This has been a really productive week.  I finished editing the second section of my novel and sent it off to my writers crit group for their thorough evaluation (gulp).  The novel is holding at 55K words.  I’m putting it aside for awhile to catch up on other things.

Such as making better use of this site…

You’ll see I edited some content, added a few links and installed a new Recent Posts widget.  What I really need to do is take a tutorial on WordPress.  My web editing skills are a wee bit pathetic.

But about the new links – Kevin Moore’s blog (mooretoons.com) is an awesome place for socially-progressive political commentary and cartoons.  The dude is brilliant and always on top of the religious conservative (and other) hypocrites.  Lately, he’s been following Republican fear-mongering over health care reform and the hoopla over the James Cameron’s Avatar (is it a left-wing conspiracy or a right-wing conspiracy?)  Personally, I do groan a bit over films that place a white character in a minority setting where he or she learns to be a better person.  Kinda patronizing.    Just watching the trailer for The Blind Side made me groan.  I know it’s based on a true story, but how do you pull off a movie about a nice, rich white lady who takes in a troubled black kid without coming across as condescending? The gay equivalent in Hollywood is the tired storyline where a straight guy pretends to be gay to achieve some sort of advantage and realizes:  “Gee, it’s hard to be gay.  And gays are just like us, y’know.” (e.g. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry).  The Secret Lives of Bees is one film I thought managed to cope pretty well with the pitfalls of that “fish out of water” formula.  Maybe it was more palatable because it was a female cast.

I also added Duotrope Digest, a free searchable database of literary markets.  It’s an incredible resource that I rely on a lot.

Last, reading-wise, I finished Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts on that book next week.  But I moved right onto another book to complete a gay literary trifecta:  Felice Picano’s Like People In History.

Happy Holidays!!