Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Friday, January 4, 2019

I've read too many murder mysteries...

Well...Rain Dogs pretty much worked out like I figured. Dammit. I was hoping my suspicion of how a locked room murder happened would wind up being a deliberate red herring, but it wasn't. However, that was made up for by the finagling nonsense of the suspect after being found out and the final coda, which involved Finland deciding to join the EEC. That was clever.

Still, I like Adrian McKinty's writing style. Very dark, cynical and staccato...not like I write at all. Well...I don't do staccato. I mix in a lot of James Joycean run on sentences with Hemingway simplicity  layered by a Tolstoy-esque depth of character...and I know, I know, I'm full of shit. But it's fun to think I do all that.

I did more work...this time on APoS's ending. I changed who dies, and by doing that shifted the dynamic of the story, a little. But it helps make sense of a small mystery -- how the RUC found out Brendan was back in Derry masquerading as someone else. Part of me thinks this is too neat...and I may yet change it, again...but it works for now.

I may finally have my WordPress blog ready to run, including protection and such. I have to wait till I'm back from LA and it's set up for Adults Only before I start posting my more in-your-face stuff, but I can leave Tumbler in the dust. I'll shut that down on January 31st.

Today I had fun prepping for a packing job in Bermuda. Man...they have a different way of working, down there. I'm trying to arrange for packing materials to be delivered to the library's site, and for two weeks I've been talking with a freight forwarder in Hamilton who say they can supply the boxes and paper and bubble wrap I need...but do you think I can find out what they actually do have?

I tell them I want newsprint to use to stuff the boxes. Yeah, we got that. Is it this size? Yeah, we got that. Packages. How many sheets are in a package? We have a couple of half packages. Okay...I'm looking for 1200 sheets of the paper in 30x20 inches. Do you have that many? We've ordered packing materials but they won't be here when you need them. NO PACKING MATERIALS? We have boxes and bubble, and we do have a roll of paper. How big is the roll? We'll send you a photo. And then they don't send the photo.

Bermuda is not a place I've ever wanted to go to...and this is only confirming my impression of it. Who knows? Maybe the shutdown of the government will drag on and I won't b e able to go if the TSA and Air Traffic Controllers walk off the job for not being paid, since Czar Snowflake is dumb-fuck enough to think he can do to them what he's done to contractors.

God damn the GOP for helping that bastard.

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