Harsimus Cove Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I've been called on the carpet for not posting, so here's a post. It's been a tremendously busy couple of weeks, lots of editing and furious work when I get home--again, trying to figure out how laser guns are supposed to work. Secret Thing #1 will be thrown open for general discussion sometime in June, and available for inspection sometime this fall. Secret Thing #3 should be debatable in a couple of weeks and arrive, God willing, in October. Secret Thing #2: Oy vey.

For those of you just joining us: #1 is a game I'm working on for a friend's company. #2 is a bigger-scale project with a friend of mine that I'm not prepared to talk about no way, nohow. #3 is its own thing.

What else can I say? I've been reading Robert Louis Stevenson, who is no slouch, but I'm not sure he's a genius. He's capable of wonderful flourishes, and his sketches of friendship, loyalty and peril are enough to bring on the sobs. Not to mention his villains, who are as black and cunning as they come. But overall I'm not sure he's got the oooomph of a real genius. His books--with the notable exception of "Treasure Island"--take an unbearable time to get rolling, from a post-modern reader's point of view. Then they usually end with incidents that have become cliches (but were fresh at the time). The second acts, however, are marvelous; witty and exhilarting. (The middle section of "Kidnapped," for instance, perfectly anticipates Sam and Frodo hiking through Mordor.)

Now I'm back to Bertie and Jeeves. Any writer who can make you giggle in a doctor's waiting room at ten of eight in the morning is worth his salt.

@ 4:16:00 PM,

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