I should probably note that the post below this one was written under the influence of oxycodone, which I am taking because I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. This post also is being written under the influence of oxycodone. I hardly notice it, and my jaw still really hurts, but I may as well use it as an excuse in case my writing is incoherent.
I forgot to mention last night that commenters will once again be required to pass a CAPTCHA test here. I wanted to apologize for the inconvenience. Spambots were attacking me, so I had to reactivate that annoying feature.
93 days have passed since I last blogged. It feels like about six.
I tried to use my time off productively. I am currently writing a novel and am making better progress than I thought I would. When I began, I suspected that by the end of the summer I might need to step away from the story for a little while in order to assess the first section and ponder the various paths I might take from there. As it happens, I really don't want to do that.
But I do miss blogging, so I have returned, as promised. I no longer have time to blog on a daily basis, but in fact the only reason I designated The Worst Ever a daily blog was that I wanted a reason to write every day. I've found another reason. So things will become informal here -- when I have a thought that I feel like sharing, I'll post it. When a movie or book interests me, I'll write about it, though perhaps not expansively as I used to do.
I may switch from the essayistic style of my longer entries to a more conversational manner. In the midst of writing a novel, I don't know that I'll want to feel here, too, that I am writing for publication, as I've always pretended while composing film reviews, but I know I'll still want to talk to you guys. I don't have any schedule in mind, but I hope you'll continue to stop by once in a while.
In any case, it would be awful of me to return from my vacation empty-handed, so here's the trailer for Powder 2: Powder 2 the People, which reimagines the touchy-feely melodrama Powder as a 1970s teen flick produced by Roger Corman:
I know you'll be devastated, but I've decided not to blog this summer. I'll miss reviewing the summer movies, but I want to do something else for a while.
This time, I'm not going on vacation. There are other projects that I need to work on -- projects that will, I hope, help me become a more serious and more imaginative writer. I need to concentrate on these. And because I'm an unbelievably slow worker, I won't have time to provide even the meager fare that I regularly offer here.
I'll check in on September 8, the Tuesday after Labor Day. Have a great summer.
• Carol Ann Duffy became Britain's first female poet laureate, its first Scottish poet
laureate, its first openly bisexual poet laureate, and its first
female, Scottish, openly bisexual poet laureate.
• James Wood assessed Ian McEwan in the London Review of Books.
