Blurred Line

A two-day rejection from All Possible Worlds today. A form rejection, no less. Ouch.

On the plus side, I went to go see Casino Royale tonight. And yes, it is everything it's cracked up to be. The first hour is perhaps the most breathless sixty minutes of action-movie goodness that I've ever seen.

You'll recall that in my last post I mentioned that I was procrastinating. I was working on a paper due the next day. Well, I ended up pulling an all-nighter (my first of the year), spent the next two days recovering, the next two working/drinking (not simultaneously, although I'm sure that would've really brightened up the whole data entry scene for me) and today...well, today I got productive.

I'd had two submissions out for a while. "The Last Ad" had been sitting around with market for 200+ days. The average response time for that market was somewhere around 90, so I assumed rejection for that one. On a reread, though, I realized that I'm simply not very fond of the story anymore, so I'll probably post it here (it's short enough, being a flash piece) if I do anything with it. "Learning Magic From Mint" had been at its market for a total of 101 days, which had an average response time of about thirty or forty. I'd heard some business about the editors at that particular market not responding to some stories due to submission outside the reading window (which I'd never seen notice - and I've worn the editor's hat, so I'm always diligent as far as submission guidelines go), so I simply withdrew the story from consideration and fired it off elsewhere. Frankly, it felt nice to send something off to market again...it's been, well, 101 days.

I also finished off Jude the Obscure, the last novel of the semester and rewarded myself with some pleasure reading. That felt good. I fired through Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby pretty quickly. It's not Coupland's best work, but he always manages to make his characters feel so intensely real that I felt myself drawn in anyway. His characters aren't just fully-fleshed out, three dimensional characters on the page, they actually feel like people I've met at some point in my life. Anyhow, this novel, Coupland's ode to loneliness, is about a single, friendless thirtysomething woman who finds her life changed after taking in the son she's never met. Coupland's rather heavy-handed at moments, which stops this book from ever being anything truly special. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable read. Of course, maybe I was just happy to be reading something outside of class.

Anyway, now I'm off to write yet another essay (yes, I was procrastinating again - gasp!)

Sometimes, inspiration is where you least expect it. I've got this essay due tomorrow (and yes, I am procrastinating - gasp!) in my Canadian short story. The topic is entirely our choice, but has to be written on stories not in either of the anthologies used in class. So, I took a trip to the library yesterday, tracked down the Canadian short fiction section and picked out a few volumes, mostly at random.

One of them was this tiny little blue book, roughly the size of my hand, with a non-descript cover and a non-descript title (Modern Canadian Stories). Moreover, being published in 1975, it had more than a few years on our class texts. Needless to say, it wasn't at the top of my list. However, having made my way through most of the book, I feel as if I want to disappear off the grid, go live in a log cabin somewhere and write short stories by a roaring fire. I've always been a big fan of the short story, though most of my experience with the form has come in genre

fiction, but this little book is simply amazing. I've already ordered myself a copy from some used bookstore in the States. What really surprises me (even though it shouldn't at this point) is how little attention the short story gets. The two stories I'm writing on are Elisabeth Harvor's "Magicians" and Don Bailey's "A Few Notes For Orpheus", both of them absolutely wonderful, and yet I've never heard of either author before. A quick look at the Amazon rankings of their books confirmed I wasn't the only one. So, go find yourself a short story. Online, in a collection at the library. Whatever.

Of course, sometimes inspiration is exactly where you expect it to be. That's right, the acting/writing/directing team of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright - the guys behind Shaun of the Dead - are reteaming for cop spoof Hot Fuzz. And it looks fantastic. I can't wait until March.

I've come down with a bad case of apathy over the last few days, which has manifested itself in a lot of unproductivity in all aspects of my life - hence the lack of posting. I wouldn't say I'm over it, but I'm fighting the good fight, attempting to triumph over the base desires of sloth. And...all that good stuff.

Anyhow, with essentially nothing to post on, I thought I'd check through my stat counter to see what people were looking for when they came to this blog (apart from, you know, my wonderful personality and dashing good looks). Well, it turns out that the only reason people come to my blog is for pictures of Jessica Alba. I, of course, would never miss a chance to post a picture of ~~my girlfriend~~ Miss Alba.

