ME T.V. Monday!

Things have, literally, not been the same in our house since our cable company (finally) started showing the ME T.V. network....which is a good thing. Anyone who knows me, or was around during this past A to Z Blogging Challenge knows just how much I enjoy classic television, so I'm sure you can just imagine how having a channel dedicated to those shows could keep me glued to the set.

Well, not really "glued", but I've definitely started watching a lot more t.v. than I did back when my choices were limited to the modern day deluge of reality television and politically correct dreck.

I mean, where else but in the 60s and 70s could you watch shows like....

Hogan's Heroes- A show about a World War II German prison camp run by inept Nazis where the prisoners didn't want to escape. "Hoooogannn!"

The Beverly Hillbillies- Where a backwoods family strikes oil and turns the "sleepy" little town of Beverly Hills upside down. "Wellllll doggies!"

Columbo- Way before such quirky detectives like Monk came about, you had Columbo. A short, rumpled clothes wearing, cigar smoking, seemingly absent minded police officer who was, in reality, the sharpest knife in the drawer. "Oh, just one more thing...."

Get Smart- A dimwitted goofball becomes a super-spy and survives, week after week. "Missed it by that much!"

I mean, honestly, I don't think shows like this would even be given a pilot, much less an order for a series in today's market. While many look upon these short of shows as gimmicky or simple, I think of them as great entertainment that only strives to, well, entertain....nothing more and nothing less.

I'll be writing more about ME T.V., in the hopes of alternating it with Music Monday....which will return next week.

Have a great week!

A New Hope!

Well, not -that- long ago....

The other night I got a familiar itch that I haven't had in quite a while and, no, it wasn't poison ivy.

The itch to jump back into my WIPs. Any would do, so I opted to go strap myself into my W.A.Y.B.A.C.K. machine and turn the dial to 2011. This was the year....the only year, unfortunately, that I won NaNoWriMo with a tale that mashed my love for old movies and science fiction.

The story of a defective, time repairing, android....The T.E.M.P. Agency. 

I've yet to come up with a decisive ending to the tale, but still hit my NaNo winning word count, so I happily chalked it up as a "win". 

Anyway, it's been a while since I've done any editing and decided the best way to do things was to go through and reread the whole story, then jump into editing. 

Now, here's the strange part. A lot of what I was reading sounded like someone else had written it. I mean, and not to toot my own horn, but there were quite a few areas where I was thinking "Man, this isn't half bad." Granted, the whole thing is still as rough as a sandpaper factory.....but going back and revisiting it, the thing has potential.

Anyone who really knows me, I mean someone who's known me for years, knows that I very, rarely, praise myself for doing much of anything. It's not that I don't have confidence, I do. I've just never been one to brag. Probably a byproduct of my midwestern upbringing. I've also never been one to crow about my writing....mainly because I've always seen it as very amateurish. 

Which, in many ways, it still is.

I've really been struggling with my writing, lately, as evidenced by my silence on this blog. The distractions I used to easily avoid have really been roping me in and I've been letting them. Mainly out of laziness, a bit of burnout, and coupled with some discouragement.

This, though, really gave me some hope. The more I read, the more I heard a Steve Urkel-esque voice in my head saying, "Did I do that?".

Like I said, my story, so far, isn't going to set the literary world on fire....but it's really warming up my little corner of the imagination and, more importantly, it's giving me......hope.