A November to Remember

I had several acceptances from early to mid-November, didn't submit for two weeks (to freshen my voice, of course), and am ending the month with three poems off to Word Riot.

IMDb: Tia Carrere Welcomes Baby Girl

Wayne's World and Lilo & Stitch star Tia Carrere is a first-time mother, after giving birth to a baby girl. Baby Bianca was born in Los Angeles in September, but Carrere, 38, and her British photojournalist husband Simon Wakelin have only gone public with the news this week. The couple, who met in London, were married on New Year's Eve 2003.

More Fun with Character Names

On the ill-fated coming-of-age baseball drama Clubhouse, Dean Cain played team captain Conrad Dean. On NBC's Las Vegas he plays new Montecito owner Casey Manning. Might this name be a jumble of Cain's breakout role as Clark Kent (C.K.)/Superman?

Jack Frost nipping at my nose

A cold did not prevent me from writing a poem today, origanizing a Dec. 26 get-together with friends from Hofstra's lit magazine, or subsequently online shopping. It did, however, leave me prone to nap—which is what I'm about to get back to. And so...

AP: Teen With Peanut Allergy Dies After Kiss

SAGUENAY, Quebec - A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday.

Tragic.

A WELL-KNOWN SECRET by Jim Fusilli

I don't quite get the title. but the second book in Fusilli's Terry Orr series was a good, intricate tale of cover-up upon cover-up with a chance at romance for our hero who's lost so much to this point. I'm not sure Orr is completely relatable as a basketball star-turned-bestselling novelist-turned-P.I. but if you can go along with that, it's a fine-written ride.

No gambler I.

I played Texas Holdem at the table with friends and family yesterday—once for fun and once for a $40 cash prize—and though I did pretty well, I had no desire to play again. It may have been my paperback budget or the mercenary feel of bluffing loved ones...I had the urge to gargle afterward.

Thanksgiving

Much as I try to keep a marathoner's perspective, it's hard not to want to duplicate last week's stream of good news. I've been iffy about what I've written lately, and why not? It hasn't had the time to stew that past works have. (Writing is a process, process, process...)

Thanksgiving is a good time to remind myself: What good is all the vacation time in the world if I don't let my mind rest?

I bid you the same today: Eat, drink, laugh, sleep, rest.

The blog's tag line for a while will be Ross Geller's incredulous exclamation, "My sandwich? You ate my sandwich?"

"And another one gone, and another one gone..."

ABC has cancelled Alias, long rumored to have jumped the shark. Alias seemed like a show right up my alley. I've always liked fictional spies—currently watching Seasons 3 and 4 of Danger Mouse—but the show was originally slotted against Angel on Sunday nights, then against Smallville on Wednesday and Thursday nights. To top it off, I can take or leave Jennifer Garner. I liked her in Daredevil, but that may have been because she played Elektra.

In other news, CBS has cancelled Brannon Braga's Threshold.

Somewhat Similar

Tonight's episode of NCIS:

"Frame-Up"

Tony is suspected of murder when part of a female body is found at Quantico, and Abby makes it her personal mission to find out who is framing him.


Next week's episode:

"Probie"

The team bands together to clear McGee's name when he kills an undercover police officer while on assignment.

Descriptions from Zap2it.com.

Contemporary Rhyme 2.4

The full Fall 2005 issue of Contemporary Rhyme is now on the Web, featuring my poems "My First Love" and "Why I Dropped Drama". My thanks again to editor Richard Geyer.

Hint, Hint

In case any Secret Santas read my blog:

The Rockford Files Season One comes to DVD December 6.

The Firefly movie Serenity is due December 20.

Quiet Time

I've had a relatively quiet weekend sampling poems here and there. Tomorrow I'm going to read some flash fiction and see if it stimulates ideas for the aforementioned short story contest. A clean slate feeling is only good for so long. I prefer to be puzzling over something. Maybe not at bedtime...

Superman Returns teaser

I saw it last night with Smallville. You can check it out here and comment below.

Other than this teaser, I'm avoiding all hype until I see the movie. I want to be totally surprised.

Best Week Yet

So ends the best week of my writing career so far. I know it's the result of months, years of work in the case of one story. In some ways it has seemed longer than a week to me. The key is not to celebrate one success so long that I miss planting the seeds for more.

I've written two poems today and am brainstorming for the Philadephia City Paper Short Story Contest.

Obsolete Skill Quiz

You are 'growing one's own food'.

