Fringe and Change

Watched the pilot of Fringe last night on Fox. Wow, what a ride! I'm hooked. Like I really needed another show I have to see every week. If you like stuff like time travel, teleportation, astral projection, etc, you'll have to see it, too. The writing was good, there were no obvious cliches and there were some moments that completely took me by surprise. That's hard to do. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll only tease a bit. An airplane lands itself with the next level auto-pilot software--on time. The passengers, however, arrive with much less flesh than they started with. All dead. Two of the investigators are having "a thing" and while checking on a lead, he's infected with something similar. His romantic interest, our heroine must seek the aide of a man who's been in the loony bin for 17 years with the help of his son, who she must first fetch from Iraq.

A lot of the pilots I've seen lately are big on character development and short on action. This was an exception to be sure. If you missed it, don't worry. There's an encore presentation on Sunday.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...
I don't blog about my animals. It's like a rule with me. Plenty of people have that covered. And good for them. I just figure that this is a SF blog and therefore the blogger's pet's are irrelevant unless they're alien. George was not alien, but he was my beloved kitty for 18 years. He died in the night. At least he's no longer hurting.

On the job front, I actually applied for two FT, local writing jobs in two days! They don't come up very often. Fingers crossed. Oh, to be able to say I write for a living! :) I also have an interview with an arm of the county that I'm hopeful about.

I just signed on to do even more book reviews. I'll be reviewing books for Pantechnicon, a cool SF ezine I just stumbled upon. I've already put in requests for great upcoming titles. Stay tuned for my review of Mars Life by Ben Bova, complete with author interview.

I'm still working on the sequel to Awesome Lavratt. Poor Horace keeps coming back for more.

Literary Cereal - that's right cereal, not serial

Snap, Crackle, Pop!!! Saturday, "Your Smiling Face" went up at Every Day Fiction. Yesterday, my funny, short SF story, "Jolaneering" went up at Nanobison AND (Pop!) I sold "Bullheaded" to an anthology. It was the bull riding story I've been working on throughout the summer that was due last weekend. Very exciting to have so much happen at once. Now, it's time again for those SSIAWs (Short Story in a Week challenges) over at OWWW (Other Worlds Writers Workshop). Do I or don't I? Perhaps I'll just do two, although I should really be concentrating on the sequel to Awesome Lavratt.

I made a discovery over Labor Day weekend. I've been job hunting since June. I've figured out why it's so darned depressing, aside from the rejection. We work hard to convince ourselves and sometimes actually know that what other people think doesn't matter. We learn that our worth doesn't need to be validated by others. (If you haven't even considered this concept, run, don't walk to an al-anon meeting or get yourself a book on co-dependence or self worth.) Anyhow, then we job hunt and it's ALL about what others think of you. Suddenly we have to quantify our worth and sell ourselves. Every time I see the "must have ______ degree" or "must have ________ experience with ________ systems", which I don't, I feel inadequate. A call for an interview and I'm doing mini victory dance--until I get the mail and the Dear John/Jane letter is staring me in the face, mocking me.

There's a gem of a job out there somewhere--one that is perfectly suited to my talents and abilities. I just wish I could find it sooner rather than later, so I can get off of this emotional rollercoaster of job hunting.

"Your Smiling Face" up at Every Day Fiction

My second story for Every Day Fiction is available today! "Your Smiling Face" is a departure from my usual fare, but is already getting great comments. Please add yours today.

I've finished my bull riding story. Now for the final polish. I'm still enjoying my new word: procrastinatable(s). Spread my word. Maybe it will make the online dictionaries in a year or two. :)

It would look like this:
n: procrastinatable
a task that can be put off to a later date. a task that does not require immediate attention.

Nothing Like a Deadline...

I just blogged about procrastination on LJ today. Then I was reading over at SF Novelists and found I wasn't the only one that had that theme for their blog entry today. Is it because of the time of year? Summer is coming to a close and play time is over?

I can accomplish great things when given a deadline. If you want me to do something, tell me you need it by such and such a date, or it may get forgotten or buried in my pile of procrastinatables. Oooohhh...I like that word. Procrastinatables. Procrastinatables. Can I keep it? Oh yessssss my precioussssss. :)

So here's links to the aforementioned blogs if you need tips on how to -- or not to -- procrastinate:
My LJ blog
SF Novelists (an entry by Mindy Klasky)

Meantime, my goals for this week are: 1)finish, polish and send out a contest entry, a 7K word story I've been wrestling with on and off (okay, mostly off!) for a couple months. 2) finish the the outline, proposal and rough of a magazine article. 3) finish two of the books I'm reading. 4) Review one and start two more.

I'm currently reading (and immensely enjoying) Ben Bova's Mars. I thought it might be good to read that for comparison before I read and review his new book, Mars Life. His shiny new ARC of Mars Life is beckoning to me. Stay tuned for an interview with him right here.

SF TV - There's more than two shows to choose from!

Remember Max Headroom? I just remembered him the other day. Here's a Max Headroom video clip. He's interviewing Sting.

And here's a
piece of the episode in which he was "born".

What about Starhunter? Crusaders? Remember when we only had two SF shows to choose from? I'm not talking per night. I'm talking about all week. The SF channel didn't help much for years. It was mostly horror, not SF.

Dead Like Me was great, too. And of course, I'm still mourning the loss of Invasion.

Now we have prime time slots on tons of channels. People who think they don't like SF are hooked on Lost and Eureka. Aside from Star Trek in all its forms, I'd have to say that Firefly is the best. I have them all on DVD and we watch them again every 6 months or so. Awesome writing.

And look at all the new Dr. Who fans we have now!

Well, hubby's waiting for me to stop blogging so we can watch the latest Eureka we recorded on the DVR.