finished the new short story, I sent it out to the first round of magazines yesterday. I don't think I have anymore confidence it will sell than I did before my first story sold, but I feel confident, and that's a huge difference. I went through The Pile - you know the reserve every writer has of ideas and lines and characters that just never fit anywhere for some reason - and found an old story, three years old maybe, that isn't as bad as I thought it was. I might try and dust it off and make it workable. I'm also looking into attending one of these week long workshops the UofI puts on every summer. I haven't been in a workshop in years and as I jones for grad school, I thought this might be a nice way to get back into the groove. I also FINALLY got back to work on the screenplay Sugu and I have been writing (or not writing) for quite a while now. I wrote five pages of it tonight and will try to do five more before I send it back to him.