Saturday, February 22, 2014

Gone Girl, and Redbeacon

Wow. I just went to the Bradford Block Bistro, in the big town of Springvale, Maine, and had a Happy Goat pizza, made with goat cheese. That was incredible. I'd like to work on my new novel this afternoon but now all I feel like doing is taking a nap.

Speaking of my new novel, it's not going well. I'm not sure whether to abandon it and start something else, or keep plugging away at it. I thought Rock Star was bad, too, and it turned out great. But I don't have the same expectations for the new one. You never know, though.

In September, I sent 50 pages of Rock Star to a literary agent. Three weeks ago, she contacted me and said she wanted to see the next 50 pages. I informed her that I'd already self-published it, but she still wanted to see it. A week later, she asked to see the entire manuscript. I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but it's exciting.

I've been working as a Home Expert Writer for Redbeacon. That's right, I'm an expert. I answer questions such as, "How can I level my dishwasher?", stuff like that. I'm enjoying it, but they've cut the amount of questions in the last week, which means my pay gets cut. Oh well.

Here's my latest Sanford News column, about watching the old Batman tv show on Saturday nights with my son, Sam. Which happens to be tonight. Bam! Pow! Thwack!

I recently read Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, on the recommendation of a friend. I don't usually enjoy novels by female authors (sexist, sexist!), although I enjoyed the recent book by J.K. Rowling / Robert Galbraith. The reason is because most women cannot write male characters well, just as many men can't write female characters well. Gone Girl was very good, with one of the best twists of any book I've ever read. My only critism is that (surprise) the male characters were very clearly written by a female. But I'd still recommend the book.