Sunday Brain Dump

1
Last night, I went to the season opener double-header for the Ithaca League of Women Rollers, i.e. our two local derby teams, the SufferJets and the Bluestockings.  Great bout!!  A comment was made by one of the announcers, giving me an idea for a short story.

2
Came up with another idea for a short story a couple of days ago.  I think it’s a killer idea.  I don’t have a character in mind for it.  Which means, I don’t have any scenes in mind.  It’s frustrating, because until I come up with one or the other, the idea’s useless to me.

3
I used to keep a monthly scorecard of my short-story submissions, but explaining why I didn’t submit any stories for a given month got old.  I got back on a submissions kick this month, putting out 5 previously rejected stories and 3 new ones.  I’ve already gotten 3 rejections back.  *sigh*

Gotta keep pushing!

4
It’s taken me two years for me to follow my own advice and start reading Ben Tanzer‘s book Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine.  You know how it is.  You intend to order something that’s not available at your local bookstore, and you just put off doing it.  And then, it does appear at your local bookstore.

Yo, Ben — I started it and I’m liking what I’m reading so far.  Sorry it took me so long!

Ben Tanzer, Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine

5
This is part of a push on my part to read more novels in 2010.  How else am I ever going to learn to write one…?

6
It has its flaws (which I understand are soon to be remedied), but I’m still in love with mint.com.  It’s given me something I’ve needed for a long time, namely a way of GTD-ing my money management.

7
I cannot tell you how much I’m enjoying the 2010 series of Doctor Who.  I wasn’t up in arms about David Tennant leaving the role, because I’d learned my lesson.  I remember ranting in 2005, “What do you mean Christopher Eccleston’s leaving?”  I had no idea how good Tennant was going to be.  Well, I looked forward to Matt Smith’s performance, and so far, so good.  And I admit that he rocks the tweed jacket better than I do.

Not only that, but so far the new head-writer/producer Steven Moffat has delivered, too, AFAIC.  The BBC made the right choice, giving the show to the writer whose episodes have won Hugo awards.  No, the episodes haven’t been perfect but I’m very, very impressed with what he’s done with the show’s tone.  Everything people say about the fairy-tale/fantasy tone is all true.  The first two episodes, especially, seemed like a sci-fi version of Pan’s Labyrinth.  The only to make them better would be to have had them directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

8
I really need to do something about my home office.  I’m fighting the clutter lately, and losing.  The trouble is, the only solution is hard for me to face.  I need a new desk with more tabletop real estate, which means taking the time and trouble to empty out and junk my old desk.  Dammit.

#

I think that’s it for now.

Don’s Big Score

Got back from Ithacon, the local comic show. Once again, I failed to connect with local great Roger Stern because of my perpetual shyness, but I just had to go and shake the hand of guest Bob “The Answer Man” Rozakis! I used to live for his “Ask the Answer Man” columns in the back of DC’s comics when I was a kid. Thanks to him, I learned the secret identities of most of the Legion of Super Heroes and in what issue the Batman of Earth-2 died.

I would’ve loved to have had an “Ask the Answer Man” column for him to sign, but I didn’t. Felt bad. He was a swell guy, too. I bought a boatload of 2/$1 books from him and accidentally left one, which he walked over to me. I ran into him again at another dealer’s table as I was flipping through old issues of Detective Comics. I pulled out one with an interesting cover (Issue 467, from Feb. 1977) when I heard someone next to me saying, “I wrote that.” What happened next was a no-brainer…

Other things I picked up…

  • The six-issue run of DC: The New Frontier
  • Jonathan Lethem’s Omega the Unknown, #1
  • Four issues of Steve Edmond’s Emo Boy
  • The first 8 (of 9) issues of Captain Atom: Armageddon (a DC/Wildstorm crossover)
  • A metric crapload of Bendis’ & Oeming’s Powers from Image Comics
  • A discounted copy of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics

Oddly enough, none of these items were on my list!

I should also mention a pleasant conversation I had with artist Jime Alena Grabowski! The Wife bought a print from her a couple of years ago of “a chick” as Grabowski put it. Her drawings nowadays are completely different. There’s a print I’m interested in, so I gotta get to emailing if I want it.

OPP: Other People’s Publications

This is on my goodreads “to-read” list and should be on yours, too.

Ben Tanzer, Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine

I met Ben at a reading he gave here in I-town a year or so ago for his first book, Lucky Man. Nice guy whose day job is in the field I worked in back in a past life. Anyway, this promises to be a good one, and based on my experience with Lucky Man, I’ve got no reason to doubt it.