If anyone is interested in online Texas Hold ‘Em, let me know and I’ll pass along a link. If not, then I pray to the Good Lord in Heaven that the bastards who are flooding my email inbox and blog comment moderation panel a) stop trying their silly and fruitless campaign to post messages to random Internet blogs, and b) sent to the lowest realms of hell to rot for eternity. Seriously, can we find the person who wrote the program that finds innocent blogs and posts advertisements as comments and have him shot in every non-lethal part of his body?
In other news, I have come to a complete stop on “Twenty Pound Hammers.” I want to take the same John Henry theme and write a very different story. Like “back to the drawing board” different. This was about another edit away from going back out and I guess it might still. But it’s no longer the story I want it to be. Most of the comments I got from the Clarion crew made the rusty wheels start turning and I realized that the most important things I want to say about the story aren’t shining through. At all, really. It’s also probable that what this critique exercise really just helped me see what I wanted to say to begin with. That’s little consolation at this point. The story has gotten bigger in my mind and in the last week I had no fewer than three completely random people make references to John Henry. Weird.
I’m reading “Pavane,” another alt-history classic. I found the beginning pretty slow and difficult to get into but now that I’m fifty pages in, it’s starting to roll. Keep watching this space. I didn’t want to put it down at lunch yesterday.
My bedtime reading is Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles” and it’s great. His writing is much like his music, which shouldn’t be surprising. Lots of great characterization in just a phrase or two and his sentences and paragraphs seem to ramble and drift but eventually, and inevitably it seems, they wind back around onto themselves and complete a loop, connect a thought, form a new idea. What seemed disparate and diffuse comes together in one abrupt moment. I also have the feeling that this takes virtually no effort for Mr. Dylan. He just writes what he thinks and this is the way things come out. Lucky man.
Our basement reconstruction project is coming along nicely. Walls are up and insulated and most of the electricity is in. I’ve never been good working with my hands and I’m not now but there is a definite feeling of satisfaction that comes with building something substantial, even if I am just helping out. Amy’s dad is remarkably talented when it comes to this kind of stuff and it’s fascinating to watch how things are made. It’s a good learning process both for learning how to do this stuff but, more importantly for me, witnessing how another mind works to solve problems that I barely know exist.
It’s been in the high 40′s and things have turned to slush. Messiness ensues. Dog brings messiness into house. But it’s hard to argue when she’s so happy.