Walken Tall

A fine Christmas Eve to everyone.

h/t: TheBootStore

Waiting on the Beta Readers

Six readers will wade into my long short story. I shall wait until after Christmas to spruce it up, before sending it out. I can't wait to work on my next story: "Ella The Passive-Aggressive Ghost."

Most depressed lately, re. running, or lack there of. One more shot, then I'll call it a life and do other things. Hopefully healthy things.

More From Tech For Less

To make an annoying story short, a kindly soul at Tech For Less took pity on me and mailed a Christmas gift despite high incompetence on the part of my credit card company.

Thank you, decent and noble Tech For Less. Merry Christmas and may fat sales lie in your techy future.

You and Me and a Christmas Tree

They vote and breed.

EMBED-Dad Ruins Christmas Tree Setup - Watch more free videos
h/t: Viral Footage

Winding Down and Wasted from Writing

Weary on this shortest day of the year from slogging away on my novelette - the technical term for the story I'm writing as it's no longer short, but not wordy enough to be a novella. There's a temptation to punch ahead and make it so, but I need feedback on what I have. Perspective has "slipped the surly bonds of earth," as the poet said, and I crave input. Alas, I have no more signed Freakazoid posters to offer as inducement. Perhaps plastic grapes? Or a gnome child, left in my barbecue. (Actually, I already turned it over to the county. But my wife has photographs if we can figure out what's wrong with her Canon Sure-Shot.) Anyway, something.

Santa Under Pressure

Will the Jolly One crack at the hands of Jack Bauer?

Three Wolf Returns

If you remember this, you'll enjoy this.

Mad TV Fun

A Mad TV sketch my sister turned me on to.

Sizzled on Rewrites

Burned out yesterday rewriting the first seven pages of the jumbo short story. Today, I'll concentrate only on the last 20 pages. Everything needs to be paid off and its the weakest portion; the part I keep saying will "write itself," in the vain hope that it actually will. So now I will because the story will not do me a solid. My own story!

Stuck in the Short Story Consideration Line

Queue you. So I've been told electronically. One magazine I submitted to has an on-line submission and tracking page. You're given a number when you send in your story. Then you can follow its progress through the editorial process, much like watching your car move through brushes, soap, and hot wax at the car wash. My story currently has 94 other stories in front of it, waiting to be read. In other words, it has not even been vacuumed. A lengthy wait will certainly affect my tip.

Going Back to Jackson

Yesterday would've been the 90th birthday of author Shirley Jackson. Author of "The Lottery" and "The Haunting of Hill House," she died of an apparent heart attack back in 1965 at the age of 45. Jackson wrote good gothic, but could also crank out light-hearted, slice-of-slice books about the chaos of raising four kids. She loved writing because it was one of the few times during the day she got to sit down.

Unlike my laborious method of writing draft after draft until the right words finally appear, Jackson would mull a story over for a long time, then sit down and bang it out almost print ready. (Very similar to the Paul Rugg style .-:)) My favorite Jackon short story involved an older New York couple who decided to spend the winter upstate at their summer home and learned the locals could be deadly if you overstayed your welcome.

And that was this moment in Shirley Jackson history.