But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for March, 2011

Stroking the Ego

Bad reviews are inevitable, but good reviews  soothe some of the other anxieties that go with this biz.

Yesterday–Monday, blargh–I cautiously opened my email.  Lately, I’ve been approaching my email account as though it were an angry cobra.

The reason? I’ve got a novel in submission and it’s been out long enough to possibly be due for a response.  My last sub to this particular market scored a rejection after a quick month. Having passed the month goalpost a while back, I’m now torturing myself with the possibilities.  Like…they are actually considering it;  or, maybe it’ll score a revise and resubmit;  or, it’s sitting, ignored, in an editor’s mailbox; and worst of all, that my rejection went out weeks ago and was lost in e-space.

And then my head exploded.

I was therefore, delighted to find a link to another good review for The Music of Chaos in my email.

I found this bit especially nice:

The plot of this story is exciting and has many layers, the detail is extraordinary, and I was unable to put this book down until I got to the last page, and I didn’t want to put it down even then. Hopefully there will be another Regan O’Connell story soon; I can never get too much of my new favorite anti-hero Breas.

Yeah. I’m fond of Breas, too. Breas has absolutely no tact.  So he’s a hella lot of fun to write because he can say all the horrible things that decent people can only think. The review in its entirety can be found here.

As for the sequel…I’m workin’ on it.

Red

We watched Red again, last night. A big part of the movie’s charm is the cast–the notably older cast.  It trades on the same idea as The Expendables.  That older doesn’t mean useless, not even with action heros.

Watching it for a second time, I realized that Red has a lot in common with the uninspired Knight and Day.

Both movies utilize the same premise.  An ordinary woman gets drugged and kidnapped by a super spy/rogue CIA agent who is (more…)

And Then He Lied to Her

You know how children love to watch the same movie, over and over, and over?  Until, you swear, if you hear Buzz Lightyear say, “To infinity and beyond!” one-more-time, you’re going to start kicking cute puppies and drowning kittens.

I do that with songs.* The invention of headphones was a godsend for any unfortunate soul who’s ever lived with me. Back in the day, I wore out many a cassette tape–rewind, play; rewind, play….

Fortunately, now, there’s my trusty little iPod, a.k.a., Pinky.  (My husband thought it was funny to get his tomboy wife a pink iPod.)

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on the song and video for Josh Ritter’s achingly romantic song, “The Curse,” a song about a mummy who falls in love with an archeologist.

Long ago on the ship
She asked why pyramids
He said “Think of them as an immense invitation.”
She asks “Are you cursed?”
He says “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he kissed her and hoped
That she’d forget that question.

The lyrics inspired my attempt at a comic.  I can’t draw a ship’s cabin, so I opted for museum as a background. (Click image for a larger version.)

*Um.  And I still do this with movies, too.  I’ve seen Serenity, Galaxy Quest, The Princess Bride, and Master and Commander so many times, I know all the dialogue by heart.