Things for which I am thankful

Family, friends, colleagues, coworkers, cool patients, that inspector at the auto place who passed my car even though it has a big crack in the windshield, sleeping kitties, sunshine, music, Harry Potter books, blue nail polish, guys with mohawks, guys who make me laugh, girls who make me laugh, kitties who make me laugh, cupcakes as big as my head, teefury.com, libraries, rent control, coffee shops, people who put themselves in harm's way to save animals or other people, little kids who say 'hi' to me in the grocery store line (bonus points if they have mohawks), and anybody who honestly is trying to make the world a better place, even if the only thing they can do is smile at a stranger.

Never doubt the life-saving power of your smile.

We have achieved ISBN

Okay, so me and a couple of my best pals (and even they might have been humoring me) are probably the only ones who went *squee* when we came across the ISBN and release date for Venom. But if you want to see it, it's here.

Or if you like to think of yourself as anti-establishment, as I sometimes do, it's also here. (though I don't know about the espionage and detective stories classifications. That might be stretching it.)

The coolest thing about finding this is the release date: October 30, 2012. AKA Devil's Night. And the coolest thing about Devil's Night is not that a bunch of thugs in Detroit act a fool, but that it happens to be the night on which the movie The Crow takes place. And anyone who knows me knows that I love that movie so much I can quote just about every line by heart.

TV for writers

In Stephen King’s book On Writing (which is a fabulous read, even if you’re not a fan of his fiction), he recommends that committed writers not waste time "suckling from the glass teat." The dude's got a point. A recent Nielsen survey reported the average American spends 35 hours a week in front of the television. How is that even possible??

As someone with no cable, no satellite, and a boxy 1990s twenty-incher in my living room, I don't watch much TV. But every once in a while something comes along that I just can’t resist. The kind of show where I will watch the episodes over and over and over, rather than even look for anything new. (I do this with Harry Potter movies too, and songs on my iPod, and certain books. Did I mention I have an addictive personality?)

Anyway, I tell myself it’s okay to indulge in these shows because they are so fantabuloso in their voice or characterization that watching them will help me become a better writer. Is this total rationalization? Probably. But still, these shows are really reeeeeeeally good. Most of them didn’t last more than a season or two, probably because the writerly demographic who would have loved them was too busy reading and, you know, actually writing stuff to watch. We’ll just have to blame Stephen King for that.

1.      Firefly: I had to be forced, kicking and screaming (okay, really I was stuck at O’Hare with nothing to do and a Firefly DVD foisted upon me by a well meaning geek-pal) to watch a couple episodes of Joss Whedon’s space-western. Did I mention I hate westerns? Also, not so fond of space. But there’s just something about this ragtag crew of misfit smugglers and stowaways that really sucked me in. And the smoldering non-relationship between ship’s captain Mal Reynolds and intergalactic courtesan Inara Serra is one of the hottest things I ever saw on television.

2.      Veronica Mars: The hottest thing I ever saw on television was the chemistry between emotionally-broken teen detective Veronica and privileged, but misunderstood bad boy Logan Echolls. Seriously. Their dynamic is so sizzling that when I blew through all three seasons of the show in a month I went scouring the web for fan fiction. (It’s out there and some of it is naughty! I’m just sayin’.) Veronica Mars was created by YA author Rob Thomas and the dialogue is near-perfect. If your teen characters are sounding like middle-aged people, this is a must-see for you.

3.      Wonderfalls: Back before the world was ready for magical realism, snarky underachiever Jaye Tyler graduated from her Ivy league college and promptly began a promising career…at a Niagara Falls gift shop. Where the souvenirs started talking to her. Watching Jaye wrestle with whether or not she should heed the advice of tacky gift shop trinkets is hilarious, and surprisingly poignant at times. Tragically, this serendipitous find (thanks Netflix, I did enjoy it) only made it for half of a season.

4.      Twin Peaks: There’s a reason people still remember this mind-bending series from over twenty years ago. Several reasons, in fact. The set-up couldn’t have been more basic: who killed the popular girl? But everything else about the show was shrouded in mystery. All of the characters had secrets. Viewers were never certain if they could trust the FBI agent main character. And let’s not forget those dream sequences. If you want to stray from the traditional novel format, Twin Peaks is a great example of weirdness that worked.

5.      Grey’s Anatomy: I know, I know. As a part-time RN, I should despise this show for portraying nurses as only being good for on-call room sexy-time and spreading syphilis. But don’t hate it just because it’s popular. Shonda Rhimes is a modern day Euripedes. Not only does she make viewers give a crap about a bunch of spoiled surgeons who will never face a lot of the problems we regular people do, she gives us catharsis every episode. Yes, I cry. Every Episode. And I never feel like my emotions have been manipulated. That’s good writing, peeps.

Do you agree or disagree? What are your favorite TV shows and why?

Halloween reading

Fat Vampire by Adam Rex.

Doug "Meatball" Lee is a fat vampire. No one really took him seriously before he was turned. No one really takes him seriously now. Doug wants the same things all fifteen-year-old boys want: acceptance from the cool kids and attention from the cute foreign exchange student. Of course being a vampire complicates things, especially when the star of Vampire Hunters wants to stake him to boost ratings and the cute foreign exchange student starts to figure things out...

Update!

PANDEMONIUM giveaway details on Dec 1st! Wanna know what happens to Lena? To her mom? To Alex? Come back and see me...