Memories

 

Was thinking about how strange memory is. 

I have such vivid memories of certain things in my life, and others where I don't remember much but I remember odd little details. Like, I remember going to see the Kaufman Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie at the theater. I don't know why my mom took us to see this--I would have been 8 years old and my brother 9.

This movie scared the ever-loving piss out of me. (but there was a naked woman in it, so that was neat for an 8 year old)

Weird part is, I don't remember some other details--pretty sure it was the movie theater that used to be where Chuck E Cheese is now near the DMV. I remember that the Olivia Newton John song Magic was playing as we pulled into the parking lot. (WHY do I remember that?)

I remember a little of the drive home, feeling shaken and confused, thinking that maybe all of this had actually happened, because I always felt distant from people, like we weren't the same thing.

So I recently asked my older brother if he remembered going to see the movie, and he doesn't. Not a single memory. I've asked him about some other stuff I have vague recollections of, and sometimes he remembers stuff I didn't, and other times he's blanked like this.

It simply strikes me as strange how some things etched indelibly in one's memory can be forgettable things to other people.

 Malf sent a draft of the treatment over last night so I read it today. It's pretty good. I'm gonna take a pass at it now, then we figure out the next move. Send it to the agent? Or bang out a script and then send it to the agent?

On the novella front, my guy is working on the cover. As usual, it's an interesting process. I've tried to impress upon him how important it is to make it very paperbacks from hell, but he's fighting me a bit because he's all "they didn't understand composition back then" and "we handle forms and space differently in design today than we did back then. We know more now. We can zoom in on what draws."

And I'm not saying he's wrong, but I still know what I want. He is--as I thought he would--completely overhauling my version, which is why I spent next to no time on the back cover. I'll post the versions and some other notes as we get close to being done.

It's definitely looking cool, but he's added NO paperbacks from hell flourishes yet, so we'll see. 

Meanwhile I'm still doing my final passes on it. I think I've definitely improved it quite a bit.

 

 

The New Plan

 

Went over the Malf's for a fireside chat. 

It was cold, but he blazed that fire to some scorching heat. He bought me the Coors Light cans again, which makes me laugh. I told him last time that I wasn't in high school any more, and his place is not a strip club, so there's no reason to drink out of a can.

Got there about 6:30, and as usual our discussions go all over the place. A lot of writing talk. We went over some of his notes about my novella, which I'm now doing the deep dive on. I'm a little worried I'm about to fuck my page count up too bad, which will fuck up the size of my cover's spine, which my graphic guy is working on right now. 

That could cause me to do some last minute tweaking to the graphic.

Then we talked about some of the shit he's got going on, which is fucking INSANE to think about. There's stuff I can't talk about, but the last book he wrote--that hasn't been published yet--got optioned to be a movie, and some big names appear to want to play the lead. Like, some big big names.

Now it's Hollywood, so it's all talk until they sign on the dotted line. That's why we're all quiet about it. Until it's done, it's not done.

Then we dove into the talk on the project we're working on together that I was thinking about directing for very low budget. But Malf is getting pretty excited about it because we came up with some good stuff in there, and we broadened it a bit so it's not quite so small. He thinks we should write a treatment for it and then pitch it to his agent to see if he can't sell it so we get paid to write the script. 

Hey, I'm all for that...

And if the agent can't sell it, no prob, we write it anyway and I go direct it. We'd have to raise a little money for it but I'm thinking if I could get Ttory money then I could probably do a decent job. There's really only one serious effect, which is a practical costume.

Then we chatted some more about that script adaptation I did for his book that the agent read and liked, but it was too long. It was like 165 pages back then, and I've gotten it to somewhere around 140 now.

He really thinks the whole thing should be 95 pages but I think it's a mistake. I think it will take too much out of the book and turn into a boilerplate movie. I don't want to lose any of the flavor of his apocalypse, and I also don't think 2 hours and 20 minutes is that long of a movie nowadays, especially if it's good. I'm open to trying to get it to 120 pages though, which would be a flat two hours.

Anyway, I'm like "Okay, guess I better get going," and I get in my car and it's 2:26am. I'm like, holy fuck. I thought it was midnight at the latest.

Crazy how time flies when you're chatting. (we also recounted some of our glory days fight stories -- back when we were young enough to duke it out. He's got some funny stories, as do I--hell, you've probably heard a few of them on this blog if you've been reading long enough...)

Anyway, got an auction this weekend. No fun.

 

 

Still Plugging Away

 

 Have handed off the cover to my graphic guy so he can make it look good. Not sure how much work he'll do on it. I told him to just touch it up, but you never know with him. Long as it looks like one of those paperbacks from hell that I was reading in my teen years, I'm good with it.

Am editing the book some more. I can't do a TON of addition to it, because the cover is designed for a certain amount of pages, so if I add too many then I have to do quite a bit of work. As it stands it's about 120 pages.

Shot and edited a bunch of paid videos this week. That's always zero fun.

