Filling the Well

Just found out that George Carlin has died. Now, I’ve never been a particular fan of Carlin. But this has affected me, and I think I just figured something out. I may not have been a fan, but he was ever-present. My whole life, he’s been here, being funny. And here’s the thing: the people (entertainers, politicians, etc.) who were at their primes in the 70s and 80s, during my childhood — the people I grew up with, who define my culture — are leaving us in droves now.

It is making me sad.

My tax stimulus rebate check has arrived. But here’s the thing: I’m self-employed, which means I pay quarterly estimated taxes, which are due in just a couple of weeks.

I’m very, very tempted to endorse the thing “payable to US Treasury” and send it right back. I think that would be hilarious.

I saw the funniest set of bumper stickers yesterday. The car had an “Obama 08″ sticker, and right under that was a “Ron Paul for President” sticker.

The thing is, I don’t think it was supposed to be funny. But I can’t figure it out. Does the car belong to two people with wildly different political affiliations? Did someone change preferences and not bother taking off the old sticker? Does this person think they’d make good running mates?

So. I was going through some old pictures when I found this one. It’s my vampire hunter Halloween costume from 1999 or 2000. I’d forgotten all about it. But now I look at it and think, “Wow, this could be the cover of a stereotypical urban fantasy novel!” Mind you, this was a few years before the current blazing popularity of novels with such covers. As I said, ahead of my time.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I’m done, been done for a while. My mother’s a CPA, and if I want her to do my tax returns I have to get stuff to her EARLY. Because by today, she’s totally fried.

So this post is mostly to say: Mom, happy last day of tax season!

I have a guest post up at Myth, the Universe, and Everything. Alana especially asked about skinwalkers and how I approached the topic in Kitty Takes a Holiday. Basically, I was just kinda pissed off that so many films/books/whatever were doing it wrong. I had to take action.

Mining existing folklore for ideas means I will never run out of ideas.

I’ve been writing a lot about revision and the tail end of the story creation process. This week I’ve spent a little time at the starting end of the process, so I thought I’d talk a little about that.

Sunday evening, I watched the last half of Sense and Sensibility on PBS. Yum yum yum, so beautiful. And I thought to myself, “What would Jane Austen books look like with werewolves?” Because these days, I think “what would that look like with werewolves?” about pretty much everything. Then I thought, “Regency romance with werewolves? An idea whose time has come! Huzzah!” Then I thought, but the Regency isn’t really my favorite period of English history. That would be the Tudor Dynasty. Late 16th century. Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, the Armada, and so on. So what would werewolves look like there?

Mind you, this isn’t a story yet, this is just an idea. So I put it in the crock pot, where it will simmer, probably for weeks, before becoming a proper story that’s ready to be written. I have a few characters. I have a situation (dealing with how would a werewolf who is also a member of the nobility function in the ultra formal Elizabethan court). I don’t quite have a conflict or an arc yet. But there’s no hurry on this, so I’ll just keep picking at it.

Now, if this was something I had a deadline for, I’d actually sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm the story arc and ending and all that. Using the microwave to cook the thing rather than the crock pot, if you like. But there’s no hurry on this one. At least there won’t be until the thing builds up inside my head and gets to a point where I won’t be able to write anything else until it gets out.

And who knows, it may still end up as Regency. Either way, one thing I know: there will be dancing. And witty flirting while dancing. And pretty clothes. And clever women. And dashing men. Sigh…

Hear “For Fear of Dragons” at Pod Castle. Read out loud, very cool.

This is rapidly becoming my most reprinted story.

It snowed last night! 3-4 inches!

Last night I showed Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” to a friend who had never seen it. “Brazil” is much more relevant than it was twenty years ago. Scarily relevant. If you love this movie but haven’t seen it in the last five years or so, take a look.

I was going through some CD’s of random stuff and stumbled across something that I must have thought at one point would work for a Kitty playlist. But on second listen, I’ve decided that this guy will never end up on a Kitty playlist. Sometimes I really miss the 80’s. But only sometimes.

What’s in my CD player right now: Eric Burdon and The Animals Greatest Hits (but it’s about outlived its welcome); the soundtrack to “Willow”; the bluegrass mix I made for the Firefly party; the soundtrack to “LOTR: Return of the King”; the Bangles “Different Light.”

Here’s the direct link for the live chat happening tomorrow, Dec 4, 6-7 Mountain (my time).

Enchanting Reviews Chat.

If you can, stop by and keep me company!