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Posts Tagged ‘Lost Angels’

Diary #782

Posted in Diary, Fiction, Philosophy, tagged , , , , , , on June 24, 2025| 1 Comment »

We had another unusually-chilly spring this year, so I didn’t trust my tomato plants outside until this past weekend; if they can’t survive in the first week of summer, I’ll just have to throw up my hands in despair.  But though the temperatures haven’t been quite summery, even by Olympic peninsula standards, the days are as long as they’re going to get, and that means my seasonal anxiety is back.  As I’ve noted in the past, it isn’t nearly as bad since I moved to Sunset as it was in Seattle, probably because the quiet of the countryside counteracts some of it, while the noise and commotion of the city aggravates it.  But this year, it sneaked up on me because I’ve been attributing my emotional stress to grief.  It wasn’t until a week or so ago that I asked myself why that should be worse now than it was immediately after Grace’s death, or in the first few months afterward; I only just realized that as is typical for me, the anxiety runs under the surface and breaks out at weak points.  Expressed another way, the anxiety is acting as fuel for my grief, making it just as intense as it was in January and February, and more intense than it was in March and April.  But now that I’m done with Who in Review (and have even set up my store to sell autographed copies), I have time and space in my life to do some creative writing again.  I’ve already written two new stories for Lost Angels, with a third probably coming this week; it’s percolating through my brain, going through the alchemy by which grief, loss, and pain are transmuted into art, much like a compost heap transmutes organic garbage into humus for growing new plants.  When the tomatoes are ready, I’ll use some of them to make salsa from the recipe Grace and I developed late last summer.  And when Lost Angels is published, the pain I’m enduring now will have given rise to beauty I can share with the world.

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Paying For It: The Premiere

Posted in Biography, Perception, Philosophy, tagged , , , , , , on May 23, 2025| 1 Comment »

Long-time readers need no introduction to Chester Brown, the well-known Canadian graphic novelist who came out as a regular patron of sex workers in Paying For It, his autobiographical 2011 graphic novel; Chester is a friend and a regular reader of this blog who occasionally shows up in the comments (and the blog itself!) and did the covers for both Ladies of the Night and The Forms of Things Unknown, and has agreed to do the cover for Lost Angels (which I’m currently working on) as well.  As I announced last August, Canadian actress and director Sook-Yin Lee has adapted Paying For It into a film, and it made its long-awaited US premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival last Saturday!  Chester was kind enough to send me a complimentary ticket (for some reason the producers did not opt to send him to Seattle), and I was excited both to see the film and to meet Sook-Yin in person, since Chester has spoken so highly of her.  Apparently, he also spoke highly of me to her, because when I went up to introduce myself after the showing, she immediately recognized me before I could say more than her name.  We didn’t get to talk long, but I’m hoping it won’t be our last meeting.  I’m also happy to tell you that I enjoyed the film very much; I think Sook-Yin did an excellent job of adapting Chester’s documentary style into a cinematic one, with additional material depicting the romantic ups and down of “Sonny”, the character based on her, as a way of translating Chester’s expository text to the screen and allowing the viewer to make their own judgments about the subject.  The visual style of the film references Chester’s artistic style as closely as possible, including the use of his own lettering font and sketches of the characters in the end credits, and I found the whole funny, sweet, and very moving.  Judging by the positive reaction of the audience, none of whom had read the book but me and one other, I don’t think that’s because I’m biased; I’m unsure where and how the film will be shown next, but I’ll keep y’all posted and I’d definitely recommend seeing it when you get the opportunity.    P.S. – no, that’s not a cane I’m holding, but my red umbrella; the weather was quite rainy and I had to park on the street, and Sook-Yin suggested the picture after I was ready to walk outside.  Since Chester’s artist’s eye caught that detail, I figured I’d mention it should anyone else wonder.

