What vacation looks like.

It may have been Axl Rose driving near Southampton, and it may not. We're saying it was, because that's what it says on the license plate.

Long Island shoreline.


Seen from the ferry.
Provincetown:

An Avid Reader Reviews "Homefront"

"Every once in a while I will start a book and never want it to end. It's very rare. I usually enjoy finishing a book so I can get started on a new one. But with Kristen Tsetsi's 'Homefront', I wish it was a never ending serial novel, with new chapters appearing magically every day."

Read the rest at OCD Man's blog (and check out his other reviews, too, if you're in the market for something new to read. Even if you're not.)

Word clothing.

I really don't like the T-shirts and pants that draw attention to boobs and butts ("Juicy"? Ech.), but I couldn't resist designing these. (If they're already out there somewhere, they just weren't immediately available on google images...)

Anyway, consider these copyrighted, stealers of brilliant designs! (Unless they're already out there somewhere, that is.)

Homefront Reviewed in The Fifteen Project

An excerpt from the review:

"Homefront is a skillfully-constructed narrative about the psychological strife-bordering on, but not quite becoming, devastation-suffered by those with loved ones fighting overseas. In this respect, it neither overstates nor undervalues this aspect of war's effects. Due largely to the tone and technique of the text, the travails of its protagonist are seen as individual rather than simplistically universal or over-generalized. For the most part it stays away from un-self-conscious cliché and avoids the temptation to cast the war at home as somehow more harrowing, more moving, or more intense than the war abroad."

The rest is here.

Editor Pat Lawrence supplied the review for his publication, which includes more reviews, poetry, art, and fiction - definitely worth keeping up with the journal. In his own words, the Fifteen Project is "a digital magazine dedicated to literature and art. since july, 2004, 15p has tried to expose emerging voices, catch particles of discourse from established artists, put together an enjoyable, thought-provoking experience dedicated to quality work of any genre."

But it's also more. To find out what, visit www.fifteenproject.com.

RIP, Tim Russert.

(Image taken from MSNBC article on Russert.)

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On the way to work this morning...

...I saw this guy and had to get a picture.

New York

Simple sign of crumbles in society

Maybe I'm overdramatizing. Or maybe it really is the little things.

This picture is not of a one-time event. Every week, residents of my apartment complex leave their bags of trash just underneath the trash chute, and drop their cardboard instead of bringing it downstairs to the recycling bins.

That silver door in the wall? The one right over the bag of trash? That's the chute.

Unless it's the same lazy teenager doing this every time, I can't imagine what the losers leaving their trash on the floor are thinking, or how they respond to everyday life. What kind of person just drops garbage and expects someone else to pick it up? (Except, as I said, for a lazy teenager? I'm not saying all teens are lazy, of course - but we've all known or been the kid who would drop the bag after being told by an annoying parent to take out the trash.)

If those doing it are adults, how embarrassing for the rest of us. (And how much of a pain for the crew that has to clean it - I wonder if they're tempted to install cameras so they can track the trash, let themselves into the culprit's apartment, and dump it all over their floor.)

blog break

It's just one of those times.

It's also time to start sending out queries again, which is always a joyful and encouraging experience.

HAHAHAHAH!

But seriously - wish me luck.

'til later...

Creepy Reality

Confession: I watch reality TV. I don't DVR it, or anything, but if I'm looking for mindless entertainment, I'll flip through until I find something like The Girls Next Door. (Kendra is really funny.)

But I never thought about how creepy reality TV is until seeing the preview for Denise Richards' reality show, due to start next week or the week after. (Soon, at any rate.) A few minutes later I saw an ad for Lindsay Lohan's mom's reality show.

Richards, who once acted in movies, is now marketing herself as T&A while her voiceover claims the show aims to set the record straight about who she is, which she says is anything but what she's been called in the press.

Lohan appears to have a camera following her and her equally spoiled daughter around while both scrape and claw at the doors to the entertainment industry for the fame they probably believe they deserve. (Lindsay can't be the only one who gets to have it, damn it!)

As a reality-show watcher, I understand my role and that there'd be no reality TV if people like me weren't watching. I'll admit curiosity had me catching a few episodes of Paula Abdul's follow-my-life show, and then regretting it (how to take her seriously as a judge on AI after watching her very public and unapologetic displays of immaturity and petulance?).

I am part of the problem. Yes. But that doesn't mean I don't wonder what it is that makes a person a) believe her life is so utterly fascinating the world will want to watch [is that not the height of arrogance?], and b) so desperate to be looked at.

Richards wasn't in too many movies, but she could at least, before now, be respected as a film actress. Now she's just a reality show diva. Period. She went from the career many in her profession aspire to to the lowest level on the totem, the entry-level job people take because they hope it will some day get them into the movies. It's much like when an actress you admire for her skills or a certain role in a TV show eventually ends up barely-dressed in Maxim. Respectability drops by about 105%.

I can't decide if Richards' move is creepy (not only because it seems weird to me to want to be watched like that, but because her decision strikes me as the height of selling out) or just unfortunate (was she in such a tough spot she needed the money?)

The Lohans are just parasites. Little else to say about them. They had nowhere to fall.

[P.S. And is having a blog equally arrogant in that it assumes people actually care about what you have to say? Hmm...]
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In operation, finally!

Okay. Tuesday Shorts, the dot com, is up with new pieces posted.

Tell someone. Tell anyone. Write 100 words (or fewer) and send them to tuesdayshorts@yahoo.com sometime between noon Sat. and noon Sun., EST.

Not just any 100 words, obviously. We're looking for thought-provoking, unusual, or funny 100 words. (or fewer.)

TUESDAYSHORTS.COM.

Appearing soon in a spread in Opium #6.

(I just noticed this new ratings gadget at the bottom of the post. When did that show up?)

