Happy Independence Day!

Well, I don't have much to say for this week, other than I had an excellent time with my friends last night, drinking pineapple rum, watching the Nostalgia Critic, and laughing like a hyena over several Christopher Walken moments. It was the most fun I've had in a long time and I laughed until I thought I was going to be sick. Christopher Walken is "the man."

I'm going to the beach for the forth of July and for my sister's birthday, so I'll be fairly busy packing and getting things arranged for the trip the rest of this week. That's why I've started this blog entry early. It should be a lot of fun to go on another vacation. I'm still hoping to go to Disney and Universal (specifically Universal for Halloween Horror Nights) later in October, but we'll just have to see if the money is there.

I'm making good progress on ideas for my new horror novel. I've come up with back stories for the main characters, the full setting, supernatural and non-supernatural small plot points, but I haven't gotten started yet. The rough plan is to continue working until I have the overarching plot and then start writing it either next week or maybe even at the beach. Sometimes it makes the stories even better when I don't give myself a time limit and write for the simple pleasure of it as part of a vacation.

Speaking of novels and stories, for those who are interested, I'm still waiting for word from Joel before I start submitting "Everburn" to agents. I like getting a second opinion and a cursory proof reading from someone other than myself before I start marketing the story. I've already proofed it myself once, but it needs another proof reading before I can submit it.

Next week, I plan to write a review for Stephen King's "The Mist" and "The Monkey." I read these two stories in his compilation, "Skeleton Crew." I will go ahead and say that I was happy with the Lovecraftian style of "The Mist," but not the way the characters reacted. I thought "The Monkey" was the scariest story I've read in a long time, which is odd since the story is about a possessed toy. Stephen King has a way of making even the most commonly used ideas terrifying. I can only hope by continuing to read his books maybe a small fraction of his talent will somehow rub off on me. Like I said, though, I'll get more into that next week.

In the meantime, Happy Independence Day!