OMG I'm frickin' exhausted.
Well, I just finished my new book, Aquarium, which is the sequel to Mad Skills. Whereas Mad Skills practically wrote itself, Aquarium was a huge task, a crazy epic, easily my longest book at 400+ pages. For awhile I thought I'd never be done with it, but over the past six months I really doubled down on it, devoting every waking minute to obsessing over plot details and probably wrecking my health in the process.
BUT...it is done.
Always a bit of a downer, finishing a book. You suddenly have all this time on your hands and nothing to do but fret over nonsense. It's like being all dressed up with no place to go. It should be an amazing relief finally taking a little mental vacation after having that book filling every second of your waking (and even dreaming) life, but no--you are now weirdly addicted to the constant pressure of that endless task. I can see why so many of the best writers in history were alcoholics and drug addicts--it's how they filled the void.
Just as I am filling the void with this blog post. A poor substitute, I know, but the only other alternative is yard work. This is why it sucks to be a responsible person.
On a happier note, let me just mention a couple of sci-fi flicks I have enjoyed recently:
The movie Under the Skin, which I desperately needed as an antidote to all the usual Hollywood summer crap.
Oddly enough, the movie Edge of Tomorrow, which from the trailers certainly looked like typical Hollywood summer crap, but is actually quite a bit better than that, mainly because of the humor and Tom Cruise's performance. The cashier at the supermarket was saying how eager she was to see Godzilla, and I recommended Edge of Tomorrow, and she just looked blank and said, "Yeah, but I gotta get me some Godzilla." I couldn't bring myself to bust her bubble about Godzilla (and I say this as a Godzilla fan from way back--as a kid I practically memorized Destroy All Monsters and Monster Zero), but I wish more folks would try harder to see beyond the marketing to find the actual quality, whether in a big budget CGI extravaganza or a micro-budget independent film like Under the Skin.
BUT...it is done.
Always a bit of a downer, finishing a book. You suddenly have all this time on your hands and nothing to do but fret over nonsense. It's like being all dressed up with no place to go. It should be an amazing relief finally taking a little mental vacation after having that book filling every second of your waking (and even dreaming) life, but no--you are now weirdly addicted to the constant pressure of that endless task. I can see why so many of the best writers in history were alcoholics and drug addicts--it's how they filled the void.
Just as I am filling the void with this blog post. A poor substitute, I know, but the only other alternative is yard work. This is why it sucks to be a responsible person.
On a happier note, let me just mention a couple of sci-fi flicks I have enjoyed recently:
The movie Under the Skin, which I desperately needed as an antidote to all the usual Hollywood summer crap.
Oddly enough, the movie Edge of Tomorrow, which from the trailers certainly looked like typical Hollywood summer crap, but is actually quite a bit better than that, mainly because of the humor and Tom Cruise's performance. The cashier at the supermarket was saying how eager she was to see Godzilla, and I recommended Edge of Tomorrow, and she just looked blank and said, "Yeah, but I gotta get me some Godzilla." I couldn't bring myself to bust her bubble about Godzilla (and I say this as a Godzilla fan from way back--as a kid I practically memorized Destroy All Monsters and Monster Zero), but I wish more folks would try harder to see beyond the marketing to find the actual quality, whether in a big budget CGI extravaganza or a micro-budget independent film like Under the Skin.
posted by Walter Greatshell at 11:42 AM
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