Reading: CAKES AND ALE by W. Somerset Maugham
Music: Greenwich Street Musician's "Bleeker Street"
TV/Movie: Futurama Season One DVD
Link o' the Day: Josh Becker: Articles, Essays & Stories

Open question #1: Has anyone ever submitted fiction to the Drexel Online Journal? I sent them poetry and fiction a number of months ago. The poetry response came back a month later, but I'm still waiting on the fiction response and am getting a little impatient.

Open question #2: Any Worldcon attendees this year looking for a roommate? Ideally looking to share w/ someone(s) at the convention hotel. Won't be smoking or drinking, but don't care if others do. Mostly just looking for a place to sleep, shower, and dump my swag.

Now, on to the journal!

So I read a great short story today by W. Somerset Maugham (who's surprised?) called "Mr. Know-All". It's the story of a man (presumably the author) forced to share a ship cabin from San Francisco to Kobe with an annoying, overbearing, busybody know-it-all. Of course something occurs which reveals a depth to Mr. Know-All that had not been apparent before--a level of sacrifice that was unexpected in such an individual. I won't ruin the story--if you find a copy of it in a collection, I recommend it. It's a quick, and satisfying little read that forces you, the reader, into the same exact line of thought the author seems to be going through during the story. You end up with that same feeling of revelation as the author in the end. It's somewhat reminiscent of Joyce's Dubliners.

Now that's some good writing.

It's been a good night for writing, although it's mostly been revision tonight. While noodling with the Truck Kings story, I decided I needed a change of pace and found a story I had desk-drawered months ago and had forgotten that it needed some attention. "Fulton's Monster" got itself a really "fresh eyes" look tonight and I'm preparing to place it in the mail tomorrow. It's a story about imagination and reality. I'm surprisingly very happy with it. I remember the first draft of this I wrote and while it wasn't a stinker--it lacked something for the reader to connect with. I think I found it. If it sells, I'll let y'all know.

I received an e-mail tonight reminding me about a nonfiction piece I was supposed to have done a while ago. I totally forgot about it, but luckily have about half of it already written. Fortunately I can still make a deadline on it (I think). This week will be full of writing (and reviewing notes)!

For the rest of tonight, however, it's finishing up on Truck Kings.

Today's link goes to Josh Becker: Articles, Essays & Stories. Josh is one of those Hollywood outsiders who manages to make an occasional living selling spec scripts. He's done a few Xena and Jack of All Trades scripts and did some work on the movie "Evil Dead". What I like about this page are his articles on storytelling and scripts. There's quite a lot to explore and it's worth an evening's perusal or more.

Cheers!