What does that even mean?

Cam was trying to tell me about a film trailer he saw. I am quite negative when it comes to him telling me about things he saw on TV. I rarely watch it myself and I hate to hear recycled TV plots. But this was about a movie so I tried really hard to pay attention.

He said the commercial was for a creepy movie and says “If a person dies in a state of terror a curse is born” to which I asked what kind of delivery the curse had. He said he didn’t want to know what I was talking about. I asked it if was an easy birth or if it was difficult for the mother. It’s so ridiculous I just can’t take it seriously.

Then he said they showed two of the curses in the trailer. I asked if one had an APGAR score of three and one of ten but he didn’t get what I was talking about.

When I asked him what all this is supposed to mean he had no answer for me. What does it mean to have a curse that makes an arm grow out of your head? To me that is just stupid and boring.

I’m sure though if I ever encountered some sort of curse I would be in big trouble. I would do something to activate the curse, like wear white shoes during the wrong time of the year. Some ghostly grizzled mummy of a fashion model would start following me around telling me I must suffer the curse and I would be saying “But what does that even mean?” and arguing about continuity and logic of that particular horror universe until she gave up and bashed me in the head with some stiletto shoes.

* * * *

My own writing. I'm thinking more and more about this idea for a script about a family fighting over who gets to be more active in their child's life. That is essentially the theme although in a way it would almost be a remake of The Music Man. I figured out a way to make it into a sequel to I Am Not the Problem Here but probably only a crazy person would consider writing a sequel to a script that has not yet been shopped around much less made.

I worked on Bluer for awhile today. I don’t really know how to keep track of what I am doing with that book. One hundred words or so and kind of a big decision about the swearing thing. Taking it all out didn’t work for me. There is a part where she is talking about her broken heart and she says “That fucker can break and break and break.” I can’t find a word that works as well as fucker right there.

I’ve got other parts coming up that I think will not be as strong if she has to completely forgo cursing. I think if maybe she saves it for when she is totally freaking out then it works because it shows how out of control she is. She can also use it when she just wants to show some very strong emotion. As Andras’ teacher said there is a big difference between saying “it is cold outside” and “it is fucking cold outside.” So let me leave her as many tools as possible so she can tell her story the way she wants to.

This book is the most internal thing I have ever written. It’s not a style I usually use but I started it right after reading The Post Office which is pretty internal and more of a slice of life than anything else. Even after a year I am still too close to it to judge it particularly well. Maybe when I am done with this rewrite and let it sit for six weeks.

There are parts of it that make my heart sing because I love the language. I love how I said exactly what I wanted to say and I said it beautifully. But in general gorgeous, rich language does not a book make. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

I wrote a story called Pyrexia, Unknown Etiology at the end of June. I’m going to do the second draft this week. Tonight’s goal is just to read it and catch any typos that leap out at me. When I wrote it I was at the prime of my latest vision loss and I really couldn’t see the screen. I ran it through spell-check but heaven knows if I clicked the right word choices. I’m going to have to find someone to proof this thing before I do anything with it. I’d like to workshop it at Zoe.

I miss reviewing there. Two years ago I was a top rated reviewer for the month of November or September or something. Now I haven’t even logged in for ages.

I guess my blog takes up time that I used to spend on other sites. I started out posting stuff like this into a couple of rather longs threads at Project Greenlight. I did that for a couple of years. Then I used my office at Zoe for posts like this and then I moved to blogger. All told I have been blogging in one form or another since October of 2000. I certainly hope this blog lasts longer than some of my former venues.

So to sum up, a little over four pages, editing on Bluer and read Pyrexia, Unknown Etiology.