Reading: Franklin: The Essential Founding Father by James Srodes
Music: Lou Reed
TV/Movie: My Man Godfrey, The Hurricane, Lost Horizons
Link o' the Day: Dave Langford's Article Index

Info an the Fiction Writers APA can be found in February 26th's entry. If you're a writer, give it a look.

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Over Christmas, while Pretty Maggie and I were staying at her aunt and uncle's for the holiday, I had the opportunity to watch the classic film, My Man Godfrey (1936). It's the story of a forgotten man (a pre-war euphamism for those who lost everything they owned in the Great Depression, i.e., homeless) and his dealings with a scatter-brained family as their new butler. It makes for both excellent comedy and social commentary as Godfrey (played by the superb William Powell) deals with the family and comes to terms with his own past and those "forgotten" men still living in the city dump.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see the last half hour of it. Just now, I finished listening to a radio adaptation of the movie (much shortened) and got a glimpse as to how the story ends. It's a little too pat--a little too perfect, but satisfactory just the same. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who comes across it on cable or in the video rental place. (Rent the William Powell original. The 1957 remake starring David Niven is said to be a pale imitation.)

(Shortly after listening to the above, I came across another old classic adapted for radio--The Hurricane starring Mary Astor. Also worth viewing if you get the chance--the best hurricane scenes in movie history!
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Work is steady--both freelance and fiction. I'm in that phase right now where I have a bunch of submissions all out at the same time, and now it's a matter of waiting for responses. But as anyone can tell you, the best thing to do while waiting for submission responses is to write more stories. So away I go.

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I've picked up my biography of Ben Franklin again after taking a break from reality to delve into a run of SF and mystery stories. He's just too fascinating a character not to write a story about someday. I don't think about alternate history stories much. I have one half-written about Henry David Theoreau on a New Bedford whaling ship writing to a Ralph Waldo Emerson who works as a coal miner. I've thought of maybe trying a juvie short story that features Franklin as a character--he certainly was that.

Anyway, it's a good book and it's been fueling some ideas.

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Another short-ish entry today. Back to the grindstone. Today's link is a good one for browsers--it's Dave Langford's Article Index. This is a great place to find a huge collection of Dave Langford's writing, articles, essays, and whatnot. For those who don't know, Dave is a perrenial Hugo winner as either Best Fan Writer, Best Fanzine (Ansible) or Best Short Story (as he did in 2001). I had the opportunity to meet him a number of times at Torcon, and he was one of my first contributors for my fanzine Sleight of Hand.

Enjoy!