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A Tip

If you feel someone can help you, and you ask for their help, don't preface the request with a lie, even if it's designed to be flattering. It's obvious, and it's insulting.

Honesty usually works best.
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Drunk Monkeys

This video is too much. Happy weekend, monkeys!

yay! officially a story up in 2008, and it's only almost halfway through the year.

To be fair, though, I haven't been very actively submitting.

Anyway, "Things You Do for Love," a story six sentences long, is up at Six Sentences.

If you haven't checked Six Sentences out, yet, you should. Stories six sentences long, the sentences from one word to as many lines long as they need to be (assuming the punctuation is correct, of course). Really. There's some fun stuff to read, there.
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The Chief and Books

I was honored this morning to read a review - written by a man I know only as The Chief - of Homefront. I found his blog, "The Chief's Forum," the way people find blogs (through other people's blogs) a while ago and was immediately drawn to its diversity. The Chief talks sports (and, okay, those posts I admit I don't read), movies (who doesn't love to talk movies?), politics (but not in a "my candidate rules and yours is stupid" way), and books (enough said).

I've seen a list of the stuff he reads. It's the same stuff I would read, were I reading right now. So for him to review my book was not only damn nice of him (because it's nice of anyone to take the time if they're not getting paid by some magazine), but something I'd been anticipating. What he had to say - because of what he likes to read, and because of the things he likes to write about - made me that much more curious to know what he thought.

Here's a teaser Chief-thought from the review: "Donny is not simply a drunk veteran."

What else is he? you wonder.

The rest can be found at The Chief's Forum, which should be visited frequently simply because there's always something new going on over there.
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new listing

Another novel entry in the True Fiction genre.

busy pause

Preview of upcoming blog tomorroworthenextday:

"It's like a guide book on how to date rape!" a friend said.

Celebrity in America

"Heather Mills soon will be back in front of the cameras. The former Mrs. Paul McCartney, who recently wrapped up a very public divorce from the ex-Beatle, is among the celebrity judges just announced for the upcoming Miss USA Pageant." (link to the rest)

If all you have to do in America to be a "celebrity" is engage in contemptible behavior, there's hope for a lot of people who want their fifteen minutes, yet!

People watching

Yesterday, when I was at the police station to look at some booking sheets, a teenage boy walked in and went up to the desk and asked the officer behind the glass to check for any recent accident reports.

His girlfriend was missing, he said. He'd expected to see her a few hours before, but he hadn't heard from her.

The officer found nothing, and the boy thanked him and left.

As the boy was waiting, an adult couple came in and went up to the glass and said they were there to pick up their son.


I used to think airports were the place to be, but now I'd like to sit in a police station lobby for a day.

Why I Love New England reasons #1008 - 1014

teens dressed for an anime convention in boston

lamp outside the boston library

the tea kettle

yale

yale

yale book store

Heather (@$*%#) Mills

--Her "reasonable needs" wish list included $25 million to buy a home in London, $6 million for a home in New York, $1 million per year for vacations including private plane and helicopter rides, $250,000 for clothes, $85,000 for a driver and $80,000 for wine and $60,000 for "equestrian activities," though she does not drink and no longer rides horses.-- (USA Today)

I wonder how she came up with her list of reasonable needs, and why it didn't include the platinum and diamond bra and underwear set from Victoria's Secret (as a separate and extra expense), a cannister of gold toothpicks, a miniature pig, and a space ship.

Self-publishing?

A piece I wrote on self-publishing just ran in the Journal Inquirer. It's here, if you're thinking about doing it and could use some pre-done research.

MSNBC premiers "The Race to the White House"

Note:




Oh yeah?





Now who's stupid?

*snicker*

Writers & Readers !

This could be a fun discussion. Visit! And send the link to some people you think might enjoy the discussion, too.

Go here.

In other news...

Have I mentioned that Tuesday Shorts is now on blogger?

I realize it's not a website, necessarily, but it does mean stories appearing in Tuesday Shorts are googlable (which they aren't when they appear on MySpace).

In fact, do we even need a real, .com web site? We have two "real" editors who take submissions, choose from them, and then publish them in an online venue. Two venues, even - MySpace and blogger. It's just as good, I'd say. Spending money can't possibly be the only thing that lends credibility to a thing.

Anyway, Tuesday Shorts on Blogger can be found at an obvious address: www.tuesdayshorts.blogspot.com.

There is also a start-up website in the works, Tuesday Shorts.com, but I'm not sure how long - or if - it will last. It requires time to manage, and time is something both Shelly Rich (my TS co-editor) and I are short on, right now.

Oh - and here's the MySpace link.
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The Media Virus

Letter to Fox News (or, Fox & Friends):

It's interesting (euphemistically speaking) that your morning show is ridiculing and targeting Ashley/"Kristen" - and calling her the woman who brought down Spitzer - when Spitzer did this all by himself. The woman did not try to capitalize on Spitzer or "sleep her way to the top." She is not the one who outed Spitzer, as if to try to make herself famous. He outed himself by not being clever enough, by going after the type of crime he was guilty of, and by being the one to bring his business to her.

Why is your show not focusing on Spitzer's misdeeds and hypocrisy instead of castigating Ashley, criticizing her morality, and ridiculing her singing, when she is simply a side note in what is Spitzer's story?


(I'd also like to know why, just before the commercial break, heads nodded at, "I'm just so surprised that Spitzer would have done this." Really? Really? Is it so outside of the realm of what has happened throughout political history to have a political figure sleeping with someone other than the spouse?)

Spitzer - the angel.

The woman he was paying to sleep with - the evil influence.

I think I'm going to be sick.


*note: Much of the above can/should be applied to all equally guilty media outlets. I just happened to be watching Fox & Friends this morning.