Monthly Archives: July 2009

When you get close to the end on something big, everything around you is in shambles. My clothes are piled everywhere – clean, dirty, whatever – and dishes are everywhere and take-out is everywhere and books are everywhere and the bathroom is a wreck and the kitchen is a wreck and you can’t imagine how it got that way, because you’ve been cleaning so hard, so hard… Just, your prose, not your apartment.

Almost there.

An exciting day at work, yesterday. Coming back from lunch, we discovered that the neighboring office had an electrical fire. Four fire engines arrived, and quickly. Good job Alpharetta Fire Department!

I particularly loved the the flashy, spinny things on the front of the fire truck. Those were nifty.

Where will you sleep, tonight?
Will it be the same place you wake up?

Worth watching, or at least letting it run in the background.

I don’t understand people that think private, for-profit health insurance is net good for society:

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/cspanPlayer.swf?pid=287048-1&autoplay=0

My favorite part is where these guys sit in front of congress and say they will not stop rescinding policies for mistakes made in good faith by the insured.

Write your senators and representatives. How can this bullshit possibly get any worse?

I didn’t go see the movie, because it got panned by the critics, and because I’m still scarred from Optimus Prime’s death in the 80s cartoon movie.

Found this, though, and it’s pretty frikkin’ awesome. Kudos to the creators.

In the cave, Saitan snuffed the torch out. He pressed into my arm. He pulled me close, and wrapped his hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming. Shh…

I heard the footfalls, steady as stones.

A flash in the dark – a moving shadow against ghost light – and Saitan held me, and hushed me.

Like a dead tree and a lizard and a man, it poked and prodded so carefully upon the bush of the ghost light.

We watched it, Saitan and me, prodding the branches and the fountain of light like a gardener. Under the long, spindly fingers – talons? – of the monster the bush seemed to expand a little and tremble with ecstasy.

We waited. It moved on, down and down the cave, beyond our light.

We waited longer.

Saitan let go. He ran his hand along my hair. He whispered something in my ear. Don’t fear, he had said.

I do this for fiction a lot. Might as well do it for poetry, too. Here’s just a piece of something much larger I’m working on:

[quote]
…I read these advertisements here, and wonder where people
meet in this city. A woman in a car shouts in all caps. I SAW YOU
I SAW YOU I SAW YOU… driving a car, two eyes locked – woman
and man – but there’s no way to speak in cars. Nothing to do
when the highway bends the lanes apart. A man in a grocery store describes
your summer dress, the way you touched your beautiful son’s hair,
and he couldn’t think of things to say in time because you
were already loved by a man – your younger one – who
wouldn’t breech an interruption. Another man stumbled in
all the rings on your hands, dozens of beautiful rings, and doesn’t know
what they mean, but he describes a tattoo, where dolphins
swim in circles around your navel, their bodies
curved like chasing each other’s tail in the lunar water. You’re looking
for him at the gym, where he hides inside his headphones, like you do
now, with me, on the train.

Was your smile on the train something real, or a memory of fish…
[/quote]

Tractor, very small, but apparently very dangerous.

Every time you see a warning label, you’re also seeing a history of injuries that gave the label birth.

I find warning labels fascinating. If you don’t, naturally, move along.

What’s next in the realm of publications?

1) “Death’s Shed” was finalized with the editors for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

2) “Dragon Came To Galveston To Die” is awaiting editorial approval at Space Squid, who had needed a slightly shorter story than the one I sent them – and I am always going to try and help the editors out where I can, everywhere I go.

I know there will be more news, soon-like. If the news is good, I’ll post it here. If not, well, you know how that goes.

Back to work, party people!