sat/20221203

Finished Pelecanos's THE TURNAROUND last night: so very, very good. For some reason, in spite of my passion for crime fiction and THE WIRE, and having had Pelecanos on my radar for years and years, this was only the second of his books I've read (the other being the second Spero Lucas novel, THE DOUBLE); it will not be the last – nor will it take me as long to turn the pages.

Loved this, from the backmatter:

"Conflict drives good fiction, and crime fiction presents the highest form of conflict: life-and-death. Also, the form best allows me to explore the social issues that get me jacked up. I might take a different path now and again, but I'm not goingto walk out of the arena."

As a result, perhaps – of both the emotional pull and tug of THE TURNAROUND and of Pelecanos's remarks above, I'm redoubling my efforts to break through the brick wall of the MainFictionThing, which is most definitely in the crime fiction mold – though via my own "chamber writing" (Principle 07) interpretation of said mold.

the morning's attendance card, a sketchy me in a Kelley Jones-infused Batman costume accompanied by a sketchy dog with similar Kelley Jones Bat-ears because Kelley Jones is my favorite Bat-artist and I've got the black and white status in a place of

shiny new self-hosted mastodon

The waitlist email from Masto.host arrived this morning and I’m now set with my own Mastodon instance, @tww@social.parentheticalrecluse.com. Super smooth process to set up…

Now to figure out how these spaces interact. Probably same as usual, but I’m in the mood to try something new, as I have been. Anyhow, it’ll come to me – after many fits and spurts.

fri/20221202

Fantastic chat with Liam: came away with a feeling of how photographs could be an extension of someone as essential to their being as their brain or heart. Letting the recording itself sit until first of next week then will turn into the episode: need a couple of days after a deep dive into the work of others to refocus on my writing (even though the current isn't speaking to me this morning – hence why I keep two WIPs going at once, two different tabs, the hopes that maybe one can unlock the other – or lead to utter fuckall). Full interview should be live sometime, Weds-> Fri.

Might be time to partake in a little side project, something totally different from the main WIPs. Hard and fast deadline – a week or a month or so. Asking self, What would be to me as photography is to Liam – maybe that's what sketchy me below is trying to figure out?

CGM switch day today, from the Libre to the Dexcom. First phase of my cyborg pancreas changeover. Bit of trepidation (at least part of aforementioned utter fuckall?), but the covering bandages arrived yesterday so if nothing else I don't have to worry about a boisterous German Shepherd tearing it off my arm; little victories.

thu/20221201

25ºF, clouds: Spent the morning, thus far, collating notes and prepping questions for this evening's TSR interview with TO:KY:OO and AFTER DARK author/photographer Liam Wong and remembering that the second part of the collation process is paring my questions down so they can be asked conversationally: I do a lot of prep to make things sound spur of the moment; when my questions seem long winded, I consider it a failure... Basic interview process: collect, collate, conversate (for lack of a better term), then probably throw it all out in the interview itself – but the cheat sheet's there, a useful roadmap through to socialization.

the morning's attendance card, a sketchy me attempting to stay vertical in this seasonal shift wind while my face is blown off by said wind.