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Ask Maggie, Volume II

Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged , , on February 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

At last, Ask Maggie, Volume II is available for purchase!  I was finished with the text back in October, and even uploaded it and assigned a release date; however, I then sort of ran out of steam with regard to commissioning the cover and other finishing details.  I started to get back into the swing of it around Christmas, but not quickly, so it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I ordered my proof and put the Kindle edition together.  But now it’s all done, and you can buy it on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle form!  If you prefer an autographed copy, you shouldn’t have long to wait; I’ve already ordered a box, and as soon as it arrives I’ll add this book to my store along with all the others.  If you’re wondering what’s next, I think I’m leaning toward a third fiction collection, which will bear the title Lost Angels; I want to write several original stories for it to go with the usual reprints, and I’m hoping Chester Brown will agree to do a cover so the three volumes match.  It will probably be out in the autumn, but I’m not going to commit myself to a specific time frame; though I was able to pull off four new collections last year (counting this one, which was officially published in October), it was tough and a bit stressful, and a bit too much by the end.  So I’d rather not do that again.  As usual, if you buy and read this one, please review it; I’m not sure how Amazon’s algorithms work, but I know good reviews help.

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Labor of Love

Posted in Fiction, tagged , , on February 24, 2020| 1 Comment »

Ever since I announced that I want to publish a third fiction collection, Lost Angels, sometime next year, my Muse of Fiction appears to have regained some interest in me.  I’ve been rolling one idea over in my head for about a month now, and then I woke up on Saturday the 15th from a dream that I was compelled to turn into a story before I slept again.  I’m not going to release it separately from the book, but I will tease a little of it here.  And if you’re a subscriber, gift-giver or client, and you’d like to read it before then, please just email me and I’ll send you a PDF copy.  The story begins with the director of a nursing home talking to an attendant about a recently-deceased patient…

…”It seems strange an educated man only had those two books; I don’t see a reader here. That phone screen seems very small for old eyes,” she said, rubbing hers as if to emphasize the statement.

“Oh, he spent most of his waking hours using the VR headset. Barely ever turned on the TV.”

“This?” Dr. Sprague picked the headset out of the box.  “I used to have one when I was in graduate school, back in the twenties.  But as I got older I just found it too overwhelming.  After my children grew up I never bought another one.”

“Oh, they’re a lot better than they were when I was young.  They used to make me sick and give me a headache, but not any more. Now it’s almost like the real thing, smell and all. The only thing they can’t seem to get right is the feel,” she said, gesticulating with her fingers.  “But my son says they’ll have that licked any time now.”

“Where are all his movies and games?  I just see the one that’s in the set now.”

“You know, I never gave that much thought.  I think that’s the only one he had.”

“Thank you, Jessica.  Would you mind if I sent for you when the family arrives?  If they indicate they’d like to speak to you, I mean.”

“No ma’am, I don’t mind at all.  And I won’t even tell ’em what he thought of ’em.”

Dr. Sprague laughed and saw the attendant out, then returned to her desk and picked up the headset.  In the absence of permission, it wasn’t entirely ethical to peek at what had kept a formerly-active old man busy for four years without leaving his room.  But a phrase came to her, from a 20th-century book she had often read to her children when they were young:  “When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.”  The indicator LED was orange; there was certainly enough charge left for a quick look around whatever virtual world had been so fascinating, and she could easily pull it off and pretend she had never looked if it turned out to be something embarrassing.  So she held down the power button to start it, and placed the set on her head…

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Diary #503

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , , , , , on February 18, 2020| 1 Comment »

Though last week was very busy (with work, other appointments, etc), I still managed to get everything done that I wanted to do, including preparing my tax stuff for the CPA, uploading the interior of The Essential Maggie McNeill, Volume II, setting up my other forthcoming book projects, and solidifying my travel plans for this month and next.  On top of all that, I managed to make time for another Star Trek podcast, this one called Enterprising Individuals; it’s been a lot of fun dipping into that audience, and I wouldn’t mind other fancasts contacting me!  On the travel front, I’ll be leaving for Orlando next week, then I’ll be in Austin for two days in March; it’s unlikely I’ll have much extra time to see anyone in either location, but if you are in either of those places and want to try, let me know and I’ll see what we can do.  I will certainly have availability when I visit New Orleans in May, and possibly when I go back to DC in March, so speak up if you want to see me either of those places as well!  I’ve got a lot of energy right now, and though I don’t really know why I think it might simply be that I’m in a good headspace and have a lot of confidence in my life strategies at the moment; one sign that this is the case is that two new stories popped into my head, and I got one of them written up over the weekend for inclusion in Lost Angels early next year.  Anyhow, I think that’s all for now; next week at this time I’ll be winging my way across to the other side of the continent.

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