overwhelmed by freedom

It seems like there's this strange phenomenon that presents itself with a holiday in the middle of the week (well, technically the almost beginning). It calls for grand plans, this stretching Tuesday to honor The Veterans (of which my Papaw Summers was one, and I think he'd want me to do whatever I want), this blank canvas on which there is no desk to sit behind, no large Windows machine to stare into. There are movies to be seen, words to scribble, dogs to be de-skunked, household chores to be completed and still plenty of time for relaxation. And yet. What happens? The morning gets sucked into the vortex of sleeping in, then fitzing around on the Internet takes care of the rest of it, applying de-skunk mixture but still the skunk smell persists (and George is losing patience), a long bath with bright pink Lush bathbomb and read the last Argosy story I haven't read (the one that deals with veterans, my way of celebrating the holiday), then it's time to fix lunch so Christopher can come home and we can eat together (the only part that's working out as planned). So, basically, what I've accomplished this morning is not to de-skunk the dog, booking hotel reservations for Wiscon, become clean, and uh, well, that's it really.

This afternoon.... I'm not making any plans. I'll write for a bit, read for a bit, etc. No movie is calling out to me, so I'll stay home and maybe watch a Netflix.

Do you ever get completely overwhelmed by good stuff to read? This is the state I find myself in currently. I have too many good books from the library, and more coming in every day, a stack of novels I want to read, and a stack of short story collections I want to read.

A sampling of what I currently have in play:

Best American Short Stories 2003, ed. Walter Mosley
the only good thing anyone has ever done, Sandra Newman
Well, Matthew McIntosh
Love and Other Games of Chance, Lee Siegel (with blurb by Penn and Teller)
Heart, You Bully, You Punk, Leah Hager Cohen
In Montgomery and Other Poems, Gwendolyn Brooks
The Dark, ed. Ellen Datlow
Feed by M.J. Anderson
Magician of the Modern: Chick Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in America, Eugene R. Gaddis
Greenwood, Charles Vess and Karen Shaffer
the December Realms of Fantasy
Trunk Stories
Intracities
Flytrap
latest The Believer
last two issues of One Story
and last but not least the new LCRW.

I bet Kelly and Gavin want to smash themselves over the head, because they have to read even more than this. I mean, really, it's an embarrassment of riches, but when are we supposed to write with all this amazing stuff to read? And that's not even to mention the manuscript of really great stories a friend sent us to read just recently (yay!) and the submissions now trickling in for Say... But those are different things really. I always love reading friends' stuff and reading stories for the magazine. (Send us stuff! We are determined that this next issue will be the most beautiful, best issue yet!)

Anyway. Feeling a little whelmed there, and you see what I did? I managed to kill another ten minutes till it's time to cook lunch for Mr. Rowe. (Mr. Rowe who is very excitingly starting to write a novel. Yay!)

Okay. Whew. So there were a bunch of interesting things in the Washington Post yesterday. Quickly...

Some people in Russia want to make Ivan the Terrible a saint. Because nothing says sainthood like torturing people.

Really, really, really wish this exhibit had been on during World Fantasy, as it sounds amazing.

Michael Dirda review of that Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote.

And, finally, a piece on Steve Martin, novelist.