Hey, did anyone tell you that the last season of Vikings is on A-zon? In better quality than I usually watch it in, free of charge.

Man, that story I'm trying to work on for that anthology with the amazing cover...just can't crack it. I have the characters, I have an event that does something big, but then I'm just drawing a blank on where it goes. What happens next? It's killing me, because I've put my entire brain on it for a couple of weeks. 

I talked to the Malf. Hell, HE'S got an invitation to be in the thing and he's drawing a blank on it so far. I almost wanna pitch him my beginning and see if he wants to co-write something. I'm supposed to go have some drinks with him this week, so maybe I'll see what he thinks. Not sure I wanna give any of this away though--I really would rather just do it myself if I can figure it out.

Finished the new season of Fargo. Didn't love it like the others. It took me about four episodes to finally even get into it.

No word from the clearance people yet. That's not getting old at all.

 

 

 

Slurpee Night And I'm A Member

 

Wow, six days without a Slurpee was tough but I did it. Went out and got a celebratory one tonight, then back to the diet tomorrow. I'm not in that big a hurry, cuz I'm only about six pounds from being back under 200. Then another 7 pounds and I'm right back to where I was before the holiday season.

Been a busy couple of days. Guess I didn't mention this, but WAAAAAY back when I was writing short stories I remember hearing about the Horror Writers Association. I wanted to be a member so bad, because in my young brain it would legitimize me.

Well I forgot about it after a while, because back then I wasn't getting published in anything. I was just writing a lot and hoping.

I've been following them on FB for a while and finally said...why I don't I look into it? There's a bunch of levels, from basically amateur to working professional(so you get to vote on stuff). I wasn't sure I qualified, since my stuff isn't exclusively fiction.

I inquired. They wanted to know some specifics. I told them how much I'd made on certain things, and they said, if you can prove that, you're a pro.

I scanned my docs and sent them, and as of today I'm a voting member, bitches. Another thing that 17 year old me would cream himself over.

-----

On the novella front, I actually got permission from the buddy who shot the photo I was hoping to use, as well as the model he used in the photo. Neither one wanted money. Bonus! 

I talked to my poster guy and he's like, sure, I can touch it up for you. So at least I know he'll fix it up and make it look professional. I mean, my version isn't that bad--I don't think--but it's got issues. I couldn't really figure out the tag line so I hit Malf up and he nailed it in one take. I knew there was a reason I kept him around.

It's funny that I hadn't thought of it, but I think it's probably too...tacky? Crass? I'm not sure what's the word, but it's right in that it fits the tone and plays with the dual concept of the story. The tag line is:

They'll Suck You Dry

If you've read the novella, you're probably nodding and going, "Yep."

 Wow, that Wonder Woman sequel was a real piece of shit, wasn't it? Man, I thought the first one was bad, but not even the 1980's could save this one...

Saw Love and Monsters last night. Man, what a fun movie. Like, exactly the kind of flick I like to watch in the summer at the movie theater. Light, quick, with likeable characters and some good effects. I'm a sucker for end-of-the-world movies that are done well. I'll be getting this on Blu Ray eventually.

My Tremors and Beastmaster 4K's finally arrived. So I'm just gonna hunker down in my hole until the rest of the world gets sane again.

 

 

 

Mischief & Stuff

 

Okay, so here's what's going on.

That novella I wrote called WT(abbreviated) is based on a script that I wrote about ten years ago, maybe more. Recently a big horror author announced he's working on a vampire novella with the same name.

I don't want to look like I'm trying to ride his coattails or that I'm a copycat, so I felt pressured to get it out. I've gotten notes back from Malf and Stew. Malf's were pretty detailed and had some good changes, Stew had just a couple of notes but thought I should also get an editor to do a once-over.

My intent had been to pass it to Malf's guy and see if he wanted to publish it, but I just read this other author's blog and he says he's about three weeks away from being done his novella. Which I would guess puts it between three and six months away from being published by someone.

I don't have time to go through Malf's guy, I'm thinking. I just gotta self-publish this thing in the next two months. Hell, I've been working on a cover for it out of fun anyway, because WAAAAY back when I shot the cover model for GOH, I also had her do some poses for the movie poster for the script that this book is based on. (so yeah, definitely more than ten years ago)

So I have a picture of her on the front cover, at least now.

Here's where the mischief comes in, and it's not something I really intended but now I see it coming down the pike. I can't be too specific about it yet, but basically it involves a picture I may use for the back(or, if it looks better than what I've got now, the front). Someone's ass may get chapped over it.

My plan is to do a mockup of the cover, and then either get a 5er person to touch it up, or maybe I'll ask my movie poster/graphic designer if he wants to touch it up a bit. I'm a little leery of that because he likes to do total overhauls, and they're great most of the time, but some of the time they're not what I'm looking for, and then I feel bad when I tell him it doesn't work--cuz he works for nearly nothing for me.

