Ring

March 20

I just saw The Ring.

Holy crap, that was a great movie. Not only was it the most carefully crafted horror film I've ever seen, seeing it on DVD was even better than seeing it in the theater would have been. Why? Not because of the deleted scenes (which are a sort-of-interesting alternate version of the middle bit of the plot, with a creepy little epilogue), but because of an absolutely brilliant Easter egg. I don't want to give away spoilers, but on the main menu screen, move down until none of the options are highlighted and press enter. It's not so terribly mind-blowing, really, but it's exquisitely done. More effective if you watch it after seeing the film, natch. If you want to know what it does, go here, someone else provides a spoiler. So many DVDs are badly (or at least indifferently) designed, and it was nice to see one where some real care was put into the creation.

Mmm. Good, good, good. It is possible to make smart, creepy, disturbing horror films! Apparently you just have to do remakes of Japanese psycho-horror flicks...

So. In other news (well, excepting what's actually on the news, in the news, throughout the news; plenty of other people are talking about the war, and I don't have anything especially singular to add, especially at this late hour of the night, so Tropism is going to continue more-or-less as usual), two rejections yesterday, one from F&SF (noting that I tried to achieve mythic resonance, and failed; ouch), one from Alchemy. I've written another 2500 words on the Frog novel, and a couple of hundred words on a story which will probably be short and strange, assuming I finish it, which I might not. Tonight I put together the next issue of Star*Line. I was... agitated, stressed, for much of the day, and I found typing out poems and checking for typos very soothing, close-up, consuming work. Then it was over, and I was agitated again.

I check Google News a lot.

Guess there's nothing much else to say.

Words written since February 1, 2003: 21,000

Words written since last entry:
2,700

Buy Floodwater via PayPal! $5, includes shipping. Or send a check payable to Heather Shaw to the PO Box below.