noveling, Dark Shadows, etc.

Chapter 19 of the Jo book is being a bit recalcitrant tonight, possibly because I'm gearing up for World Fantasy. Cons always seem to sidetrack my writing brain a bit, beforehand and afterwards.

I've been watching the Dark Shadows compilation DVD The Vampire Curse, which mostly deals with Barnabas Collins' origin story (i.e., how Angelique cursed him with vampirism and made his beloved Josette marry the wrong guy and fall off a cliff). They did a good job of boiling the story down to essentials, though a few of my favorite bits are missing, such as the aftermath of the Barnabas/Angelique wedding, with Angelique pouring champagne that turns out to be blood, and the ghost of Jeremiah burying Angelique alive. I love how the compilation starts out with the 1795 story, which concludes with Barnabas being chained in his coffin, and then caps that off with Barnabas being freed from his coffin in 1967 (though the story aired in the opposite order).

I finished reading Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey (via dailylit.com) and Edna O'Brien's House of Splendid Isolation, which I found quite impressive aside from one shockingly clunky plot point towards the end.

Meanwhile, a piece of the inner workings of my dishwasher seems to have snapped off. Weird.