Karl Kolchak And The Winds Of Destruction
On Friday morning, as I sat at my desk writing, a great wind shot by my home. To look at the trees across the way, one might assume that the wind was nothing more than my overactive imagination. The trees did not sway and yet that freight train sound of wind billowed past my closed window. The straw from last season's lawn seeding blew and swirled in great circular gusts and I assumed, for just a brief moment, that perhaps this was a cyclone about to whirl me and my house off to the land of Oz (for which I would have been thoroughly prepared as my current reading has greatly enlightened me about what to expect there). Then just as quickly as it had begun, the great wind ceased. I once again lost myself in the fictional world of Crescent Bay, where 'here there be ghosts'.
Later, as I waited for lunch to cook, I opened the sliding door to let the dogs out and what do you think I saw? No, not Dorothy's farmhouse all the way from Kansas, but rather my rather heavy and sturdily constructed gazebo ... a full forty feet across the yard. The lawn furniture that used to be inside it was knocked here and there but the gazebo itself, a tortured wreck of wood and metal almost into the neighbor's land. I was a bit surprised, as you can imagine and the rest of my afternoon was spent completing the task that nature had begun ... demolishing the gazebo. Not sure what kind of wind that was, but let's just say I'm glad little Perry wasn't outside at the time. It would do no good for Toto to wind up in Oz without Dorothy.
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We lost Darrin McGavin this past week. For those of you who don't recognize the name, he was the father from A Christmas Story. For those of you who go back a wee bit further, he also played the bumbling hero, Karl Kolchak in CBS's The Night Stalker. That was my first trip into horror as a wee child ... and I got to stay up late every Saturday night to watch the show. It was always the same, but that's what made it so lovable. Karl would discover some creature or another (vampire, headless biker, underground demons) and of course throughout the show no one would believe him. And in the end, it was always down to Karl and the monster for the last fifteen minutes of the show. Karl would of course, defeat the monster and escape with his life ... just barely. And of course he'd write the story (as he was an investigative reporter) which his editor would absolutely refuse to publish. Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files also loved the show, and indeed borrowed heavily from it at times. A classic show, my first monsters and a great hero, now resting in peace. Godspeed.
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Finished up Chapter 3 of Online and completed the outline for Chapter 4, which I'll start either later today or tomorrow. Drain is nearing completion and the first draft should be done within the next couple of days.
--
I'm almost at the end of Wicked and Holly and I treated ourselves to a little shopping at Books-A-Million. Now, I've got to say, I don't like this store nearly as much as Barnes & Noble or Borders. The don't seem to have the same type of selections. Indeed, I went looking for Owen King's We're All In This Together (yes, there's a relation to Stephen ... it's his son!) but it wasn't there. I mean, being such a nobody, I could understand that. WTF? You wouldn't think it would be tough to find a book by Stephen King's kid, but you'd be wrong. I also went looking for Scott Nicholson's The Red Church. They didn't have that either. They did have Home, but after reading the copy and several random pages (a lesson learned from the Survivor incident), it just didn't do it for me. Funny thing though, I'd have bought The Red Church without such scrutiny. Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked was there (along with about 1,000 other Gregory Maquire books) but it was still in hardcover ... and I don't think I'd like it enough to drop the cash. I'll wait for paperback or electronic version (if Sony ever releases their damned Reader). Also, Jeff Long has a new one out in hardcover called The Wall and man, was that tempting. Eventually though, I settled on two paperbacks. The first was a Jeff Long book called The Reckoning and the next was by Gary Frank entitled Forever Will You Suffer. That one passed the copy and random page check, so I'll let you know. Cool cover though. Not sure which I'm going to start first after Wicked. Guess I'll flip a coin. I'm real decisive that way.
Currently Reading: Wicked by Gregory Maquire
Later, as I waited for lunch to cook, I opened the sliding door to let the dogs out and what do you think I saw? No, not Dorothy's farmhouse all the way from Kansas, but rather my rather heavy and sturdily constructed gazebo ... a full forty feet across the yard. The lawn furniture that used to be inside it was knocked here and there but the gazebo itself, a tortured wreck of wood and metal almost into the neighbor's land. I was a bit surprised, as you can imagine and the rest of my afternoon was spent completing the task that nature had begun ... demolishing the gazebo. Not sure what kind of wind that was, but let's just say I'm glad little Perry wasn't outside at the time. It would do no good for Toto to wind up in Oz without Dorothy.
--
We lost Darrin McGavin this past week. For those of you who don't recognize the name, he was the father from A Christmas Story. For those of you who go back a wee bit further, he also played the bumbling hero, Karl Kolchak in CBS's The Night Stalker. That was my first trip into horror as a wee child ... and I got to stay up late every Saturday night to watch the show. It was always the same, but that's what made it so lovable. Karl would discover some creature or another (vampire, headless biker, underground demons) and of course throughout the show no one would believe him. And in the end, it was always down to Karl and the monster for the last fifteen minutes of the show. Karl would of course, defeat the monster and escape with his life ... just barely. And of course he'd write the story (as he was an investigative reporter) which his editor would absolutely refuse to publish. Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files also loved the show, and indeed borrowed heavily from it at times. A classic show, my first monsters and a great hero, now resting in peace. Godspeed.
--
Finished up Chapter 3 of Online and completed the outline for Chapter 4, which I'll start either later today or tomorrow. Drain is nearing completion and the first draft should be done within the next couple of days.
--
I'm almost at the end of Wicked and Holly and I treated ourselves to a little shopping at Books-A-Million. Now, I've got to say, I don't like this store nearly as much as Barnes & Noble or Borders. The don't seem to have the same type of selections. Indeed, I went looking for Owen King's We're All In This Together (yes, there's a relation to Stephen ... it's his son!) but it wasn't there. I mean, being such a nobody, I could understand that. WTF? You wouldn't think it would be tough to find a book by Stephen King's kid, but you'd be wrong. I also went looking for Scott Nicholson's The Red Church. They didn't have that either. They did have Home, but after reading the copy and several random pages (a lesson learned from the Survivor incident), it just didn't do it for me. Funny thing though, I'd have bought The Red Church without such scrutiny. Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked was there (along with about 1,000 other Gregory Maquire books) but it was still in hardcover ... and I don't think I'd like it enough to drop the cash. I'll wait for paperback or electronic version (if Sony ever releases their damned Reader). Also, Jeff Long has a new one out in hardcover called The Wall and man, was that tempting. Eventually though, I settled on two paperbacks. The first was a Jeff Long book called The Reckoning and the next was by Gary Frank entitled Forever Will You Suffer. That one passed the copy and random page check, so I'll let you know. Cool cover though. Not sure which I'm going to start first after Wicked. Guess I'll flip a coin. I'm real decisive that way.
Currently Reading: Wicked by Gregory Maquire
posted by Stefan & Holly | 11:14 AM
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