I've gone through and implemented most of the changes to the novella that Malf and Stew suggested. There's a couple of big changes Malf was floating, but I didn't agree with them. It's not that he necessarily wrong; he likes far more character-driven, cerebral horror books while I like books that move, man.

I'd love to get an impartial editor to look over it but I'm not sure if I can find someone A) that I can afford and B) who can do it in the time crunch.

PS: Another migraine tonight, though not the worst. Still not sure what's going on, but I've lost 7pounds and change since Monday. Least the diet still works.

I am craving Slurpees like you wouldn't believe though...

 

 

Diet Migraine

 

 A couple of cool posters for movies I enjoy, and in the first and third instance, love.

 So I'd intended to go on a diet because I could tell I'd gained weight. Remember, I'd gotten down to 193 from a bloated 227. I hadn't stepped on a scale since before Halloween.

Now I had all that candy/Turkey/Xmas cookie weight on me. What would the bad news be?

213.6 was the verdict on Monday. Okay, that's not as bad as I'd feared. I've gained 20 pounds in the span of about four months, and I'm sure the Slurpee five times a week didn't help.

So Monday I went on the diet hard core. Shakes, pretzels, carrots and broccoli. Oh, and my other secret is pickles. I eat the shit out of pickles after 4am. Even a huge pickle slice is like 15 calories. You could eat a jar of pickles and barely make a dent as far as calories go.

Well, Monday night I got a raging migraine. One of the worst I've ever had. Felt like someone was pulling out my eyeballs. It radiates up from my neck, so I can usually tell when one's coming but I can never tell how bad they're going to be.

I took a Xanax. I took an 800mg Ibuprofen. I took my usual sleeping aid. Nothing stopped the agony. I took a boiling hot bath, which helped a little. I passed out from the pain around 4:30am, woke up at 6am. The pain was much less but still there.

I tried to go to sleep, but no dice. Kept getting back up and trying again. Finally fell asleep about 11am Tuesday morning, slept until 6pm.

Tuesday night was fine, but then tonight(Wed) the migraine came back. It wasn't quite as bad this time, but still pretty miserable. I thought the Monday night one might have been sugar withdrawal, but I wouldn't expect that to happen a couple more days in. (and it's not like I cut sugar entirely out--there's some in the shakes I drink)

-----

Finished another Christie book, the holiday themed one. It was very good, quite an interesting mystery.

Anyone ever talk about that moment after you finish a good book? Like, you're simultaneously a little sad that it's over, but you've got that sense of accomplishment of finishing something. Then there's that moment of debate: WHICH book is next? If you have literally hundreds of books waiting for you, as I do, it's always a tough choice.

Granted, it's not that big a deal since I tend to read multiple books at one time, but it's still a tough choice. I picked a book  by an author I've never heard of that has raves all over it, and it's not that long(maybe 300 pages).

Hey, you didn't think I'd leave you without a sexy pic, did you?

7:25AM UPDATE!

So I'm sitting here thinking about why I'm having these migraines recently and I'd also noticed on Monday night when I was dying from the migraine, and I took my temperature because I was cold--so thought maybe I had a fever--I was 97.1 degrees.

Remember before when I mentioned I'm frequently up to 3 degrees colder than you're supposed to be? I finally typed in low body temperature migraine, and man, did I find some shit.

Specifically, there's an AUTOIMMUNE disease whose symptoms sound a lot like much of what I have--and I think I told you how my lupus diagnosis might be off. Anyway, Hashimoto's Disease is a thyroid thing and isn't that rare(5 out of 100 people have it) AND it's also frequently found in people who have lupus--so maybe lupus isn't out.

Fuck, I really should go to the doctor's to get this tested. (apparently if they find anti-thyroid antibodies in you, you've got it--not complicated). But who wants to go to the doctor right now? I rarely went when there wasn't a pandemic...

Also, can't sleep again. Also a symptom of Hashimoto's. Awesome.

 

New Year, Who Dis?

Another low-key event. We DID manage to get to the restaurant that we usually go to on New Year's Eve. This was the first year that we didn't have to wait at all to get a table. (we usually make a reservation that has no bearing, as last year we still waited an hour to get sat)

This year we walked in and got sat immediately. They weren't empty, and they'd opened up their back banquet area for seating, which they don't usually do. Food was great, as normal.

Then we went by my wife's parents to watch the ball drop.

Got home and watched a show, and the wife went to bed. I had the sudden thought--I don't think I had my favorite mixed drink all year. It's weird, because I usually only have it near the holidays, but this year I didn't even bother. Not sure why.

Excited that Cobra Kai premiered, but the wife had to work so we haven't watched it yet. Trying to dodge spoilers.

Still working my way through Queen's Gambit, which is good but not that compulsive of a viewing. I mean, it's chess. I enjoyed the game back in the day, but how riveting can you make a series about it?

Anyway, here's hoping this year is better than last. I don't have a lot of hope of that, but who knows?