You are guided by two words: 'Live simply.' You
value quality over quantity in most things, and
you have little use for the materialism and
consumerism of modern culture. You know the
value of hard work and try to be
self-sufficient as much as possible, and what
you do you do well. Unfortunately, no man is
an island, and you cannot do everything
yourself. Your puritanical work ethic makes
makes people think that you are weird, and not
much fun. Your problem is that growing one's
own food has been obsolete for a long time.


What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks, Jen.

Two Times the Rhyme

Editor Richard Geyer has accepted my poems, "Why I Dropped Drama" and "My First Love" for the Fall 2005 issue of Contemporary Rhyme, currently posting to the web.

Ford recalls six models due to fire risk

This Yahoo! headline pertains to the car company, but who else saw it and thought the modeling agency and human spontaneous combustion?

AFP: Texas town renames itself 'Dish' to get free TV

My reaction: Hmm-uh.

Zap2it.com: Smallville's Rosenbaum Penning FOX Pilot

"Smallville" star Michael Rosenbaum maybe isn't as famous as Chris Rock, but he's hoping to follow in the comic's footsteps of using his teenage years as fodder for a TV series.

Good luck to him.

Poetic Justice

Alex Rodriguez is this year's American League MVP, putting in sharp relief his scintillating postseason slump. Thank you once again, Can't-Avoid-the-Double-Play-Rod.

Also known as:

Hits-homeruns-in-May-Rod

Sink-a-pitcher's-ERA-Rod

Leave-a-team-in-disarray-Rod

Jeter-should-get-all-his-pay-Rod

Not Long to Wait

Skive Magazine editor Matt Ward has accepted my story of a midlife sexcapade, "Lonely Too Long," going live December 1st.

IMDb: Sinise Spokesman for Disabled Veterans

Hollywood star Gary Sinise has been recruited as national spokesman for the US Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation. Sinise, who played Vietnam veteran and amputee Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, hopes to help the group raise $65 million to build a memorial to disabled soldiers in Washington. He says, "I am deeply moved to have been asked to participate in this absolutely necessary memorial." Co-founder of the charity, Lois Pope, said of Sinise: "His portrayal in Forrest Gump of a soldier who loses his legs in the Vietnam conflict brought home the terrible price our men and women pay in the fight for our country's freedom."

Zygote in My Coffee #52

...is now available, featuring my poem "Limbo". Thanks again to editor Brian Fugett.

"The Observer" Accepted

Editor Bryon Quertermous has accepted my tale of a man's last resort, "The Observer", for the second issue of Demolition, due April 2006.

Three Words: Birds of Prey

Lee Goldberg relays the WB's plans with Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar for a series about young Aquaman.

Behind the times

Thanks to the set of time-wasting games included with my Linux upgrade, I've just gotten into Tetris.

"He's a man who leads a life of danger."

My brother is in London on "business" this week.

Drumroll, please...

In a message stamped 9:36 last night, Prose Toad editor R.A. Rubin accepted "This Never Happened to Superman" to appear in the January 2006 issue.

This marks my first mainstream story sale, fruition for an idea born eight years ago. Thank you to everyone who taught and encouraged me, editors who rejected the story but nudged me closer to success, and finally that core of believers. Because of you, I kept at it.

How cool is this?

The Pork Chop Express.


Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks, Ray.

"Let me do all the work,"

...is the title of my latest poem published on the Lunatic Chameleon web site.

Thanks to editor Nan Purnell for another great presentation.

Veterans Day Meditation

Currently in poetry mode, I offer Shakespeare's Sonnet 30:

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Hot Potato

I spent the morning working on a batch of four poems, received a rejection in the mail for five poems, and just now submitted three poems to Kathleen Paul-Flanagan's remark.

UPDATE (11/11/05): My poem "Growing in" has been accepted for Issue 41 of remark.(January 2006)

Derailed

The movie, out this Friday, has me curious about the James Siegel book. If you've read it, feel free to post your thoughts in the Comments section.

For My Entertainment, Pt. 2

I have 58 cents left on an fye Gift Card after ordering Lawrence Block's The Girl with the Long Green Heart, another classic reprinted by Hard Case Crime.

I first used the Gift Card this summer to buy Bulletproof Monk and Die Another Day.

One man, one vote

Walking to my polling place (I don't own a car) means picking through tall grass and branches beside a busy intersection. I'd arranged to ride with someone, but as the sun was setting, she decided not to vote (Shame, shame, shame). So I dressed in jogging pants and hooded sweatshirt and hoofed it in the dark.

