Land of Iron Giants: back to enterntainment

Those of you who haven't heard from the Land of Iron Giants for quite a while now may be wondering why I'm suddenly popping up here twice in one week.

The short-ish answer is that I'm twiddling my thumbs while the publisher gets back to me with the galleys to send out to my personal list. This list includes the five authors of novels of similar genres that I asked to read with the goal of a blurb for the back cover of the book. Many were surprisingly nice, despite busy schedules and lots of awards for their own work.

Other recipients of the galleys from my end are literary agents, entertainment agents, influential friends in the aforementioned categories, and family members who don't want to wait for the finished version. It's been a frustrating hurry-up-and-wait process for so long now that, like a time-traveller, I'm never sure what publishing date I'm going to see on the tiny printed page where publishers put such details as ISBNs, Library of Congress info, etc. Since June it's gone from September to October to November. This is because (as the publisher has informed me) there is a 12 week minimum on review copies to places like Publisher's Weekly and the New York Times. These organizations won't even read it if they don't have sufficient time to put into the review cycle.

So while I wait, I write. Book number two is about 100 pages along, and then there are the letters I'm sending out on behalf of my dad who is wheelchair-bound at the moment and can't find an accessible van to rent to attend his grandson's wedding in a nearby town. This required some serious archaeological digging. I'm sure you can understand that rental car company executives with their millions of customers don't want to hear from the inevitable complainers. Instead they steer them to the great bane of consumers: the Customer Service department. And to this end, they have taken great pains to obscure their corporate information, addresses and management teams from easy Google-view. But, I am a dog-with-a-bone, and as my ex-father-in-law the Pentagon Colonel often told me, if you want something done, go to the top.

Now that I've smoked out the proper executives, names, addresses, personal profiles, company objectives, likes and dislikes, etc. they will shortly receive a nicely typed letter with a persuasive argument as to why having one ADA-compliant van in their city-wide fleet would provide a PR and financial advantage over their competitors who aren't smart enough to see the win/win angle in this move. Research has shown there is a proven business model for this kind of rental transportation - many U.S. cities do. But in Ontario, there are thousands of healthy, mobile travellers with disabilities, visitors and residents alike, who can stay in local accessible hotels, eat in accessible restaurants, but how do they get around? Specialized taxies are available but cost-prohibitive: Estimated cost to take Dad to the nearby town and back is $1ooo.oo. That's why he never goes anywhere.

It's just not cool to ignore people with disabilities these days, especially if they have a united voice, and discretionary funds.

Segue to Quentin Tarantino

Now, since there is no way to cleverly segue into the next item, I'll get right to it. Inglorious Basterds is the first Tarantino film I've seen in a long time that had the same unpredictable and powerful impact that Pulp Fiction had when he debuted as a director over a decade ago.

With a sly nod to spagetti-westerns, 60's B-movie thrillers, and a splash of broad comedy thrown in for good measure, it was a surprisingly tight and suspenseful story, a thrilling, nail-biting, and wholly inventive adventure that culminated in an alternate ending to the horror that was Hilter's War. What Tarantino does best is find humor in dire situations, a rare combination of violence and laughter that never seems forced. You simply accept that those who take themselves too seriously deserve to be laughed at, good and bad guys alike.

I've not been a fan of all this director's work and have it on good authority he is a total maniac to work for, but I do appreciate genius when I see it.

Okay, an email just popped into my inbox. I just got word the galleys are ready to go to print! In a few days they will be in my hands, ready for the next step. I'm on the down slope of the rickety wooden rollercoaster, waiting for that bottom to drop out, then the curve into the unknown.....