1. Yeah, I know I said things were normalizing and that I'd be here more. That was tempting fate. Especially since I knowwww that pre-BEA season is always the slammedest-crazytown of my year. So, yeah, probably thin on the ground for a couple more weeks. But I'll continue to pop in when I can, and to point to new Subterranean issue stories.
2. Am feeling slightly less overwhelmed after taking all the deadlines I know I have (with awareness there are a couple of floating ones, and some that will likely still pop up) and making a detailed plan for the rest of the month. This weekend turns out to be all about reading (and visiting mom, of course, for Mother's Day), which doesn't seem stressful at all, really. And then I can get a couple of later-in-the-month deadlines out of the way, so as to focus on more pressing things. Voila. I had to take a week and a half off from working on the circus book, which is in a very fragile infancy, to juggle various freelance projects. Getting back into it was harrrrrd. That can not happen again. Thus, the planning. Which will allow me to do my morning writing time (by preventing the overtiredness that leads to oversleeping) and possibly even slip in some extra sessions during the week. One of the lessons we all have to learn is protecting the writing time and how hard that really can be sometimes.
3. Said circus book is terrifying me. See this Libba Bray post, which is brilliant, as usual. I finally printed out the first 30 pagesish and passed them off to Mr. Rowe so he can tell me if I'm just acting insane or if the book is insane. If it is something I should ever allow other people's eyeballs to see, or whether said pages would burn out people's eyeballs in one fell swoop of first-draft awful, and I should really abandon this project and learn the banjo instead. I could get a fancy hat, and perhaps people would toss in shiny coins. I have to have something new to read at Wiscon, though, and I get grumpy when I don't do the writing so*… Sometimes you just have to keep showing up.
4. My inbox. It's a little out of control. But I think I've whined enough.
5. The Vampire Diaries! Spoilery discussion welcome in the comments. I wasn't surprised by any of this week's penultimate episode of the season (SPOILER BUT ONLY IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE SHOW, SINCE THIS HAPPENS BASICALLY WEEKLY) deadings, and thought it was a nicely done, emotional episode. But I want to TALK about it, and I will do so in the comments. I definitely think TVD has managed to avoid the sophomore slump I feared early on in the season. Whew. And tonight FRINGE finale. Eek. Bites nails. Maybe spoilery comments section talk about that one too, after.
In the meantime: Happy weekend. Wherever you are, may there be sunny skies overhead.
*Okay, sometimes there is grumpiness at other times too, but only when strictly warranted.
**There is a lot of sometimesing in this post.
So, AUNT JENNA! NOOOO. I have an irrational love of Aunt Jenna, and have been really disappointed by how sidelined she’s been this season. Yet another woman on this show I love SLAIN. I understand why it had to happen, but I really think she had more left to do, and that it was particularly sad she and Alaric didn’t even get a big last moment together. Le sigh.
LOVE Caroline and Tyler. Matt bores me now, and I hope Caroline lets him move on… Liked Stefan way more than I usually do this ep too. And poor Elena at her parent’s graves–I shed a tear.
I do wonder how the next ep will play out, with so much crammed into the past two episodes, if it’s just Damon-centric it may feel thin by comparison.
YAY Vampire Diaries!! I thought of you this week, Gwenda, because I know your love of Jenna even though I must admit I don’t fully share it. Condolences, anyway.
Matt got so stodgy and boring, and in a particularly frustrating way, because Caroline has come into her own so much as a vamp and it’s clear he can’t handle it. The show hasn’t been underscoring the idea of this as a power dynamics issue, but that’s how it reads to me. I’d buy it more as a realistic “don’t need the drama” problem if all that drama weren’t what keeps me hooked on this show, so there’s an uphill climb to convince me that anybody would turn their back on it 🙂 I loved Caroline and Tyler on the couch in this episode, the transgressive nature of how they’re cuddlebuddies with him wounded and half-naked because that’s the sort of boundary crossing that ordinary high school kids tend to freak out about, or at the very least, pay close attention to. But these two are at a life-and-death comfort level with their physical selves that’s rare and therefore SO appealing at that age. Really interestingly done.
I felt like this episode was aimed at clearing out a whole bunch of extranneous (sorry, Jenna!) characters. I found it predictable and yet frustrating that Klaus is still alive, because after all the endless preparation and sacrifice leading up to his death, keeping him alive just seems to drag things out. Oh well. Still liking Elijah, mostly for the way the actor portrays him (it’s just refreshing to see a vampire who feels actually old).
So plotwise, I’m wondering if breaking the curse means Damon can weather a wolf bite that would previously have killed him? (Maybe become a hybrid himself? God, I hope not.) However they work it, I am fine with a Demon-centric episode!
PS. Though I love Caroline and Tyler too, I am afraid that he will eventually become an Abusive Boyfriend and good old salt-of-the-earth Matt will step in to save the day. I would hate pretty much everything about that plot line and am really really hoping I’m wrong about that… but between his early bullying scenes and the recent emphasis on how he keeps trying to kill her when he’s a wolf, they have sown those seeds.
This is a good five. Esp the first 3. I’m entering an overwhelming time myself, and really need to calm down and just get a plan down.