Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle with the whooping cough. Speaking of cough, we regressed a bit yesterday – several coughing fits and attendant gunk spat out – it’s quite disgusting – nose is still okay, but how much of this gunk can be in one person? And the cough is really killing my throat – I don’t want to lose my voice, so I’m trying to be careful, but once one cough comes it’s followed by ten others. Is there no way to just cut through the gunk? Is there no Gunk-Away product? I’ve been drinking water and juice, too. Well, hopefully I’ll get a good night’s sleep and wake up feeling less gunkified. Otherwise, the first day of July was pretty nice. I got about seven hours of sleep, got up, and actually felt okay for a couple of hours with no issues. I answered e-mails, got dressed, and moseyed on over to the mail place, where I picked up two important envelopes. I went right to bank one and cashed that check there, then went to my branch down the street and deposited it. No waiting at all in either bank. Then I came home and ordered food – penne and Eyetalian sausage in a pink sauce. It arrived about twenty minutes later and it was very good and very filling, not necessarily in that order. Then I did some work on the computer, got some interesting news, had no telephonic conversations, then sat on my couch like so much expectorating fish and watched a new documentary that just premiered on HBO Max – called My Mom Jayne, a film by Mariska Hargitay about her mother, Jayne Mansfield. It’s a fascinating look at a complicated woman who was also very maternal, smart, musically talented – and a look at the children all these years later. It’s very emotional at times, has some surprising surprises towards the end, and ultimately, it’s very moving. Lots of great photos and clips and it comes highly recommended by the likes of me. After that, I got proofer two’s latest go-through and will have proofer one’s at some point today. I also got blurb two and it’s wonderful. I’m told I’ll have blurb three by Friday. I’m still looking for one more blurber. It was still early, so I decided to watch another movie and I chose a recent one called Drop. The plot is fairly simple – a woman on a first date meets the guy at a fancy restaurant atop a very tall high rise. And apparently anyone in the restaurant can “drop” an anonymous message to anyone else. That’s not a real thing but could be – like Air Drop. So, you have to put aside the fact that it isn’t really a thing. Anyway, she begins to get messages dropped to her while she’s sitting at her table with a first date. The messages imply that the sender can see and hear everything she’s doing. And the dropper shows her that there’s someone in her house who will kill her son if she says anything to anyone. And what does the dropper want? For her to kill her date, along with a few other things. So, that’s the plot and it’s certainly not new – the late Larry Cohen did this plot in the movie Phone Booth and the movie Grand Piano is basically the same thing – one setting, the person has to do something, or someone will die.
Anyway, the movie is ridiculous, but the actors are very good, and it’s tautly directed. You kind of go along with it for a while, until it starts getting really ludicrous, and the last ten minutes or so is so patently dopey that you just wait for it to be over. It’s only ninety minutes. Anyway, if you like dopey suspense things you might at least enjoy the actors. That was about it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I really hope I’m feeling much better because a solid week of this is too damn much. I’ll enter fixes from both proofers and then I should be able to get everything ready for the designers. I still have to write flap copy for the dust jacket, too. I’ll eat at some point, I’ll do whatever else needs doing, I may venture out for a short drive if I’m feeling up to it, but mostly I’ll just keep resting and trying to feel better, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of that and maybe by the weekend I can have a nice meal out somewhere.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, hope I’m feeling better, enter fixes, write flap copy, eat, maybe go for a short drive, rest, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a very nice day with too much damn coughing.