As this post goes live, I am on my second day of a 24-day break from work. This is my first meaningful time off since the Christmas holidays. My work computer is shut down. My work phone is turned off. I will have no contact with my employer until 9 am on Monday, July 13.
What will I do with all of this down-time? Mostly nothing. When not consciously doing nothing (which is not the same as not doing anything), I have a big stack of books to read, and manuscripts to edit, and errands to run, and chores to complete. And naps to take.
Reading
I finished Zelazny’s The Guns of Avalon and am now well into The Sign of the Unicorn. I have not read these stories in decades. They hold up well, though now that I have read a large portion of Zelazny’s short fiction, I recognize that Amber is not among his strongest works. If I had to make a criticism, it would be that the setting is often more interesting than the characters.
Writing
Now that I have some space in my head I am working on the timeline for Neighbors,my manuscript about, well, some terrible neighbors. Once that is solidified I can go through and rearrange events to match dates, smooth out the time skips, and then settle into a serious edit.
Weekly Writing Prompt
Subject: Undead, Music
Setting: Academia
Genre: Noir
Listening
George Harrison, “Got My Mind Set On You,” from his 1987 album Cloud Nine. This song was on heavy rotation at the end of my first semester at Grand Valley State University (Grand Valley State College at the time). I will forever associate it with dorm life. So why did I post it here, today? Because it was playing in my dentist’s office while I was getting my teeth cleaned.
Interesting Links
- Chili Peppers of the World – Images and descriptions of 176 chili peppers. Includes a brief history of each pepper and most common uses and cuisines for each.
- “Michael Hudson: Debts That Cannot Be Paid Won’t Be” (Naked Capitalism) – R.C.J. Cranstoun interviews Michael Hudson.
- “Iran War: Trump Capitulates in “Deal” Signed Thursday, Commits to Israel Withdrawal from Lebanon; Considerable Obstacles Remain to Agreement; Oil Cliff in Play, Increasing Iran Leverage” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism) – Syphilitic coward Donald Trump surrenders to Iran after starting a war of choice with them several months ago. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars later, and Iran is strengthened, and Israel and the USA weakened. A Memorandum of Understanding is not a treaty, or even a “deal,” and I expect Trump and Netanyahu to do everything in their power to re-ignite hostilities in the next few weeks. Likely when the real economic pain from this utterly moronic adventurism hits the USA later this summer.