This video has triggered an extraofficial Guns N' Roses nostalgia extravaganza.
Damn Slash still has the moves...

I used to do a little, but a little wouldn't do, so the little got more and more.
I just keep trying to get a little better, a little better than before...

Couple of days without Internet because area code has been fully enforced. No longer can I get away with dialing only 7 digits. I didn't know so I stayed webless (dewebbed, nowebation, etc.) for 3 days. That REALLY sucked. I have been an Internet addict since 1996 (7 years!) when I discovered firefly.com (one minute of silence for the best online community ever, nothing compares to it, goddamn you Bill Gates you killed the firefly as you are slowly killing Hotmail). Erm, I digress.

Well, I am so totally going to do this. Who is with me? It is just one month. You just have to write 50,000 words in one month (1667 words per day). It can be utter crap, you just write it and get it over with before December rolls along. Sounds cool... Of course I don't need to pay the $10 bucks, I can do it on my own for free. And I will start in October, so sue me...

Went to see UNDERWORLD. I loved it, because I was not expecting it to be obviously based on any literary work like Interview, Blade or Dracula. Of course, they were free to nod, no, kneel and crash their forehead against the floor, at other movies: The Matrix, The Crow, Interview, Dracula, American Werewolf, etc. I even found a reference to Johnny Nemonic.

The thing that made me groan: the name of the lycan ancestor (above said overstated homage to the Crow, perhaps?). A certain vampire slaying that reminded me of Santiago's death in Interview, the scene was unnecessarily distracting that way.

The things that made me have fun: the setting, atmosphere, lack of stupidity disguised as witty lines, automatic gunfire, explosions, slick gore and lots of eye candy.

I will definitely buy the DVD when it comes out. Of course, I may be biased, because the main werepuppy was awesome, handsome, drool inducing, good looking.

Excuse me, I need to shut up and wipe the keyboard...

Anthrax is coming to Puerto Rico, October 31st. I wanna go but I can't go alone, it being Halloween night and all. I need to get Satan ('Satin' after 9 pm) and Metal Santa to go. They are a little wary of going. If these two burly over six foot, six hundred pounds between them, are scared of going, then maybe I should be worried....

I should do prospecting. Every time I like something new, it is usually out of the mainstream and no one has heard of it. Then in less than a year it hits big. Well, one Mr. Brian Keene has signed a two-book deal with Bantam-Dell publishing. He is on the verge of hitting big, a la John Grisham. Watch the skies. The truth is out there or something like that.

I better be accepted next semester. I paid the re-admission application, got into the car and drove to work, forgetting until this very moment that I HAD TO SUBMIT IT TO THE REGISTRAR'S OFFICE. It doesn't help to know I was going to the Registrar's office, but my mind was so worried about paying the house mortgage and the car loan I turned left in Albuquerque. So tomorrow I go back and pay extra charges for a late application. I am such a dumbass...

I am still waiting to see what Jeanne Cavelos says after the deadline passes. I will continue to write other things and most importantly hone writing skills since I am still an amateur. Been reading a very strict book called "The Art of Fiction" and found out I am guilty of very common mistakes. Like Latinization of the written word (I wonder WHY?) For example: hostile maneuvers in an inhospitable abode. Major no no's. They shoot, punch and scream in a foul cave. Anglo Saxon, baby. Accidental rhyming: Everything went flying sky high...etc., etc. Include other things I still don't understand like meter and stress, it is a hard job being a writer. But I am not gonna back out. I never back out, which brings me to...

I am enrolling again in college (if they will have me for the fourth time). I am enrolling as a first alternative in mathematics-computer science bachelor. My second alternative is, erm, how should I say this, as ahh, computer science engineering. You know, the sibling of that degree I never finished and I promised I would never go back to? Well, I am not going back to that, no sir, but if they will have me, I will gladly fuck its brother... Ten years later I learnt the hard way there are worse things than bitter unfullfilled professors and anyways I have to deal with them...

I could not finish Van Helsing in time. If they extend the deadline, I will take it as a sign. It would have been good for my first editor to be Jeanne Cavelos, the person who made Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite possible. Also they were paying 8¢ per word plus royalties, which is way over a professional rate of 3¢ a word. Since all the working horror writers shy away from anything that has to do with vampires, because vampires are the "Star Trek" of horror (not a good thing), maybe there are not enough submissions to fill an anthology. Also add the flood of awful writers who want to write a vampire story, I am hopeful, maybe, maybe not. Let's wait and see.

You know someone is in the wrong side of the right track when they gush about a writer they have discovered and they want to recommend because they know you will like him.

Messenger conversation:

Metal Santa: You like Stephen King and Wes Craven don't you?
Lightshadow: Yes, more Stephen than Wes. Why?
Metal Santa: This guy is so cool. You will like him.
Lightshadow: Who?
Metal Santa: www.clivebarker.com
Lightshadow: Doh!

Van Helsing refuses to cooperate. He doesn't do dialogue in my ear, he doesn't tell me what he is wearing. He doesn't want to tell me how his son died, why his wife is insane and what the fuck was he doing that made John Seward suck on his wound to prevent the onset of gangrene. Above all things, he doesn't say how after all this happens to him, he still is a devout Catholic carrying the Holy Host, which means he has some kind of rank as an exorcist. Rotten bastard.

Who were his parents?

MARIA COTTO'S JOURNAL


7 September, 12 p. m.-- Today is the day the Van Helsing story must come out, at least a first draft. Of course it is noon already and I am still waiting for it. Have been rereading "Dracula" and my take on Van Helsing has changed. My initial reaction to paint him a broken man will not work now. Too intelligent, too headstrong and very much my kind of guy to be honest. He really is very cool when you stop rooting for the vampire. He was capable of using four meandering fools (plus Keanu) and defeat Dracula. He is definitely NOT a mysoginist as I first suspected, under the circumstances. So back to the drawing board, or computer screen in this case.

Surprise snail mail. A picture of Geoff Cooper and I at Horrorfind 3. Really neat. The story of this picture is as follows: I am sitting at the same table as Coop and Bel Wilson, in front of me there is this really cool metal dude called Kevin Nichols. He snaps the camera at us while we were talking. Coop and I then proceeded to pose for the camera (Bel Wilson has a fatal allergy to flash). After recovering from the blinding flash, I immediately asked him to email me a copy. He doesn't have a computer so I gave him my home address. I had given up hope that he would go through all the trouble of developing twins and mailing me one. Of course, he did. Which goes to show how most of the people at Horrorfind kick rock'n'rollin' ass.

*Later Edit: I removed the picture when the blog became public. Move along, nothing to see, move along...

Sad news. Astrid's father died today. I am one with the family's loss, he was always very kind to me. He is one of those who deserves heaven, no questions asked. I am serene about it because he had a very fullfilled life, a very close relationship with God (I will miss his tender admonishments for me to go to Mass, he said it very sincerely as if he were telling me to enjoy myself at the the movies) and he was a saint. I will miss him.




You come from Dark Water. You are solitary and
find peace in yourself, or maybe you're
turmoiled but pull off peace.


Where Did Your Soul Originate?
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