Z is for Xombie / Zombie Bake-Off

That novel I started all the way back in . . . was it August? Finally tapped out those final words on it. According to my handy-dandy Word stats, it took me some 30133 minutes to do it, too. If I knew what to divide that by, or how to divide, I could figure something out. Revision number ‘525’ too. Not sure what counts as a ‘revision,’ though. Anyway, it started out as Zombie Bake-Off, and who knows, may go back there. Tonight I’m liking Z IS FOR XOMBIE, though (Xombie’s a main character — it’s a soccer mom vs WWF story, with some zombies in the mix, and set here in Lubbock too). Anyway, the epigraph, taken, like ninety percent of everything else in the world, I suspect, from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:

When you get right down to it, food is practically the whole story every time.

Had a lot of fun with this one. It was a mode of narration thing: I wanted to hit the same effect as Demon Theory, but to do it without any screenplay terms, without formatting tricks, without any footnotes. Just wholly stripped down, and exploded back out. So it’s not at all conventional prose, I don’t think, is really what you’d have to call some very loose, irresponsible prose, to say nothing of the . . . I don’t know: I want to say the dramatic units — scenes, chapters — but

Who knows. I’m probably the last person who should try to talk about it. I am anxious to get into something else now, anyway, just to see if Z is for Xombie ruined me or not. It’s always so fun to get ruined, have to cobble a sense of prose back together from everything you’ve broken, everything you’ve intentionally unlearned, or at least thumbed your nose at.

And, in other news:

• Got my copy of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horrror: 20th Annual Collection, and am onto the fiction now, after inhaling all the excellent introductions. It’s a re-education each year, reading those. So cool to finally be in it, too.
• That Kaliedotrope I mentioned a post or two ago, I got my copy in the mail, and man, some excellent illustrations to go with the story. Very cool. I always love to have pictures drawn on my words.
• The cover for Ledfeather just got decided, and it’s supercool, I think. Not sure I can post it yet, though. Kind of doubt it, really. Probably shouldn’t even be saying this.
• This has to be the oldest news possible, but I had no idea all the trailers for Grindhouse — both those that made the cut and those that didn’t — were archived here. Only stumbled onto it when looking for that excellent Hobo with a Shotgun trailer, which played at the theatre I caught Grindhouse at (Alamo Drafthouse, yep).
• Too, very embarassed to be admitting that I only saw the wonder that is Bubba Ho-Tep a few days ago. It’s just on a whole nother level of good, I think. Black Sheep as well: nothing but fun. Next up, now: Isolation. On DVD anyway. Next up at the cineplex, it’ll of course be 30 Days of Night.
• And, just talking timekilling links, this is pretty fun. A DIY Giallo, and they even got the color scheme right, I think. And, this, man, it may just be too cool. I mean, I want a sense of wonder, I suppose, but then leave a page like this feeling stupid.