Picking up some classics.

So I went shopping at Borders yesterday and discovered this brilliant deal.

Penguin classics for $10, at 20% off.

I’ve been wanting my own copy of The Big Sleep for years. The others were just a bonus.

(also, DAMN, my hair is terrifying in the morning)

In personal news, Ant Tower is off with a magazine at the moment, and I’ve resubmitted my other few stories around that have been previously rejected. Just gotta keep working through the “thanks-but-no-thanks” slips. The grind never stops.

Weathermen draft 3 broke the 20,000 word mark today, which is about 1/6th of the book. It’s infinitely better this time around. Still work to be done on scene-setting and some character motivations, but I’m enjoying re-reading and tightening this draft instead of cringing at every second line. This might well be good to go by years end. Let’s see!

Question – what are your all-time most classic books? The stuff that made you drop out of school and join the army. The book that made you propose to your partner. The book that made you climb a mountain in your jocks. What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read?

Yesterday was a strange day.

I sheltered from the gale-force storm in a maintenance doorway with a hobo. He wore no shoes, and his toenails were yellowed and split. He grinned at me, teeth stained nicotine brown. “Whadda fuckin’ storm!”

I pulled my hood up against the winds. Small stones whipped past, clattering off the windows. “It was a damn nice day!” I said. “Where’d it come from?”

“It’s hurricane Ike!” he replied. “Imported alla way from Mexico!”

Across the street, two men sat outside Miss Libertine’s café on wicker chairs. Cigarettes glowed in the shadows of their hooded jumpers. They puffed in defiance of the winds and the smoke was carried away. A siren in the distance.

The hobo cinched up his pants. “Good luck, fella!” he said, and stepped out into the street.

More submissions and hard work

Been radio-silence for a while now. I’ve been swamped with uni work, which is an absolute pain, considering I know what I (ideally) want to be doing with my life and it has almost nothing to do with my degree. Still, you know what they say, as regards day jobs and not quitting them.

I’ve taken down Ant Tower because I’ve done a final run on it and started sending it out. Hopefully that goes somewhere, but I guess we’ll wait and see. In the meantime, the third draft of Weathermen is progressing at a reasonable pace. I’ll have the first chapter in a respectable state by the end of next week – anyone up for having a read and giving me some serious line-by-line crits? It should weigh in at 9500 words or thereabouts.

So yeah. If anyone has some free time, I’ll shoot you a word doc by Friday. Cheers all, and hope your own projects are moving along!