November. Time to take stock of things. Sequel to Reality Testing aiming to be delivered to the publisher in February. Movie about a giant robot potentially in the works. TV series doing my head in…pitch meeting next week.
Yes, yes, I’m exhausted.
But there’s another cool development: My publisher, Black Rose, is getting in on the Kindle Vella action. Kindle Vella, for those not in the know, is:
“a platform that authors can use to share their stories with readers in an episodic style. The big feature of Kindle Vella is its serialized format—authors publish content in 'episodes,' and readers consume that content one episode at a time”
I am absolutely on board with this. Finally, someone has found a way to make books combat-ready for the Inattentive Age. All they had to do was go back to the 1830s for the idea. Thanks, man who originally decided to serialise The Pickwick Papers. Anyway, what it means is that I now finally have a place for my wild tales set in the Sundown universe. No longer will I have to trawl Submittable looking for any calls for submissions even remotely resembling sci fi. Instead, I can compete against titles such as The Elven Lord’s Concubine, Shadowglen: Witches & Wolves, Filthy Rich Vampires and - perhaps my favourite - Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder.
Movie of the month: I think it has to be the smouldering 1963 dudefest Hud, which has some of the greatest dialogue I’ve ever heard. A smattering:
“You don't look out for yourself, the only helping hand you'll ever get is when they lower the box.”
“Get all the good you can out of seventeen 'cause it sure wears out in one hell of a hurry.”
“Happens to everybody. Horses, dogs, men. Nobody gets out of life alive.”
That last one is just so butch and ridiculous and awesome.
A note on Paul Newman’s portrayal of Hud: He could absolutely be one of the biggest dickheads put to celluloid. There are antiheroes and then there’s whatever Newman is doing here, and it’s both amazing and infuriating at the same time.
Album of the month: I’m just going to go ahead and list the upcoming Metallica album here, every month, until it comes out in April. Because it’s gonna be the album of the damn century. Hear this? Hear that sub-Motorhead, single-riff, chuggy bollocks genius? How about that solo that sounds like someone had their hands chopped off and did their best to play with the stumps? HOW ABOUT THEM LYRICS? Full speed or nuthin’, baby. Hopefully in the next track they’ll reference Ronnie.
(Note: The actual album of the month is a three-way tie between Ultra Truth by Daniel Avery, Changes by KGLW, and Almanac Behind by Daniel Bachman).
Book of the month: I’m already tearing up as I write The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. Why didn’t we read this in school? If I’d been handed this at the right time instead of 20 years too late, it would have been seismic for me. As it is, I can safely say it is much, much better than the film, which I watched many years ago and is the reason I never got around to reading the novel. Wonderful.
November sunset:
1. Kedr Livanskiy - Ivan Kupala
2. SAULT - Don’t Waste My Time
semaphore.