Sunday, March 24, 2013

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: The King of Lies by John Hart. I love Hart's writing style, deluded narrators and dysfunctional families, so this was always going to be right up my alley.

Short stories: 98 - 109 of 500. Faves this week:

Sun Dogs by Brooke Bolander at Lightspeed
Gorgeous story about Laika, the dog sent into space in 1957. I have a weakness for unusual POVs, and this is a great one, managing to describe both a familiar environment and an imagined one through the filter of what is effectively an alien consciousness. The dog's experiences and memories are heartbreaking, tempered by an unexpected but highly satisfying happy ending.

In Metal, In Bone by An Owomoyela at Eclipse Online
Quietly emotional story describing the tragedy of war that's both bleak and beautiful.

The Life and Deaths of Rachel Long by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - self-pubbed
Atmospheric and evocative piece about the power of music, idealism and obsession. Manages neatly to be uplifting and unsettling at the same time.

WRITING: Revising 'Can't See a Good Thing,' a 2,537 word near-future SF, and writing 'Sweetie,' a new 1,600 word horror about a man and his tarantula.

WATCHING: The Following. Still loving it, but every ep I have to work all over again to believe the central premise that Carroll's cult exists at all. 'We all want somewhere to belong,' says Parker, and yes, that's probably true--except, surely, for sociopathic serial killers, who are not usually known for team spirit and playing well with others? Putting this lot together should be like herding cats--surely the wheels have got to start coming off this well-oiled machine soon?

LISTENING TO: All You Need is Now by Duran Duran. One of my favourite albums of theirs, this makes  great exercise music. Repeated plays of 'Being Followed' definitely influenced the paranoid vibe of the SF story.

CHECKING OUT: Wattpad. Anyone have any experience, either as writer or reader? On my first browse around, I saw a lot of nifty cover art but... maybe not so much nifty writing?

6 comments:

  1. I loved The Following when it first started, but it's loosing its grip on me. Kinda thinking that the series is overlong. And the blending of sex and death of the last few episodes is a bit icky.

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    1. Yeah... I think this might have done better with a UK-length series, say 6-8 eps. Bigger isn't always better!

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  2. Hi Michelle! I'm here via Twitter. Nice to meet you. *bows*

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  3. Hi Michelle, Paul here from Twitter. I have jumped off a cliff and started a blog (which I still don't know my way around), and I am looking to see how others do theirs. So I'll see you around! :)

    Unfortunately, I have never watched The Following.

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    1. Hi Paul! I think blogging is just like Twitter, really--you just get more space to ramble in :)

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