Thursday, November 06, 2003
Either Spooky and I are coming down with a cold, or it's only allergies.
Yesterday, we proofed the prologue of Murder of Angels, which is much longer than any of my previous prologues. Then we made a trip up to Borders at Lenox, in the rain, to see Low Red Moon on bookstore shelves. There was a stack on the "new trade paperbacks" table out front, and more copies upstairs under "horror." Eight copies altogether, so, if you're in Atlanta, there at copies at the Lenox/Buckhead location of Borders. Also, they had copies of Silk and Threshold. But here's what's really cool. I was browsing through the science section and flipping through a copy of Richard Ellis' new Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. It's a survey of the evolution of marine tetrapods aimed at a lay audience, covering everything from plesiosaurs to ichthyosaurs to mosasaurs. Anyway, to my surprise it discusses my 2002 paper on Alabama mosasaur biostratigraphy and my discovery and description of Selmasaurus russelli. All together, the book references four of my scientific papers, I think. And that made me feel better than just about anything has lately. The marks we make.
We left Borders and went to Lenox Mall for the candy store and Jelly Belly jelly beans. I got watermelon, green apple, lemon-lime, and very cherry. Spooky, far more adventurous than I, got weird stuff like buttered popcorn, caramel corn, A&W cream soda, grape jelly, pink grapefruit, and Dr. Pepper. Stuff like that. The pink grapefruit actually weren't gross and she gave me a few. I sat outside the Apple store and drooled, from a safe distance, at iPods and G5s. Then we made for a bar, where there was good beer and vinegar-salt fries, and a rather long and alarming encounter with a bum that would probably make a good little story, if I were up to telling it. But I'm not. Then we drove home, and discovered the power was out all over this part of Atlanta, and I nearly killed myself climbing an iron picket fence (I was a little drunk). The gate won't open without electricity. I hurt the knee again (not too badly this time) and collected a few more bruises. Spooky just hopped right on over, damn her.
Last night's Enterprise, "Twilight," was a vast improvement over last week's snoozefest, though the ending was a little too tidy. But that's Star Trek for you. Angel was hilarious and excellent; I think Jeffrey Bell's writing and direction is superb and "The Cautionary Tale Of Numero Cinco" was one of the best eps I've seen. Afterwards, Spooky and I studied MojoWorld until one or two a.m. I made a hellish world baking beneath a swollen red star, its huge moon torn by gravity and bleeding lava. Then I went to bed, after watching a few minutes of Sunset Boulevard on Bravo (the all-gay channel), and read a little of Low Red Moon and The Five of Cups, just for dren and giggles. And that, kiddos, was yesterday.
Well, mostly. Some judicious editing is always a good thing.
I am finally at liberty to announce that my story, "Tears Seven Times Salt," was chosen for The Century's Best Horror, edited by John Pelan, to be published by Cemetery Dance Publications. John gave me the news, that I'd been chosen for 1996, months and months ago, but swore me to secrecy. Yesterday, he sent an e-mail telling me I could release the news. 100 stories. 100 authors. 100 years. Two volumes. I am very, very flattered to have been chosen, and very glad that "Tears Seven Times Salt," a personal favorite of mine, was the story that got me in. I'll post details on this project as they are made available.
Low Red Moon continues to sell briskly at Amazon. Here are some figures from yesterday: 11 a.m., 2,141; 12 p.m. 2,268; 1:01, 2,161; 3:02, 1,893 (!); 7:12, 2,198; 10:01, 2,799; 11:01, 2,703. Then, from today, at 12:12 a.m., 2,883; 1:20 a.m., 2,046; 8:17, 2,201; 10:50, 2,850; 11:00, 2,850; 12:12 p.m., 2,890. Now, if only I knew how these figures translated into actual numbers of books sold.
Today, I'm going to try to get through chapters One and Two of Murder of Angels. I expect I'll only get through the first chapter, as they are very long chapters. But one should always intend more than one can actually accomplish.
|
|
