Craig Terlson's Blog, page 10

Dormancy and all that crap... oh, and George Saunders, too.

Don't you hate posts that begin with the whole, sorry I haven't posted lately, too busy, uninspired, all that sort of crap - well, fuck it and here we go.

There was a time when it seemed like every other post was about George Saunders - and I could go there again, don't tempt me - but man, the guy can just write the pants off anyone. His latest Tenth of December pretty much blew the back of my head off. I tweeted, or facebooked, or something, about this funny moment at the University where I w...

17 for 24

I went 17 for 24 with my picks this year. I knew it was dicey on the supporting actor and the animated film (missed them both) - but damn, Ang Lee was the one that surprised me.

I did get the Four-Pete on the Oscar pool - but I had to split it with another good guesser. I'm thinking of sending a cranky letter to the Academy. Or, hell, maybe Ang Lee! How dare he win. (Though, I was kinda glad he did.)

Until next year.

Get out my gown!

Time for the Oscars, and my annual picks. Now, I do admit, I have one the pool the last three years in a row - much to the grumpy chagrins of my fellow party goers. And I enjoy the coffee money, and the 15 minutes of fame.

But will this be the year for a four-pete? Quad-pete? Forpete?

We will see.

Here's my picks as I recall them -

Best Pic: Argo

Director: Spielberg

Actor: Day Lewis (duh)

Actress: Lawrence (double-duh)

Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones (this one is tight, Waltz might get it)

Supportin...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Lots of bits floating around in my head these days - including, hey, about time for a blog post buddy. Reading some great books (George Saunders new one!!!), entered Correction Line in the Amazon Breakthrough contest (see post below), and generally just busy as hell.

Seems like a period of waiting for me. I am very curious to see if Correction Line makes it through the first round, the finalists are announced Feb. 13 - and you can bet I will be shouting about that here (win or lose). I'm tryin...

Breaking through - or that's the hope.

In my so called dormancy (from writing new work, not life... see post below), I decided to enter the Amazon Breakthough Novel Contest. Being that Amazon seems to be taking over the publishing world anyway - I figured, why not?

Now, I know indy publishers and lovers off all things small will be gritting their teeth over that declaration, but I find myself somewhat torn. Yes, Amazon is kicking ass and taking names - or not taking names, and generally ignoring a lot of names, or... well, you get...

Dormant

The blog is still in a period of dormancy right now - as mentioned in the last post, I have got way too many fish to fry right now - a whole school of them, actually.

But I see a light at the end of the... cannery? As said Bent Highway Part One will be released as an ebook. And stay tuned for future chapters.

Reading wise - oh man, George Saunders new book, oh man, oh man. He has to be the best short story writer alive today. I have been reading only one story a night, doling out the treasures...

Two thousand and what?

My first and long overdue post of 2013, AnnoDomini (or is that dominoes? I hate their pizza)...

Digressing already.

Can't believe we are already up to two-thousand and thirteen. I heard somewhere that this year is the first time since 1987 that each digit has a different number... think about that. Me, I just like the "13" part - gives it a spooky edge.

First off, I guess I should say something about what is most evident to my faithful blog readers, as in, "Where the hell is Bent Highway Chapter...

Bent Highway: Chapter Twenty-One

Crescent

The knife reflected the dull lights of the hardware store, tiny yellow suns, a row of them across the blade. I stared at it, held high above the head of the weird looking guy with the crazy fro. A car horn went off, somewhere far down the street, and the blade came down fast. I took a step back, some sort of fight or flight thing taking over, but not quick enough. The edge slid through my store apron, sliced open my jeans and part of my thigh. The cut wasn’t very deep, it took a secon...

Bent Highway: Chapter Twenty

Hardware

The morning sun drilled a perfect hole in the cerulean sky. I’d got up, made a couple of eggs, perfectly over easy with just the right amount of softness to the yolk, toast slathered in peanut butter, and an actual decent cup of coffee. I surprised myself with how good it was. I pulled into the parking lot of the hardware store thinking, you know this isn’t that bad a life. I got a job, they shoot me a cheque every other week, pay the bills, drink a six-pack on the weekend. It ain’t l...

Nothing Bent, but something else for Free

So when we last left our hero... that is how I feel like I should start this post. What is a reader (and a writer) to do when the protagonist meets an infinite number of variations of themselves, and then one of them turns into Mr. Bad-Ass himself, Harold the fuzz-head? Cue the cliffhanger music.

Well... you see... there's this philosophy class I've been taking (if you follow me on twitter, most likely you know this) and there's this major freaking paper that I am working on, and studying for...