With apologies to Dave the Thune
(as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).
WRITING:
Every day. 1000 words.
That’s the goal.
It’s the holiday season and we are
in full Christmas mode at home (purely secular, celebrating the magic of Santa
and the beauty that comes from a house decorated with greening and a Christmas
tree and other typical decorations), which means the writing has tapered off a
bit. But I did hit my goal of 300,000
words for the year earlier this week.
Feeling very good about that. And
with the four accepted stories, this has easily been my best year yet. Next year, I need to do a lot of revising –
I’ve got a good number of short stories I’d like to polish up and start sending
off – as well as finish up the latest novel and then, at the end of 2015, begin
revising that. Always moving forward.
READING:
I finished up my re-read of the
Bendis/Maleev Daredevil run. One of the
major works of the early 2000s from Marvel Comics, along with New X-Men by
Grant Morrison, et al. and Amazing Spider-Man by JMS & JRJr, it was
enjoyable but did not stand up as well as those other two series (and I should
note I’ve note read the Ennis/Dillon Punisher series from this same time). I applaud Bendis and Maleev for daring to
write a story revolving around the outing of Daredevil’s civilian identity of
Matt Murdock – a plot point from the amazing “Born Again” storyline that lay
dormant for nearly fifteen years – but there are some things that hampered my
enjoyment of this reading. Not that I
would not recommend this as an important, or a well done, run. But there are some cracks in the façade that
become evident upon a subsequent reading.
I go into more detail with my review here. Check it out, and let me know if I’m
wrong.
WATCHING:
The Americans from FX. I’ve watched the first two episodes now, and
this is a great show.
A couple lives just outside
Washington, D.C. in 1981 – in their clean suburban home, with their son and
daughter, working at the travel agency.
But at night they are retrieving a defected Russian agent or trying to
get a listening device into the private study of Caspar Weinberger, the
Secretary of Defense of the United States.
They are Russian spies, but they look just like us. And then, a CIA agent in counterintelligence
moves into the home across the street, with his family. Is this just a coincidence, or is the CIA
onto the “Americans?”
There’s drama and action and
intrigue and suspense and violence, and it’s all smartly written and it’s fun
as hell (if you find hell to be fun, y’know), and it stars Felicity (Keri
Russell), and she’s grown up and she’s a bad-ass. Really looking forward to see where this show
goes.
The Mad Max: Fury Road trailer dropped
this week. And unlike the Star Wars,
this one has me super-excited. I’ve
watched it a dozen times so far, and it doesn’t get old. George Miller, 69 years old, comin’ at you
with the explode-o! This movie is one I’m
excited about.
SIGN OFF:
Not much else to share. Along with Christmas coming, high school
basketball season has begun and my son is playing JV and Varsity. And I have to say, that first time you see your
boy come running onto the court in his warm-ups with the rest of the varsity
team – it’s pretty damn special. The
team’s 0-2 so far, but they have potential.
Here’s hoping they realize it sooner rather than later.
As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt and Don McMillan for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and geeky, and we'll see what's
what in seven.
-chris
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