Works for me

Time was I could only craft stories at the keyboard. Slowly I branched out to index cards (too loose), then to legal pads (too long), and now I use memo pads. These fit in my pockets, are more organized than index cards, and don't attract much attention.

Reuters: Vive le difference for 'NCIS' and Bellisario

A nice profile of, dare I say, my favorite TV show. I'll always have a soft spot for Sasha Alexander's departed Kate Todd, but Ziva David is growing on me. In last week's episode, she managed to crack a tough female suspect Gibbs was having no luck with. I don't think Kate could have done that. She might have learned to do that if she'd stayed on the show, but again, Alexander found the series physically demanding and did not want to stay on for a prolonged run.

Slice-of-Life

Received a rejection Friday identifying one of my stories as slice-of-life. Finally I have a practical example of this type of writing.

Man of Steel, Will of Iron?

On Smallville it's been established that Clark's attraction to Lana led to the first manifestation of his heat vision. Now I know Clark isn't supposed to see Lois that way as of yet, but in last night's episode, she's put in the position of giving him a lap dance. Are we expected to believe this doesn't arouse him in the least?

If his heat vision had gone off, it would have made a nice moment to discover he was attracted to Lois, and Lois wouldn't have to go through with the lap dance. That's acceptably motivated and humorous to me.

Does Not Compute

Up there with the Mission: Impossible movie making Jim Phelps a villain is Smallville's choice to make Tom Wopat's guest character inferior to Jonathan Kent (John Schneider). Wopat's appearance purposely calls back memories of the Dukes: Luke was the cool-headed cousin and Bo the rash one. Not to say I didn't believe Wopat as State Senator Jack Jennings, scandalized by an extramarital affair, but the writers could have taken more time to set up the man's flaws.

Aside from the fact that the affair was political suicide, I didn't really see a reason Jonathan and Clark would lose the amount of respect for Jack they apparently did. ("I can't believe I looked up to Jack."). This reminded me they were fictitious characters with simplistic ethics.

Years ago I may have appreciated clear lines of good and evil in comics. Today I prefer characters more complex, situations more difficult to solve, making the triumph of good all the more satisfying.

Thrilling Alum News

Thrilling Detective alumnus David White announces he's signed with literary agent Allan Guthrie.

Knowing Al and Dave both, I expect great things.

Zygote in My Coffee #51

...is now available, featuring my poem, "The enlightened".

Note: the title leads into the first line.

Thanks and congratulations to editor Brian Fugett, soon to be a father.

Zap2it.com: Boreanaz Makes No 'Bones' About Being Happy

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) His appearances as a soulful vampire on Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and his own spin-off, "Angel," made David Boreanaz a star. But Whedon -- a writer, director and producer -- believed that the actors on his shows should say their lines only as written.

Now the star of FOX's freshman forensic drama "Bones" (recently picked up for a full season), Boreanaz plays FBI Agent Seeley Booth...As Booth, Boreanaz gets to play around with his lines, which is a big change from his "Buffy" and "Angel" days.

"That became very frustrating," he says. "For an actor to be able to create and also have a sense of freedom, you have to be able to revolve around those words and create around those words. Now, you can take the written word and have your subtext tell more than is written on the page, which is always fun and challenging too. But it's always great to revolve around the words and improvise and change things, because that comes from the character's perspective and point of view.

"Ultimately it comes from the writer, but it's the actor who breathes life into the character and makes it real. Having Hart to allow us to do that, it's a blessing."

A writer carries most if not all of the load for bringing novel and short story characters to life. In the case of TV or movies, a writer should allow some input from actors, who share some responsibility to portray and become associated with characters in an audience's mind. Forcing actors to deliver their lines only as written can make those lines sound forced, or worse, fake.

Zap2it.com: 'Dead Zone' Creator, 'Star Trek' Producer Dies

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Michael Piller, who wrote and executive produced USA's "The Dead Zone" and several "Star Trek" series, died Tuesday, Nov. 1 at the age of 57.

One is the loneliest number

We had one trick-or-treater yesterday. He was unmasked, and it was too dark to see his costume if any, but what the hey? I gave him two Snickers and two Baby Ruths.

In medias res

I think I set a personal record of eight submissions in October, and I've continued the flow into November, sending three poems to Contempory Rhyme this morning.