(no subject)

1. Well the heat appears to be fixed. Doing the 7am-5pm shift at work (it's better to come in early than stay late...since it's dangerous to stay late, no one is there, but I can't get up at 4 am, I just can't...5 is my limit), and actually got two of the six or seven projects I need to get out...out today. Exhausted. Plus...have come to conclusion that the depression and irritability of the last few days is due to PMS. Yes, Period started. Was afraid Menopause had started. But no, still in the pre-menopause phase. Which is a mixed blessing. I don't miss my 30s, I miss my body during my 30s and sigh, my social life. It's the ironic catch-22 of life, it's easier to have a social life if you are unemployed, but you are broke...so the social life is a bit...ahem, frenetic.

2. Relaxing with Avanti, a really good Spainish Pinot Noir...very good. Smooth. No heart burn. Like velvet. Best red I've had in a long, long, time. And envying Neil Gaiman who has the best life. I want to be Amanda...his wife, but do what he does for a living, not what she does. In his blog he tells us two things...

* BBC Radio has apparently...gathered James McAvoy, Natalie Dormier, Christopher Lee, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Anthony Stewart Head...to do a radio broadcast of Neverwhere. (I didn't love Neverwhere - I liked it. Hard to love Gaiman, his characters always feel more like ideas than actual life breathing people, as if you are looking at the idea of a character or this marvelous drawing, but can't quite get to know them. It's quite odd. I want to love them, but don't. Had the same problem with American Gods. Gaiman is the oddest writer...I want to love his works, yet...always feel somehow intellectually intrigued but emotionally distanced from them. ) The other things he's doing? Watching his episode of Doctor Who get filmed - apparently he wrote another one (Doctor Who fits Neil Gaiman, it's also weirdly intellectually engaging but emotionally distancing). . And he's working on the pilot for American Gods - apparently this is still going to be an HBO series? I hope so. I have a feeling I may like it more than the book.
Gaiman's screenplays are oddly more emotionally engaging then his novels, this is equally true of his comic books - also more engaging. I've come to the conclusion that the problem with Gaiman's novels is he comes from comic books and screen writing - where you sort of rely on art and actors to fill in the character gaps, to imbue the characters with life, fill them up as it were. He creates the world, the framework, the words they say, someone else brings the soul? Explains Whedon as well...who I think would be a horrific novelist.

People don't get this. But writing a novel and writing a screenplay are very different things. They have zip in common. Some can do both. A lot can't. Same deal with plays and novels, very different. Comic books are similar to screenplays and plays, but also different, because you are dealing with art not actors, there's no voice. So you have to convey that yourself - which is not as easy as it looks. Having jumped from various writing mediums: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, plays, screenplays, business writing, academic, blogging, journalistic, technical, legal, procedural...I can tell you each is its own unique animal with its own rules, rhythms, and needs.
Writing is not as easy as it looks. Not everyone can do it. And it takes a lot of work. And just because you can write a great comic doesn't mean you can write a book, or just because you can write a great poem doesn't mean you can do a screenplay. Also good or great writing doesn't necessarily equal great story-telling. Plus it's always subjective. Doesn't matter the field or style - always subjective.

Of all the arts...writing captivates and thrills me the most. It is the hardest, the most challenging and the most awarding for me. And I can't stop doing it. If I couldn't write something, doesn't matter what...I think I'd die.

3. Watching the following shows at the moment...

Go On (best new sitcom of the season)
Subugatory
Good Wife
Grey's Anatomy
General Hospital (shut up, I have a weakness of wonky soaps)
Vamp Diaries (see above)
Gossip Girl (see above...although it has gotten really really bad...and if it weren't in its last season, it would be gone)
Hart of Dixie (see above...and may be gone soon)
Revenge (a convoluted mess this season, but...still fun)
Nashville
Parenthood
Arrow (and a weakness for dark vigilante survivor complex series apparently)
Walking Dead (see above)
The Hour (Broadcast News meets Mad Men by way of Masterpiece Theater)
Once Upon a Time (I think I like the narrative structure more than I like the characters...which is odd. Also the plotting and ideas. Actually characters aren't bad, the dialogue and acting...on the other hand feels very Fantasy Island at times...can Jamie Chung's Mulan be any more wooden? Jamie, we already have a Pinnoccio, and you aren't it.)
Revolution (sigh, see above, yet not quite as entertaining. although EW has fallen in love with it, it's a white guy's wet dream, small wonder.)
Elementary (not really watching so much as saving up episodes on the DVR in the hopes of watching some day...it may well go the way Scandal did eventually...couldn't get into that either.)
Covert Affairs (a weirdly realistic Jason Bourne take on La Femme Nikita with a blind geeky guy as the romantic hero.)
Glee (I'm hanging in there. Yes, it's still sooo over-the-top campy high-school, but oddly better than last year and the NY story works.)

There may be others...but I can't remember them at the moment. I tape, and eventually get around to watching on DVR. Very little sticks. And if any of the above got cancelled, I seriously doubt I'd care all that much. Note, I'm only listing the shows airing NOW, if they aired during summer or last winter they aren't listed, because I'm not watching them in November and December.

4. Reading the following books...because I can't make up my mind.

* Immortal Life of Henrietta Laks - I think I may stick with this one, I like the writing style and the story. It intrigues me.
* The Kill Artist by Daniel Silvia...can't stick with it, but keep trying. I wonder if the latter books are better? Not the page-turner I was promised. Of course friend who promised it, thinks Bones, X-Files and Friends are the best shows ever, I Love Lucy the best sitcom, and adores Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. (Our taste, to put it mildly, tends to well...not match most of the time. I'm an ecletic geek. She's painfully mainstream.)
* Flat Out Love - borrowed from Amazon Prime, and it's starting to annoy me, the protagonist is painfully girly and shallow. I keep wanting to kick her. Repeatedly.
* Cold Days by Jim Butcher...may wait until Xmas Vacation and treat myself. Too distracted right now to enjoy it.
* Siren by some erotica writer...downloaded a sample, it's dumb. All erotica is dumb. Some painfully dumb. I don't know why this is so..but it is. Also why are all the women in these books either incredibly rich or involved with incredibly rich men? Erotica seems to equal wealth fantasy and controlling guys for some odd reason. The only erotica writer who didn't write dumb erotica was Anais Nin, but that's mainly because she didn't really write it - just wrote about her life, not the same thing. BTW...there's an erotica table at Barnes and Noble now. It states: "IF you like 50 Shades, you'll love these!" LOL!. I remember the good old days when you had to hunt for it on the back shelves...which of course I never ever did and have no idea how I would even know this.
* The Book Theif...interesting but not holding my attention.

Considering trying Ann Patchett's State of Wonder (her feminist take on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) and Swamplandia. I think I've officially burned myself out on YA and Romance genre novels now.

5. Am tired. Good night.