A few nights ago I watched another violent Asian film, The Chaser (2008), set in South Korea. It is yet another serial killer flick, made offbeat by its portrayal of the police as incompetents, which at times gave it an almost comic air. I wonder how much flack, if any, the film-makers caught. The director and two leads worked in The Yellow Sea (2010), which I thought was superior. The folks at IMDb disagree, rating the former 7.3, the latter 7.9. Although the themes are common, the settings and foreign actors give them a freshness. One thing is certain -- they are not boring. Tonight I must decide whether to watch the second installment of The Following. I’m hoping there’s a better alternative on another channel. THIS, 111 on Cablevision, has been showing movies every night, none great, but some at least watchable. Enough with the serial killers already!
When WheelMan Press accepted Exchanges, my fourth novel, so quickly, I was skeptical. The publisher simply does not communicate very often, in contrast to the people at All Things That Matter Press and Water Forest Press. When he contacted me recently and said the book would soon go into production, I felt guilty. Since the weather has pre-empted the floating book shop quite a bit lately, I had plenty of time to give the file another flush. I’m glad I did. I changed things most readers wouldn’t notice. I’d always used a hyphen (-) instead of an em dash (--) to place emphasis on an ensuing phrase. Believe it or not, while I don't see the big deal, it makes some editors batty. I first wrote Exchanges circa 1990. At the time I was putting the title of any film or song inside quotation marks. I now italicize them. Most of the other errors concerned punctuation. There were a few misspellings. I emailed the guy earlier. I hope he lets me re-submit. It would be to both our advantage. I still sense or fear that it will not come off at all, perhaps as punishment for my lack of faith. It will be very disappointing if it doesn’t. It would be a hard to have it accepted elsewhere. It is a slice of life, another chapter of the human comedy -- not much plot, plenty of action.
Tomorrow morning I will have my first check-up in two-and-a-half years, and the forecast says possible afternoon showers, so the book shop may again be sidelined. Sheesh!
Visit Vic's sites:
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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