Déjà vu? Don’t Mind If I Do!

It’s been an interesting few days, ladies and gentlemen. Lotsa thoughts bouncing around in my brain, some having zilch to do with any other thoughts in the same head. (I find it strange that ‘zilch’ is accepted by Word as a non-typo, but ‘bubkus’ is not. Hmm.)

There’s something I’m deliberately not mentioning, as I do not want to jinx my chances of doing/achieving/getting it. Being vague as humanly possible in order to keep myself off karma’s radar. I’ll hopefully be able to spill beans in the very near future.

Anyway. A friend of mine has been through the wringer these past… year. I was going to say ‘weeks’ or ‘months’, but in his words and I agree, this hasn’t been his year. A few ups, a lot of downs, and the man continues to persevere without flagging. John’s strength is like coal: It burns when it needs to, and under pressure all you’re going to find are diamonds. He *is* the man.

I visited him Friday night; in efforts to cheer him up I took over some beer and Red Vs. Blue, a web-series based on the Multi-player levels of Halo. For gamers like ourselves, it’s ****ing hilarious. Seemed to do the trick, as last night John was sharing the same movies with another friend of ours.

Saturday… Where to begin. My brother’s Ka-Pow-BQ was a big success, it was his third annual party for his website, www.millionaireplayboy.com. It was held at the Old Town Firehouse Cue in Gaithersburg, and it was a hit. Good food, great company, and good times were had by all. My friends Albie and Ben were there. I was pretty much the only person they knew at the bash, but Albie wasted no time before chatting up the ladies.

Albie’s going on tour for nine months starring in Dracula and Taming of the Shrew, playing the Dark Prince himself and a supporting role in Shrew. He’s been practicing his Transylvanian accent, and it sounds good and creepy. His Count-ness and I were in The Foreigner last year at Theatre on the Hill, which is where we drove after Andy’s party. A friend of ours (and co-star in Albie’s upcoming season) was in a production of Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr, and it was damn funny. One or two hecklers in the audience gave them a hard time (not me, I swear), but it bounced off them as if their jerkins were made of Teflon. It was beautiful.

Sunday was a day of mixed emotions. I’ve been writing short satirical essays and stories at www.outpost31.com, a tribute-site to The Thing. The shorts have gotten rave reviews from readers, and people have been asking if I’ve written anything book-sized. I haven’t. Not in years. I wrote a book in College, but it was just a Buffy Novel that’ll never see print. Besides the fact, my writing ‘voice’ has changed over the years (confidence helps).

Fact is I wouldn’t know where to begin. I *want* to write longer material, but I’ve had vampires on the brain for so long I really want to break away from the genre and try something else. In any case I can’t just decide ‘Hey, I’m gonna write a book. Come to me, plot! Come to me, characters!’ and sit back and watch it happen. Doesn’t work that way. Blargh.

I know what I’d *like* to write, the books of Chris Moore have been hugely entertaining to me these past weeks, not to mention inspirational. His style is approachable, funny, and seems very natural. But at the moment, between writing two plays (rapidly becoming one and another on the back burner) and starring in a third; I don’t have the time/energy/chutzpa required for the undertaking. (Chutzpa also recognized by Word. Hmm again.)

We’ll see. There’s a lot going on at the moment, which is the way I like things. More to follow, like always. More to follow.