Two roads

This will be brief: I got an idea in my head for a piece about a week ago, and — as sometimes happens — it felt real “big” in there, and thus, I procrastinated the shit out of that thing and now it’s Thursday and there’s no way I’m turning around anything of quality in the next 24 hours. So it goes.

I’m nose-down on two projects, one of which is paid work, the other of which is Safecrackers, which y’all know about. I pinned one more revision onto the First Draft, basically a length cleanup, and I feel pretty good about where that script is at, but (per the above) feel, let’s say, limited enthusiasm about the excavation that will lead into Draft 2. But I’ll start that next week.

And also, gotta say: my phone is basically in a drawer. Partly because I’m intentionally being quite disciplined about treating both of the above like actual, focused work; and partly because of this. If I haven’t been chatty, that’s why.

Here’s what else has been going on:

• One of my short stories looks like it will be published by the Genre Society this month; I’ll provide details (and a link) when I have them. It’s a particularly hilarious/bonkers story. I’m quite proud of it.
• I had a great time at the Toronto Writing Workshop last weekend, and I got to pitch The Last Alchemist to an agent, who just happened to be the agent I was most looking forward to pitching that book to; so, that was cool.

Suck it, tariffs: I just stacked three Criterion codes on a purchase of the upcoming 4K of Anora, so I’m feeling well chuffed. I mention this only to remind my readers that Criterion codes are stackable, meaning you can use more than one at once. Which is crazy. But I am never gonna complain about it.

Also on the Criterion tip, my review copy of Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring has arrived, so I’ll be carving that up this weekend and posting about it next week.

Wherever you are and however you got here, thanks as always for hanging out.