On Wednesday evening I trekked to Webster Hall in downtown Manhattan to see Chuck Palahniuk read and talk. Chuck was one of my instructors at Clarion West and he’s always entertaining, so I thought I would check it out.

It’s been ages since I’ve been to Webster Hall and the last time was basically to go clubbing with some friends. It was strange to be there for a reading, but Chuck packed them into the place, and all the seats filled early so that some people had to stand on the periphery.

Less of a reading and more of a comedy show, Chuck talked about some of his wacky experiences and read us some fairy tales written in the same vein as the main character from Pygmy. Amy Hempel was supposed to be there interviewing him, but she had a family emergency and couldn’t make it, which was disappointing but understandable. Instead his editor came out to pick up the slack, though really Chuck didn’t need it. His answers to the questions were interesting, but hardly the draw of the show. It was his off-the cuff comments and stories that sparked. At one point he answered a cell phone call that was supposed to be from Maya Angelou. It was a strange night. And enjoyable.

But it had one additional effect aside from just entertainment.

Lately I’ve been feeling disenchanted with the whole writing process. I continue to garner rejections and the last few came on stories I was proud of. The last one came so quickly that I assumed it must have gone over like a steaming turd. And I’m surrounded by gifted, talented people, all the time, who are achieving wonderful things. I don’t begrudge them their success, and they deserve all of that and more. I’m proud of my friends. But it makes me want what they have all the more. To stand tall in that company. Yet lately I seem to still be misfiring.

Where Chuck comes into this is one of his answers during the Q&A. The question was fairly standard, about how he sees himself in response to the community of mainstream literature, and the answer was even more standard, but it resonated for me. Chuck said that he writes for himself. He writes because it’s fun and he loves it and he doesn’t worry about whether people will like it and he doesn’t worry about pleasing an audience. Now whether that’s true or not, and it’s likely to be because he can afford to do that, one thing hit me from that – I forgot how enjoyable and how fulfilling the writing was. I was looking so far down the road, at where the story would end up, worrying whether it would be received well or be rejected, that I wasn’t appreciating the process of doing it. And that was a sobering realization. Because I do love doing it. And I can never really stop myself. And so I might as well just enjoy the process and focus on that. I’ll continue to send my stories out, but that’s not where my head should be all the time. My head should be in the writing along with everything else.

Simple, I know, but a potent reminder. Maybe I should get it tattooed on my arm…

Recently, on Facebook, I picked my Top 5 toys from my childhood, the ones that i remember being special, and one of the things I chose was Space Lego. I grew up with Lego and I think I was around for the move to the little Lego people and buildings and vehicles to work with them (I recall having much bigger Lego people as a really young kid – though maybe that was due to the possibility of ingesting small pieces).

I loved all the Lego back then, including my mechanic set, but when the Space Lego came out it soon became my favorite. Ships and bases and astronauts, oh my. And they came in different colors – first red and white, then later yellow, blue (and black) which made them perfect fodder for your own version of Starfleet. I remember I named all of mine after characters from Star Blazers. The red figures were pilots and command personnel, the white were techs and engineers. I think blue was science and medical.

I mention all of this by way of linking to Gizmodo’s massive post showing all of the Space Lego sets. Just catching a glimpse of this set off my nostalgia sirens and I wanted to link it here so that I can go back and peruse at my leisure.

Just scrolling through it now, I can remember the Radar Truck. I think the 1970s sets are missing some images, but it’s still a nice walk down Memory Lane.

[Disclaimer – Gizmodo’s navigation once you get into the images can be very frustrating]

Recently I have been feeling a kind of television fatigue. A lot of this rests on the shoulders of Battlestar Galactica, and the almost tiring march to the end, but I’ve been following more series than usual this year and doing my best to keep up with them all. The finales of BSG, Life, and Sarah Connor Chronicles bought me some reprieve, but there is, of course, Lost which I’m eagerly enjoying. Other series that I enjoyed at the beginning of the year – House, The Mentalist, even Bones – have failed to engage me much lately and while I’m enjoying Castle, there’s something a bit off with the show that I can’t quite put my finger on.

This television fatigue is why I was surprised to find myself watching ABC’s new cop show, The Unusuals. I chalk it up to being a sucker for shows about quirky people and a willingness to follow actors like Harold Perrineau (who I think got a little screwed on Lost) and Adam Goldberg. It also helps that I saw Amber Tamblyn in a few scenes and she surprised me with her portrayal of police officer Casey Schraeger.

The Unusuals is a bit formulaic in its setup. It focuses on the NYPD’s 2^nd Precinct and the unusual cops who work there. Each person has his or her thing – Perrineau’s character, Leo Banks, is afraid of dying and always wears a bulletproof vest, Goldberg’s character, Detective Delahoy, has brain cancer but won’t get treatment or tell anyone, so he risks his life in the line of duty. There are other secrets, too, and a few characters with dark pasts.

While the individual episodes are interesting, usually dealing with an “A” storyline, and a more humorous and lighter “B” storyline, there’s also an overarcing “mystery” of sorts. The precinct’s Sergeant feels that things aren’t quite kosher in his department and he brought Detective Shraeger in to help clean it up. This plays up the usual tension of Shraeger having to ingratiate herself in the department while simultaneously investigating her fellow officers.

In addition to the quirkiness of its characters, The Unusuals succeeds for its portrayal of its police officers. These characters are corrupt, imperfect and damaged. They don’t always do the right thing, they’re not always stand-up people. But they are cops and they put their lives on the line, often for each other. Impressively, these imperfections only serve to make the characters seem more admirable and depicts a cost to a job that most people wouldn’t want anything to do with.

So The Unusuals is now on my DVR for as long as I still have cable. Though with ABC’s move to Hulu, I hope to be able to watch the rest of the episodes of this first season(only 10 have been ordered so far). Anyone else watch it?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet. I will be attending Wiscon this year. At least a few of the days. I’m flying into Madison on Saturday morning and flying out on Tuesday evening. It was the easiest way to handle it in regards to cost and taking time off. And this way I still get to see all the wonderful people who will be there.

In addition to Wiscon, it looks like this will be my year of cons. So far, it looks like I will be attending Readercon and World Fantasy and I may make it up to Worldcon in Montreal as well.

Hopefully, at some point, I’ll have something to “promote”.

With the launch of my new website, Fermented Adventures, I am now involved in five different sites. Since I even get confused, this is a list.

RajanKhanna.com – this site and where my personal stuff goes and everything that doesn’t fit elsewhere. My personal writing news goes here as well.

FermentedAdventures.com – my site about my adventures with wine, beer and spirits

YourMomsBasement.com – a site I started with friends of mine. YMB, newly renovated and relaunched, focuses on geek culture items, though often from a humorous or satirical angle. The new approach allows for anyone who’s interested to start a personal blog on the site and the front page will feature posts from those blogs as part of its content.

Tor.com – I’ve been contributing articles to Tor.com about television, comics and a variety of other topics. I am continuing a series of posts on post-apocalytpic themes as well as some comic-related material and more (The posts that I’ve written can be found here).

AlteredFluid.com – the website of my NY-based writing group. Focused on writing and the industry, but delving into a number of other topics based on the interests of the group.

So that’s where I am. Now to be more diligent about updating them all.