Halloween movie night: Ravens Hollow

If Mattel ever hired Steven King as a creative consultant, this is what Barbie movies would probably look like. 11 minutes, directed by Colin Clarke.

Dystopian future: diseases

Disease. It's the one thing over which humanity has very little control. Did you read that right? Yes, you did. Germs may not know we exist, but they are out to get us, and it is quite possible that they will. There is no hope of conquering disease, only a series of lucky, temporary defenses.

From the Innsmouth Observer, October 29

Innsmouth Police Chief in desperate plea to pet owners

"Please stop feeding your pets Dunwich Happy Buddy Pet Food," said Innsmouth Police Chief  Severity Johnson on Monday, October 29. "The pet company has issued a recall on all batches shipped before Friday October, 26, and we kindly request all pet owners to return batches before this date as soon as possible."

Halloween and what it means to me

Whether approaching darkness, or the long hot days of the southern summer, Halloween has become important to me, to the point where I made a comment on Facebook that I am worried about the encroachment of the pink of breast cancer on the day.

Movie night: Before Sunrise

Shadow creatures play throughout the night in a fairytale village, but on this night one particular shadow is tired of his mischevious life and discovers something altogether more magical. 5 good-natured minutes written and directed By Kealan O'Rourke.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-10-26

On this week's menu, 30 cm spiders, a sick note from a sangoma, Kim Newman's 'Dracula Cha Cha Cha', superbugs in animals and the 'Thesaurus of Emotions'

Dawning revelation ('Breaking Damn!')

I have been a bit (very) slack in getting on with rewriting 'Coffee'. This morning, as I was writing, I let loose with words and things started moving along. As I looked at the situation, I realised that what I have been trying to do is to write in a 'writerly' way, limiting things like figures of speech and so on. By letting go and going with what I love, the words came thick and fast. That is, I am almost certain, also the reason why I have procrastinated on the rewrite. There is no reason for me to attempt to be excessively prosaic if the first object of the exercise is joy in finding the story and fleshing out its textures. LESSON: 'Have fun first, you knucklehead.'

Dystopian future: water

A large part of humanity thinks that water comes from a tap. Part of the rest of humanity don't believe in taps, knowing that they are science fiction. They know that water comes from a bucket, hauled from the well, a couple of hundred meters away, if they are lucky, but more likely a couple of kilometers away. The third part of humanity know that water is to die for, literally.

The return of 'The Fourth Gift'

This got rejected by Shimmer in a way that feels strangely like a triumph. It wasn't rejected out of hand, it was bumped up to the editorial board and then it was rejected on grounds that were entirely different to the reason I believed they would reject it. I'm posting it again (while I experiment with my own structural changes and seek absolute clarity on the definition of temporal cues and what cues are ideal). First, though, I have to knuckle down and get it together with the 'Coffee' rewrite which is moving at the pace of about a sentence a day mainly due to my own stupid procrastination.

Training a bat to fly

If you need to do flight training with a bat, put the mite in your hand if you can't get it to hang from your finger. Drop your hand and see if the bat panics enough to flap. Just make sure it doesn't fall, and have something soft beneath it.

What I've figured for myself about writing

Reading a story you enjoy and realising you actually wrote it produces the sort of surprise and elation which is difficult to describe, except possibly as someone giving you a hard, sharp rap on the forehead, with a knuckle. Bonk! Is your head spinning yet?

Movie night: Still Life

A young man drives into a town full of figures frozen in place. Fassbinder-style tableaux begin to form around him. Kraftwerk would be proud of this one. Just shy of 10 minutes, directed by Jon Knautz.