Another movie night...

Watched Mildred Pierce, the Joan Crawford version. And it amazes me she won the Oscar for that. I guess the community thought she was due, since she'd given so many truly good performances while at MGM. Because in this movie...well, there's that famous critique by Dorothy Parker -- "She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." (Though she wasn't referring to Joan, at the time.)

Joan could be an amazing actress in the right vehicle. As the stenographer in Grand Hotel...she was a sexy little minx. And the home-wrecker in The Women...you could see how she'd trap a man. But there was nothing real about her in MP. Jack Carson, Eve Arden, and Zachary Scott were a lot more natural, making Joan's stiffness even more glaring.

I think Gene Tierney was more deserving, that year, for Leave Her to Heaven. Cold. Cruel. Unwavering. Her bit in the drowning scene, alone...let's just say it scarred me for life.

But be that as it may, it's clearing the cobwebs out of my fuzzy brain. As is inputting the corrections to the ebook and hardback files of APoS-HNH. I made a couple more changes in it, as well. Nothing major, just a better way of expressing something. My editor is about 40% of the way through.

I'm just not going to be able to focus on any other project till this is done, so have finally accepted that. I worked more on the dust jacket, neatening up the synopsis on the flaps and aligning the text and images. It's a lot better.

Oh, and I'm having a joyous time with the USPS, as well. I sent signed copies of the first two volumes of APoS to a friend in Orlando, but put his address wrong on the label. Instead of 11808 as the street number, I put 11806...and they refused to deliver it. Said No such number. So are supposed to return it. It's now nearly 6 weeks later, and I can't even find out exactly where it is or when it will be back. If ever. And since I sent it media mail, it's not insured.

I so love today's world of service and technology,