So although most of my recent posts have involved formatting, proofing, rejecting, reformatting, reproofing, and re-rejecting the print editions of Shards and Ravels, killing trees isn’t the only thing that’s been going on around here. We’ve also been getting caught up on the first two episodes of the “Breaking Bad” spinoff prequel “Better Call Saul“, as well as the Gone Girl spinoff “Gone Girl“. Oh, and my wife has been getting caught up on her naps.
So as I mentioned previously, I am now in the process of putting together the print editions of Shards and Ravels. It’s been a good six years since I last did a print book (that would be Dragon Stones, of course), and while all of my previous ones were done through Lulu, I thought I might give another service a try this time — namely, CreateSpace.
So over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, with a little extra time off from the job that actually pays the bills (Lord knows writing doesn’t), I finally wrapped up the last pass of editing on the conclusion of Shards — or, as I am now calling it, The “Strings” Duology:
So this week I’m reading–or rather, re-reading–a book, Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout, that’s printed on actual paper. Aged, yellowing paper, even! This is the 50th anniversary edition, published in 1984, which means that if it were published now it would be the 80th anniversary edition. Does anybody else feel old?
“If I kill all the golfers, they’re gonna lock me up and throw away the key.”
So this week we watched “Gran Torino“, one of Clint Eastwood’s late-career movies that doesn’t go the way you think it’s going to go. In this film, Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a recently-widowed Korean war veteran living in a neighborhood that has become rather dilapidated, and also largely ethnic Hmong, including a thuggish street gang whose members like to cram, clown-car style, into a rather junky little beater with an ugly spoiler and a hood that’s not the same color as the body. Walt’s prized Gran Torino catches the gang’s eye as a much more suitable ride. Hilarity does not ensue.
“You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: Do I feel like getting off Walt’s lawn? Well do ya, punk?”
Viscosity 