Finished reading Dan Simmons's The Terror. Not a bad yarn, but not a great novel. As simply a presentation of a situation (arctic exploration, two ships frozen into the ice for two years with supplies dwindling and an impossible monster killing off crewmembers and scratching its way slowly into the hulls) and subsequent progression and resolution of a story, it satisfied wholly. But as a Novel, in all the glory that the word implies, it falls somewhat short of other purported Simmons successes (Carrion Comfort, The Song of Kali, both of which are on my to-read list) with an unnecessarily bloated word-count (it's as if the author was determined to reveal every piece of information he gathered in his research inside the final text), poor characterization throughout, and - perhaps insurmountably - unbelievable, purely expositional and clumsily anachronistic dialogue.

I particularly liked the bits near the end, with the devolution of some of the lesser crewmembers into mutinous, murdering cannibals. I would, wouldn't I? I also like the monster, and the way Simmons isn't afraid to let it remain just that: a monster. I was afraid through the whole reading that the thing would turn out to be someone in a costume (awful idea, Shyamalan, just awful) or a large polar bear or a surviving dinosaur or something. Nope. It's intelligent, preying on the crew members not for food or for self-preservation but simply because it wishes them misery; it's a sort of Wendigo of the ice, a symbol of starvation and hardship for human beings in the wilderness manifested in a very real beast. Good stuff. Three out of five stars.

I enjoyed 4 on the Floor at the Deli last night. Local classic rock covers at their most carefree but proficiently performed. And as always most of the people there are just cool.

Applied for two summer jobs yesterday; need either of them desperately. Also, what are you hiring for out there? I'll do it.

I plan to continue my education at UAH in the fall. It'll have to be English, I'm afraid; I'm interested in something to do with publishing for a fallback career.

I have this idea that I need to be well-read before even attempting to publish my novel-in-progress; that I need to be well-read in the horror genre, at least. It's hard work, and quite daunting. I recently tried The Amityville Horror, and that damn thing is absolutely unreadable. I've never come across such odiously poor language or contemptuous disrespect for audience in a published work. I hope there aren't many more like it; I quite like the other writers I've read after a bit of research at the beginning of my trying to sweep the canon, like Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein, Thomas Ligotti, W. Peter Blatty. It's gonna be a fun project to complete.

Right. Bed, and church drummer hat in the morning.