Hypnotic sound of siren, echoing through the street

Yesterday was a much-needed day off. On Tuesday, I wrote a very respectable 1,665 words and reached THE END of "Pickman's Other Model" (total word count, 9,892). And that made eight straight days of writing, and at least eleven days since my last "day off." I very much like how the story turned out, subtler than I'd planned, more suggested than shown — you know the drill. And you can read it in Sirenia Digest #28, if you've subscribed, and if not, that's easy to fix.

Obama took Mississippi, which I entirely expected, but am pleased with, nonetheless.

Yesterday, the postman or UPS or somebody delivered my comp copies of of the mass-market paperback 2nd edition of Murder of Angels. And even though the book has a street date of April 1st, Amazon is still not taking orders. I suspect this is because they bought so many remaindered copies of the tpb, the ones that I was supposed to be able to buy, but couldn't, because my former editor "forgot" to let me know, etc. Regardless, Barnes & Noble is now taking orders, and you can order a copy just by following this link. And if you can, please do, because I'd like these editions to stay in print a while. I like how the mass-market paperback turned out. I'd forgotten, until yesterday, that I actually began this book in 2001, then shelved it and wrote Low Red Moon in 2002, and only came back to Murder of Angels in 2003. How do you forget a thing like that?

Not enough sleep last night. I really have to make an effort to be in bed by 2 ayem or so until this upcoming appearance is done (no matter how unnatural going to bed at 2 may feel). Originally, today was to have been spent shopping, finding a couple of outfits for the trip to Maryland next weekend, because I've not made anything like a public appearance since November 2004 (except the Lovecraft documentary thing last April). But there's a bunch of the busyness of writing I must attend to today, instead. And it's actually a relief, because I hate shopping for clothes that much.

So, yesterday Spooky and I made a 2 p.m. matinée of Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC (a date that marks the beginning of the Mesolithic, by the way). This is slightly odd, because I do so despise the films of Roland Emmerich. Still, I've seen most of them at least once. Independence Day? Hated it. The Day After Tomorrow? Hated it. Stargate and Universal Soldier and Godzilla? Let's not even go there. Anyway, I've had a thing for the "cave man" subgenre since I was a kid, and after seeing those gorgeous shots of mammoth and phorusrhacid birds, how could I stay away, Roland Emmerich or no? And I went in with the mindset that this was the sort of story that Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E. Howard or H. Rider Haggard might have written, a sort of big-budget Conanesque thing. And as it turns out, it is pretty much exactly that. And having gone in with that set of expectations, and much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the film. It's not a Very Good Movie, but it's great eye candy, and it's exactly the sort of film ERB or REH would have written. It helps that I've had a thing for Cliff Curtis since The Fountain (2006) and Sunshine (2007). And that the creature SFX are really quite good. Yes, the science is shit. The history is absurd. The geography is even screwed up. And one could also make arguments concerning sexism and the problem of "Mighty Whitey" coming to the rescue, but, and still, taking the film strictly on its own merits, as what I think it was intended to be, it mostly succeeds, which is more than I can say for any other film this man has directed. Well, the no-sacrifice ending was sort of a cop out, that's true (and compounded the absurdities). Point is, I had fun, and I think, these days, films are so expensive, especially SFX extravaganzas (and 10,000 BC cost a whopping $140 million), and there's so much bullshit hype, that it's hard to just enjoy what should merely be a popcorn movie, a big dumb bit of fun. Anyway, I never thought I'd live long enough to enjoy a Roland Emmerich film.

Later, we had a good walk in Freedom Park (and saw two of our local red-tailed hawks). Then lots of rp in Toxia, and two more episodes of Angel ("Calvary" and "Salvage"). A decent enough day off, all in all. There will be fewer and fewer of these as June approaches. Anyway, yes, many annoying things to be done today, and the platypus just reminded me that talking about cave-man movies will not make them go away. Oh, and if you've said that you want to be part of the Sirenia Players, and you've told me so but have not yet received an invitation, please, please remind me again (and give me your SL username). Right now, we have 13 members, but more are welcome.

...and the sky is filled with light.

I do try not to post lyrics very often, but I've had NIN's "Zero-Sum" stuck in my head for two days, and then this afternoon wolven said, of the song — "It's just so winter-cold and desolate. It may just be personal associations, but I get this moments-before-Ragnarök-stretched-to-infinity kind of feel from it." Which I think was pretty dead on. Anyway...

They're starting to open up the sky.
They're starting to reach down through,
And it feels like we're living in that split-second of a car crash,
And time is slowing down.
And if we only had a little more time,
Then this time is all we have.
Do you remember the time we
And all the times we
And should have
And were going to...?
I know.
And I know you remember.
How we could justify it all.
And we knew better.
In our hearts we knew better.
And we told ourselves it didn't matter,
And we chose to continue.
And none of that matters anymore,
In the hour of our twilight.
And soon it will be all said and done,
And we will all be back together as one.
If we will continue at all.

Shame on us,
Doomed from the start.
May god have mercy
On our dirty little hearts.
Shame on us,
For all we have done.
And all we ever were,
Just zeros and ones.

...and you never get away,
And you never get to take the easy way.
And all of this is a consequence,
Brought on by our own hand,
If you believe in that sort of thing.
And did you ever really find,
When you closed your eyes,
Any place that was still,
And at peace?
And I guess I just wanted to tell you,
As the lights start to fade,
that you are the reason
That I am not afraid.
And I guess I just wanted to mention,
As the heavens will fall,
We will be together soon if we
Will be anything at all.