Besides that, there was actually someone out there looking for Thanksgiving writing prompts. Did they want a short story to read before the family dinner? Unfortunately, we'll never know. And, despite the fact that I celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago (what with being a backwards Canadian and all), I've decided to oblige this wayward. Hopefully when they go searching again this time next year, there'll be a little bit more holiday cheer to go around. Of course, I'm also disturbingly lazy, so my writing prompt is a grand total of one sentence. Still, feel free to weave whatever story from it you can...

"What do you mean, 'It carved itself'?"

We've been having a lot of grey, raining, generally depressing days here lately. So, to cheer things up a bit, I've put up one of those irrepressibly happy songs up for everyone. You know the drill - just hit "ZAP" on the little radio player.

The observant reader may also have noticed that I recently went to see The Departed. Yeah, freakin amazing movie. I gave the movie an A- because of two too many twists at the last minute, but for 95% of the film's 152 minutes, it's solid A+ material.

Also, two good things on a personal level - I'm finished with the big seminar I had to give and, believe it or not, I actually got some writing done today. Hurrah.

Screw curing AIDS or world hunger, this is what science is all about. I want one. Bad.

Before I say absolutely anything, I just have to mention how much this transformation freaks me out. I mean, what happened to the Weird Al of my youth? New Weird Al looks like he might actually have had sex with a girl which, in my opinion, entirely negates the Weird Al persona.

OK, anyway...

As you might have noticed by my slow moving word count, November isn't turning out to be everything I'd hoped it would. But that's alright, because I've been managed to get a little writing done while dealing with massive amounts of school reading, which is more than I can say for the past couple of months. Since I've only got one exam and one term paper at the end of the semester, I'm looking forward to some productivity in December (not to mention some time for pleasure reading - I mean, Thomas Hardy is good, but I'm definitely not going to be sorry when I'm done with him).

Speaking of Hardy, I'm presenting an hour long seminar on Tess of the D'Urbervilles in class on Monday, but after that I'm (relatively) midterm free for the rest of the month. I've set that time aside for all things Apodis - there's a lot of financial stuff to do, and afterwards I'm hoping to get in some copies of the anthology and start the publicity process. So, yeah...feel free to wish me luck with that.

Exciting stuff, huh? Seems other people get all the exciting stories these days. I mean, my roommate was attacked by six birds this week. And one of them was on fire. Seriously. All I have is fiction:

It's funny, to be playing God by day and moonlighting as confusion.
But this isn't important. This isn't moving things along. Let's hit fast forward.
Glimpses of the following:
My block continues. Pen twirling around my fingers.
Prentice walking into the office with a smile on his face. Nathalie. Discussions full of sordid details.
Stephen's concerns about his mother ("I think I could learn to deal with it if she’d just choose one man"), his swatches ("I’m having trouble choosing - which do you think?").
Helena, nebulous, appearing and disappearing like a magician's assistant. Once, sex in my office after she'd snuck in without anybody taking notice. I'd closed my blinds. From outside the office, nothing. Not even a suggestive silhouette. Mostly, though, she is not around.
Relaxing in my apartment, unable to relax. Going through all the motions. Laying back, watching TV, ordering in. Realizing, with a start, that it's all adding up to nothing.
Press play.

Lately, I've been distracted from life by a girl and a letter from Revenue Canada filled with very large numbers. I find both equally intimidating. Here are some random thoughts that have distracted me from those distractions:

