I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.
― George Orwell, 1984
A forecast for “spotty rain”
The forecast is predicting spotty rain. I am now expecting it to rain polka dots. Or Dalmatians. Or leopards, or cheetahs. Or all of the above.
Killing your characters
J.K. Rowling on Twitter:
“It’s the 16th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. I’m having a moment’s silence over my keyboard. I hated killing some of those people.”
There was an article where the writer said “You guys! Despite cavalierly killing Lupin, Tonks, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown, Severus Snape and dozens more, she does have feelings!”
SO wrong. Rowling didn’t cavalierly kill those characters; characters she had spend years developing. But there couldn’t be a Battle of Hogwarts where only the bad guys died. The stakes at the. Battle of Hogwarts were high. For none of the good guys to die would have been shallow, artificial, and unconvincing.
Fair warning to you: I’m writing. I will write characters I hope you like, and then bad things will happen to some of them. I won’t want bad things to happen to them, but if you know some of the characters are the author’s little darlings, living charmed lives, there goes the suspense, the drama. It might still be interesting, but it won’t be as deeply engaging as it could be.
Oh, the humanity
I am watching the beginning of City of Angels. The mother is weeping because the hospital is doing such BAD CPR on her dying daughter.
OK, probably not. BUT SHE SHOULD BE.
Peep.
Ask the little frog why he peeps, and he’ll stare at you and say, “Peep,” which settles the question.
At least, there’s no cotton vermouth
The invention of the cotton gin was highly overrated.
Cotton gin makes a TERRIBLE martini.
The price is…
The price an artist pays for doing what he wants is that he has to do it.
~ William S. Burroughs
I, Reboot
I am working on a story called “I, Reboot” about a new robot line which threatens mankind until they get their weekly software update.
Ode to a Smoke Detector
Ode to a Smoke Detector
Once as I lay soundly sleeping
Came a sound so gently beeping
From the unknown, it kept creeping
Creeping from beneath the floor.
“Hark!” said I, as I did wake,
And in fear did start to shake,
“Silence now, for goodness’ sake!”
This I did the sound implore.
Still the sound went unabated
As I lay in bed and waited
For a sound it seemed was fated
To continue evermore…
Seasonal averages
I keep telling myself “The seasonal average for April is four inches of snow. The seasonal average for April is four inches of snow…”
This is my version of Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby slippers together and repeating “There’s no place like home.”
Oh, now you’re picturing ME in ruby slippers. STOP THAT.