I am still looking for work, and I am still pushing forward with my Master’s Degree.  In my spare time, I am doing some freelance writing, and I am trying to discipline myself to press on and complete a novel I just began writing.  I know I have started many such novels, but I am actually now beginning to believe that being a novelist is what I always should have pursued.  Now I just need to finish something to prove to myself that I can and to relieve myself of the constant, nagging “what ifs.” 

Until next time…(which, hopefully, won’t be another three months)…

I am still without employment. I am also fast approaching yet another semester in my graduate studies.

There are some movies I would like to discuss when I have the opportunity. Thus far, I have to say that Summer ’09 has been relatively disappointing as far as cinema is concerned. On Friday, I am hoping to see The Hurt Locker. I will let that open my current and retroactive appraisal of the summer film season.

Anyway, it is bed time. So off I go. But not before reading a little more about the secret history of the FBI.

I’ll try to write a review later. But don’t hold your breath.

Here is the beginning:

The tower appeared in the town square of Tyler Springs early on a Tuesday morning. As the whole town was either asleep or preoccupied by other endeavors, no one saw the stone edifice erected; and even after the first light of morning revealed the tower’s presence, no one would have been able to say if it had actually been built there or merely dropped upon the town square as is. However, anyone who truly believed the tower to have been built in a single evening was probably not someone upon whom one relied for accurate information.

The first one to see the tower was Melvin Driscoll, the owner and operator of the nostalgically named Mel’s Diner, which occupied approximately one thousand square feet on the southwest corner opposite the square. Still half-asleep and focused only on brewing the first pot of coffee for the day (all of which he would likely imbibe before the first patrons dragged themselves sluggishly through his door), Melvin did not see the tower or the eerie shadow it cast over his establishment beneath that month’s full moon. As soon as Mel entered the diner, turned on the lights, and locked the door behind him, the darkened morning and everything that crawled, lurked, or loped through it was lost behind the glare that shone upon the storefront glass.

However, the light in Mel’s Diner was not the first artificial light of morning in Tyler Springs’ town square. High up and through narrow slits around its stone façade, a twinkling glow, as if cast from firelight, crowned the tower and then was extinguished.

The idea was inspired by:

Although the story, which I envision as more Lovecraftian than anything, will ultimately bear little resemblance to the lyrics, the song nevertheless provided the impetus for the the story’s germination. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the inspiration provided by the new Stephen King novel yet to be released. We’ll see how it goes, especially since I am intrigued about where the tower came from and what might be lurking within.

(Who am I fooling? Almost any job would be welcome at this point.)

Financially, things are really starting to become tense as the well dries up. Something really has to happen soon – the summer film season is nearly upon us. At least The Wife has another lead through an employment agency. Now, if I could just pick the winning Lotto numbers…

Yeah, I’ll be there August 21, 2009.

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

From what I had initially read about this novel, I thought King had returned to a previously aborted novel, The Cannibals, which I believed to have been a story about, well, cannibalism taking place among the dwellers in an apartment building. However, it would seem that Under the Dome is, in fact, an entirely new story. Can’t wait.

Also, I am excited as tonight marks the return of Fringe. I love that show, and I can’t wait to pick it up on DVD when it is ultimately released.

Now, I am off to tutor the nephew in math…