Sometimes, celebrity news is just boring.
I think today was the first time I genuinely felt the bubbles melt in an Aero bar.
Is it any coincidence that the most genuine and moving romance I've seen on film lately is also the one with the kinkiest sex?
Speaking of movies, anyone who has seen the trailer for Casino Royale must be imagining that all those people who bashed Daniel Craig as the next Bond are preparing to eat their words.
And, speaking of sex - it's not as easy to write as you might imagine. That's right...Mass Romantic is the Terrill story everyone's been waiting for me to write - one with lots of gratuitous sex scenes.
I think I might buy Cobra Starship's album based on their song titles alone. (I mean, "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You in Hell" and "Being From Jersey Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry" are instant classics in my book.)
In the past seven days, I have consumed fourteen litres of chocolate milk and I have no idea why I feel like I need more.
Other stupid things to waste significant amounts of money on: My crummy old DDR pads have been acting screwy - some of the arrows don't work too well anymore. A few days ago I bought new ones off eBay. Fancy ones. Seriously, what's wrong with me?
I totally just went to the kitchen to get another glass of chocolate milk. Seriously, what's wrong with me?
When nothing else will cheer me up, I can always rely on my Firefly DVDs.
Facebook is addictive. If you've managed to resist so far...well, keep up the good work.

Really? I mean, really? Seriously, what the hell can I have been blabbing on about for so long? Well, believe it or not, this is indeed the 500th post of this blog (and that doesn't even include the early Bravenet days). I didn't think it was much to brag about, but apparently some disgruntled city worker felt differently:

Ummm...right. Anyhow, on the upside, I got some writing done today for the first time in a very, very long time. And, during this writing spurt, I achieved a milestone I actually do care a little about - I hit what's anticipated to be the halfway mark in Mass Romantic. The story, which has a pretty clear dual structure (as I'm hoping I'll be able to show you by the end of the month) is almost at the point where I'm reading to transition into this new section, but I'm expecting that this second part won't be quite as long, since none of the characters need introducing any longer.

