Grab Bag

Sorry for the lack of a post last week. My wrist still doesn’t like me using a keyboard – even with a brace. The healing is very slow going.

Words and Phrases

My favorite adjective this week: batty. It was used in an LA Times report on the upcoming TV season. I think that’s a much more clever way of saying someone is nuts. Batty implies an eccentric sort of behavior one expects with those involved in creative pursuits. Needless to say, I know a lot of batty people – including me. My favorite new phrase: Popular Eugenics (see this link for an explanation of Eugenics). That’ sounds like a profoundly twisted version of Popular Mechanics. I found the phrase in a book from the turn of the last century on Sex Education. Though the text was considered progressive, the good doc who wrote it still seemed to think that ‘the singular vice’ (love that phrase, too) was responsible for all sorts of disease and moral depravity. My favorite forecast: warm with a 20 percent chance of fire. It’s been that kind of summer in Los Angeles: very hot, too dry, no rain. I’m really not getting how anyone can retire to a place like Palm Springs.

But What's it About?

Writing wise, the theme has been what my novels and short stories are about. I’m not talking about what the plots are, but what the central theme of the stories actually is. Sometimes, that’s not obvious – even to the writer. I’m working very slowly on a collection of stories about my family at different points in my life. They are very amusing tales that I’ve told many time. Why were my mother and I running through the entire length of an Amtrak train en route to New Orleans? What did my ex-marine turned cop father do when the joint was passed to him at the George Harrison /Ravi Shankar concert I begged to be taken too (yes, I’m that old)? Why do my bother and I really hate Stuckey’s . Each answer involves a very amusing story. But it wasn’t until recently that I figured out what the stories were really about. All of them surround the moment when I really saw my parents as people and not Mom or Dad. That realization has helped the writing flow better. Jon is wrestling with that same question concerning a new script. The lack of an answer has stymied his progress.

Sequels

The sequel writing is on schedule. I hope to have A Soldier’s Fate published for Yaoicon in October . Despite the wrist, I’m ¾ of the way through the writing. The Legacy of Surrender will have excerpt by then, but won’t be published until early next year.

Films

The film shorts will be shot soon. I’ll have blogs from the set and lots of photos. There is a website in the works for those as well. We may have a feature on the horizon. I have to keep mum on that for a while.

My wrist is achy, so I have to hold off on my food, sex and movies comments for next week.