Alright, so I have finalized three novels this winter (to me, "finalizing" is different from "finished" -- I finished those books before this winter, but they weren't "finalized" -- that is, buffed and polished and publisher-ready to my satisfaction -- make sense?), and, for the moment, I'm unsure which piece to work on, next. I have three strong contenders in mind at the moment, but can't really decide which to finalize, next. Eeenie, meenie....
I'm still amazed how quickly the snow has melted; we got so much snow in the Blizzard of '11 (and snow on top of THAT snow), but a warm spell kicks in and it's gone. Amazing. But it's still way too early to put on the shorts -- I really don't rule out snow in Chicago until June.
My Turbotax program arrived yesterday. Good times, that. I'll probably work on that tonight, since Exene'll have the boys, and I'll be able to work on that undisturbed. This year's will be complicated, given that 2010 was THE year Exene and I split (that is, when she finally got a job). 2010 would be the Year of Gnashing Teeth for me. Lordy. So, one last gnash of the teeth as I hash out the tax stuff, then wash my hands of it.
B1 had to do a "blue paper" -- basically, a paper about something that made him sad. He wrote about the loss of Newt, which was really his first experience with death (since Jinx died when he was maybe four, I don't think that quite stuck with him -- plus, Jinx was a mean cat, versus Newt, who was always sweet-natured). Anyway, he wrote about it in his fashion, and drew a sketch of Newt from an old photograph of him (a friend shot a great portrait of Newt back in '92, which I still have). It was bittersweet to see him revisit this sense of loss. He said he likes cats, would get one someday. That's kind of sweet to me, too -- I think B1 is more of a cat person, and B2 is definitely a dog person (B2 keeps nagging for me to get a bulldog; he loves bulldogs [tee hee, so do I]). But it's funny to see B1 express his aesthetic.
Speaking of aesthetics, B2 wanted to watch "Wall-E" yesterday, and he noticed a parallel between the Axiom tech in that movie and the stuff in "Portal" -- and it's very true: the red eyes, the stark white with black highlights -- B2 kept saying "It's like PORTAL, Daddy." Hahah! B2 is very aesthetically attuned. He's definitely going to be the performer and the creative type -- he's got such a strong sense of theatricality and imagination. He'll set up these Lego dioramas and will play meticulously with them, setting up scenes with them with such care. It's charming to watch that young imagination at play.
I have nine screenplay ideas I need to develop. I perennially wrestle with screenplays -- while I do write in a cinematic style, that doesn't lend itself to a ready comfort with screenplay-writing. But the ideas I have simply would work better as screenplays than as books or short stories; they just would. So, I'm trying to do honor to the work by presenting it in the format that would work best with it. Seven Horror, one Thriller, and one SF love story.
