The Mighty Elder God Cthulhu arrived today, along with his twin brother, um, Steve, and after being freed from cardboard and plastic wrap and those little dealies that fastened them to each other, they rose to their fullest height, declared humanity obsolete, and proceeded to eat me, starting with my feet:

And a a close-up, because they are so vain:

I have to say, Cthulhu and Steve are tremendously comfortable. Very cushy.

***

My story "Stuck" got ripped a new one last night in Wilton Barnhardt's workshop, and with just cause. I like the story, but I always felt like there was something missing, and everyone in class gave me some great reasons why. Wilton actually rewrote my beginning, compressing five pages into ten lines, and they're so beautiful that I have to share them here:

How delightful, Peter thought, that the most attractive young woman on the campus bus got off at his stop and now walked before him on the path toward the English Department. Her perfume took possession of the air around her -- something with jasmine and lilac, perhaps. Completely intoxicating. She was foreign, from India or one of the countries in the neighborhood, he guessed, and she had occasioned for the last twenty minutes every hackneyed fantasy Peter had ever had about the harems of the east -- her long silken ink-black hair plaited down her back, the aristocratic cheekbones, the sumptuous long lashes surrounding liquid brown eyes, and the curvaceous body of an erotic goddess who has stepped off a temple frieze in Rajasthan... My goodness, he thought, she is going into the English Department...and, indeed, she turned to hold the door for him. A moment later, he had the pleasure of holding the elevator door open for her and asking, as they stepped into it alone, "What floor?"

I mean, is that not just fucking gorgeous? It made me realize that however well I'm doing now with my writing, I still have a long way to go to create the above prose. The temptation is very strong to steal that opening and rewrite the rest of the story in that style, and I may do so. Wilton wants me to be more concerned with the sonority of the sentence, the sound, the word the sentences end on, the effiency of the language, and this story may be the answer to that challenge.

***

I started my new job today as editorial assistant with the CTE. Typical first day stuff: introductions to people in the department, explanation of projects, filling out tax info, ritual atomic wedgie, showed the location of the break room... All part of starting a new job. I could've done without the atomic wedgie, though.

My first project was editing a transcript for this teleconference webcast. I had the archived teleconference going on my computer in Windows Media Player while looking over the transcript. Got to wear headphones and everything.

Everyone seems very nice, and it looks like it'll be a good experience. I'm hoping the job will last past December, since there is that possibility. And though I'm now officially on Fall Break from classes, I'll be working tomorrow and Friday to pick up some extra scratch.

***

After returning some books to the library this afternoon, and checking more out, Janet and I headed to this great hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant near downtown Cary. The food was absolutely delicious (and had the added benefit of clearing my sinuses): Janet got chicken briyani and I had tandoori chicken, though we picked off each other's plates. Janet's dish contained so much colorful rice that we brought most of it home, and she'll be combining it with mulligatawny soup (which is also Indian) sometime soon.

Afterward, we went to TJ Maxx to walk off some of our dinner and browse (Janet was also on a mission to find some new pants), and I ended up finding a great sweater (and matching hat) for only $16. I also found some Ralph Lauren boxer-briefs on clearance for $4, which was awesome. Yay for marked down underwear.

Now Reading:
Hidden Camera by Zoran Zivkovic

Stories Out to Publishers:
9

Books Read This Year:
55

Zines/Graphic Novels/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
30