Vegetable of the Vampire World

February 3

I went to see Nosferatu tonight-- it was the midnight show at the Nick. I went with D. and his girl Jess (newly moved here to the West Coast) and Scott. What a wacky movie! Max Schrek was a creepy man. Renfield was the high point, though-- I love the bit where he's hiding behind the stump, and running through the streets pursued by a mob...

Now I'm well-prepared to see Shadow of the Vampire. I may go see it at the matinee tomorrow.

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I only wrote 500 words tonight. Lame, I know. Just a single scene, but it's a pivotal scene, at least. I plan to write quite a bit tomorrow, so with luck I'll make up the wordage I missed today. I should be able to finish this dark fable, too, and move on to... some other story. The one about the bathtub, maybe, or the bicycle. All the stories besides the cage fable are contemporary fantasies, which is the sub-genre where my comfort zone is at its most comfortable. I lay in bed last night, thinking about all my openings, and I have a general idea of where most of them are going. Not silly details like plot or anything, but general shapes are becoming visible beyond the veil.

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Tropism should move to sff.net on Monday. I'll put a pointer on the old page, of course, but I just want y'all to be prepared. They say moving is one of the most traumatic experiences that modern humans have to endure.

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Timprov and Marissa came down to Santa Cruz today. Oh, such fun! We had burritos (prawns and steak in mine, mmm). We sat at Pergolesi and talked about writing and gossiped about the business and generally had a wonderful time.

Then we indulged one of my great pleasures-- we watched The Maxx. Timprov had seen bits of it when it first appeared on MTV's "Oddities" (along with The Head), but he'd never seen the episodes continuously and contiguously. I was glad to provide him the opportunity. It's been, oh, at least two months since I'd seen it. Far too long. I even restrained myself from quoting whole sections of the film. I think they had a nice time-- Timprov at least was surprised by how funny The Maxx is. Funny and dark and brutal and sad... such a wonderful case of Inconsistent Tone!

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I think maybe I sold a poem. Depends on whether they like the re-write. The editors requested small but significant changes (hell, it' s poem, every word is significant, that's the whole idea). I'll let you know if they decide to take it.

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I chatted with Meg for a while tonight. She's coming to visit on March 9th-- it seems like a terribly long time to wait. But then, this past month has flown by, so perhaps the next one will, too. I made brownies last night, and thought of Meg wistfully (because she's sweet like a brownie, I guess). We cook together a lot together, when we're together. I miss the little things like that.

Total Word Count: 5,040

Today's Word Count: 500

The Daring Darlings:

Jim C. Hines

Hilary Moon Murphy

Nicole Montgomery

Melanie Miller Fletcher

Karina Summer Smith

Anne Hutchins