End-of-the-Month Update

Writing

My usual end-of-the-month writing slump from April didn't go away this time but stretched out most of the way through May, instead. I had enough good days here and there to keep the month from being a disaster where the writing was concerned, but mostly it was slow going and began to pick up only during the past few days. I think I was just so busy in April, what with the traveling and lots of writing, that I got a little worn out and it's taking me some time to recover. Whatever the reason, I fell short of my page goal for May and so my surplus is gone. I'm back to running a deficit, 56 pages to be exact. But I'll make it up. And if I don't . . . well, it's not a killin' matter, as my dad used to say. The quality of the work is still pretty good, even if the quantity isn't quite where I want it to be.

Reading

I read the following books in May:

THE EIGHT OF SWORDS, John Dickson Carr
WANTON BAIT, "John Dexter"
MILTON CANIFF: CONVERSATIONS, Robert C. Harvey, editor
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, Sara Gruen
THE BUTCHER #2: COME WATCH HIM DIE, Stuart Jason (James Dockery)
THE COMPLETE COLOR TERRY AND THE PIRATES, VOL. I, Milton Caniff
SECRET AGENT X, JUNE 1934: CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, Brant House (Paul Chadwick)
DIE A LITTLE, Megan Abbott
BLOOD SON, Erica Orloff
SCARLET GODDESS, Ennis Willie (I'll post about this one in a day or two)

I also read a facsimile reprint of the August 1937 issue of the pulp DETECTIVE SHORT STORIES, published by Adventure House, and YOURS FOR FASTER HIPPOS, a chapbook collection of several articles and essays by Don Herron about Robert E. Howard, including his classic "Conan vs. Conantics".

Movies

For a while it looked like I wasn't going to watch very many movies this month, but I saw several here towards the end. We watched THE HOLIDAY, ACCEPTED, FATHER GOOSE, SEA CHANGE, THE MALTESE FALCON, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, TREMORS, and TREMORS 4: THE LEGEND BEGINS. We started and gave up on several others.