Oh, and an FYI to my fellow bloggers - I've been doing my best to make my rounds to everybody's blog lately, but my internet connection, as usual, is running hot and cold, so I don't make it quite as often as I'd like to. I'm with you in spirit, though.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - Short and Sweet A two-day rejection from All Possible Worlds today. A form rejection, no less. Ouch. On the plus side, I went to go see Casino Royale tonight. And yes, it is everything it's cracked up to be. The first hour is perhaps the most breathless sixty minutes of action-movie goodness that I've ever seen. Cavan blogged at 10:27 PM \| 1 comments Sunday, November 26, 2006 - A Week in Review You'll recall that in my last post I mentioned that I was procrastinating. I was working on a paper due the next day. Well, I ended up pulling an all-nighter (my first of the year), spent the next two days recovering, the next two working/drinking (not simultaneously, although I'm sure that would've really brightened up the whole data entry scene for me) and today...well, today I got productive. I'd had two submissions out for a while. "The Last Ad" had been sitting around with market for 200+ days. The average response time for that market was somewhere around 90, so I assumed rejection for that one. On a reread, though, I realized that I'm simply not very fond of the story anymore, so I'll probably post it here (it's short enough, being a flash piece) if I do anything with it. "Learning Magic From Mint" had been at its market for a total of 101 days, which had an average response time of about thirty or forty. I'd heard some business about the editors at that particular market not responding to some stories due to submission outside the reading window (which I'd never seen notice - and I've worn the editor's hat, so I'm always diligent as far as submission guidelines go), so I simply withdrew the story from consideration and fired it off elsewhere. Frankly, it felt nice to send something off to market again...it's been, well, 101 days. I also finished off Jude the Obscure, the last novel of the semester and rewarded myself with some pleasure reading. That felt good. I fired through Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby pretty quickly. It's not Coupland's best work, but he always manages to make his characters feel so intensely real that I felt myself drawn in anyway. His characters aren't just fully-fleshed out, three dimensional characters on the page, they actually feel like people I've met at some point in my life. Anyhow, this novel, Coupland's ode to loneliness, is about a single, friendless thirtysomething woman who finds her life changed after taking in the son she's never met. Coupland's rather heavy-handed at moments, which stops this book from ever being anything truly special. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable read. Of course, maybe I was just happy to be reading something outside of class. Anyway, now I'm off to write yet another essay (yes, I was procrastinating again - gasp!) Cavan blogged at 10:50 PM \| 0 comments Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - Unexpected Sometimes, inspiration is where you least expect it. I've got this essay due tomorrow (and yes, I am procrastinating - gasp!) in my Canadian short story. The topic is entirely our choice, but has to be written on stories not in either of the anthologies used in class. So, I took a trip to the library yesterday, tracked down the Canadian short fiction section and picked out a few volumes, mostly at random. One of them was this tiny little blue book, roughly the size of my hand, with a non-descript cover and a non-descript title (Modern Canadian Stories). Moreover, being published in 1975, it had more than a few years on our class texts. Needless to say, it wasn't at the top of my list. However, having made my way through most of the book, I feel as if I want to disappear off the grid, go live in a log cabin somewhere and write short stories by a roaring fire. I've always been a big fan of the short story, though most of my experience with the form has come in genre fiction, but this little book is simply amazing. I've already ordered myself a copy from some used bookstore in the States. What really surprises me (even though it shouldn't at this point) is how little attention the short story gets. The two stories I'm writing on are Elisabeth Harvor's "Magicians" and Don Bailey's "A Few Notes For Orpheus", both of them absolutely wonderful, and yet I've never heard of either author before. A quick look at the Amazon rankings of their books confirmed I wasn't the only one. So, go find yourself a short story. Online, in a collection at the library. Whatever. Of course, sometimes inspiration is exactly where you expect it to be. That's right, the acting/writing/directing team of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright - the guys behind Shaun of the Dead - are reteaming for cop spoof Hot Fuzz. And it looks fantastic. I can't wait until March. Cavan blogged at 9:54 PM \| 2 comments Sunday, November 19, 2006 - Giving the People What They Want I've come down with a bad case of apathy over the last few days, which has manifested itself in a lot of unproductivity in all aspects of my life - hence the lack of posting. I wouldn't say I'm over it, but I'm fighting the good fight, attempting to triumph over the base desires of sloth. And...all that good stuff. Anyhow, with essentially nothing to post on, I thought I'd check through my stat counter to see what people were looking for when they came to this blog (apart from, you know, my wonderful personality and dashing good looks). Well, it turns out that the only reason people come to my blog is for pictures of Jessica Alba. I, of course, would never miss a chance to post a picture of ~~my girlfriend~~ Miss Alba. Besides that, there was actually someone out there looking for Thanksgiving writing prompts. Did they want a short story to read before the family dinner? Unfortunately, we'll never know. And, despite the fact that I celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago (what with being a backwards Canadian and all), I've decided to oblige this wayward. Hopefully when they go searching again this time next year, there'll be a little bit more holiday cheer to go around. Of course, I'm also disturbingly lazy, so my writing prompt is a grand total of one sentence. Still, feel free to weave whatever story from it you can... "What do you mean, 'It carved itself'?" Cavan blogged at 10:07 PM \| 0 comments Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - Good Things We've been having a lot of grey, raining, generally depressing days here lately. So, to cheer things up a bit, I've put up one of those irrepressibly happy songs up for everyone. You know the drill - just hit "ZAP" on the little radio player. The observant reader may also have noticed that I recently went to see The Departed. Yeah, freakin amazing movie. I gave the movie an A- because of two too many twists at the last minute, but for 95% of the film's 152 minutes, it's solid A+ material. Also, two good things on a personal level - I'm finished with the big seminar I had to give and, believe it or not, I actually got some writing done today. Hurrah. Cavan blogged at 11:21 PM \| 1 comments Monday, November 13, 2006 - Air Guitar Shirt Screw curing AIDS or world hunger, this is what science is all about. I want one. Bad. Cavan blogged at 10:06 AM \| 1 comments Saturday, November 11, 2006 - Now and Then Before I say absolutely anything, I just have to mention how much this transformation freaks me out. I mean, what happened to the Weird Al of my youth? New Weird Al looks like he might actually have had sex with a girl which, in my opinion, entirely negates the Weird Al persona. OK, anyway... As you might have noticed by my slow moving word count, November isn't turning out to be everything I'd hoped it would. But that's alright, because I've been managed to get a little writing done while dealing with massive amounts of school reading, which is more than I can say for the past couple of months. Since I've only got one exam and one term paper at the end of the semester, I'm looking forward to some productivity in December (not to mention some time for pleasure reading - I mean, Thomas Hardy is good, but I'm definitely not going to be sorry when I'm done with him). Speaking of Hardy, I'm presenting an hour long seminar on Tess of the D'Urbervilles in class on Monday, but after that I'm (relatively) midterm free for the rest of the month. I've set that time aside for all things Apodis - there's a lot of financial stuff to do, and afterwards I'm hoping to get in some copies of the anthology and start the publicity process. So, yeah...feel free to wish me luck with that. Exciting stuff, huh? Seems other people get all the exciting stories these days. I mean, my roommate was attacked by six birds this week. And one of them was on fire. Seriously. All I have is fiction: It's funny, to be playing God by day and moonlighting as confusion. But this isn't important. This isn't moving things along. Let's hit fast forward. Glimpses of the following: My block continues. Pen twirling around my fingers. Prentice walking into the office with a smile on his face. Nathalie. Discussions full of sordid details. Stephen's concerns about his mother ("I think I could learn to deal with it if she’d just choose one man"), his swatches ("I’m having trouble choosing - which do you think?"). Helena, nebulous, appearing and disappearing like a magician's assistant. Once, sex in my office after she'd snuck in without anybody taking notice. I'd closed my blinds. From outside the office, nothing. Not even a suggestive silhouette. Mostly, though, she is not around. Relaxing in my apartment, unable to relax. Going through all the motions. Laying back, watching TV, ordering in. Realizing, with a start, that it's all adding up to nothing. Press play. Cavan blogged at 11:30 PM \| 0 comments Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - Random Thoughts Lately, I've been distracted from life by a girl and a letter from Revenue Canada filled with very large numbers. I find both equally intimidating. Here are some random thoughts that have distracted me from those distractions: Sometimes, celebrity news is just boring. I think today was the first time I genuinely felt the bubbles melt in an Aero bar. Is it any coincidence that the most genuine and moving romance I've seen on film lately is also the one with the kinkiest sex? Speaking of movies, anyone who has seen the trailer for Casino Royale must be imagining that all those people who bashed Daniel Craig as the next Bond are preparing to eat their words. And, speaking of sex - it's not as easy to write as you might imagine. That's right...Mass Romantic is the Terrill story everyone's been waiting for me to write - one with lots of gratuitous sex scenes. I think I might buy Cobra Starship's album based on their song titles alone. (I mean, "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You in Hell" and "Being From Jersey Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry" are instant classics in my book.) In the past seven days, I have consumed fourteen litres of chocolate milk and I have no idea why I feel like I need more. Other stupid things to waste significant amounts of money on: My crummy old DDR pads have been acting screwy - some of the arrows don't work too well anymore. A few days ago I bought new ones off eBay. Fancy ones. Seriously, what's wrong with me? I totally just went to the kitchen to get another glass of chocolate milk. Seriously, what's wrong with me? When nothing else will cheer me up, I can always rely on my Firefly DVDs. Facebook is addictive. If you've managed to resist so far...well, keep up the good work. Cavan blogged at 10:18 PM \| 2 comments Friday, November 03, 2006 - 500th Post Really? I mean, really? Seriously, what the hell can I have been blabbing on about for so long? Well, believe it or not, this is indeed the 500th post of this blog (and that doesn't even include the early Bravenet days). I didn't think it was much to brag about, but apparently some disgruntled city worker felt differently: Ummm...right. Anyhow, on the upside, I got some writing done today for the first time in a very, very long time. And, during this writing spurt, I achieved a milestone I actually do care a little about - I hit what's anticipated to be the halfway mark in Mass Romantic. The story, which has a pretty clear dual structure (as I'm hoping I'll be able to show you by the end of the month) is almost at the point where I'm reading to transition into this new section, but I'm expecting that this second part won't be quite as long, since none of the characters need introducing any longer. Oh, and an FYI to my fellow bloggers - I've been doing my best to make my rounds to everybody's blog lately, but my internet connection, as usual, is running hot and cold, so I don't make it quite as often as I'd like to. I'm with you in spirit, though. Cavan blogged at 8:10 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart