Given events we both want to attend this coming weekend, Deb and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary this past weekend. We had a lovely steak dinner and took in Red Pitch, a marvelous play at the Olney Theatre.
Over our meal, we talked about regrets and we each harbor some. In retrospect, ours are mostly professional regrets, which I think speaks a lot about our time together as partners and parents.
For me, I think the first major professional regret was leaving DC in 2000. I was in my early 40s and I was feeling like advancement wasn’t likely any time soon and I was wondering would I be trapped if I didn’t explore my options. As I wrote not that long ago, I was intrigued by the internet entrepreneurs, including one my college classmate had founded. He made me an offer and I truly thought it would teach me new skills for a new world. Well, that didn’t work out and thankfully Marvel rescued me six weeks before I was going to be laid off as the dotcom bubble burst.
There were certainly some writing regrets, missed opportunities for assignments. I truly wish earlier in my career I had worked with stronger editors for content and style. I enjoyed my working relationships with most everyone at the various publishers, but I always felt I needed a strong hand, a moder-day Maxwell Perkins. The original novel project that’s in the works will be a real attempt at raising my craft and I will be seeking proper editorial support.
What We’re Watching
I completed Peacemaker, and thought it resolved things nicely but boy, did they set things up for the rest of the new DC Universe and I look forward to seeing how those play out. I was delighted to see my pal Paul Kupperberg’s Checkmate get added to the lore. We are enjoying the new seasons of High Potentiaol, The Morning Show and Only Murders in the Building. Meantime, we’re chugging through Bosch Legacy season one and Slow Horses season three.
What I’m Reading
Yesterday, I happened to complete Annie Bot and The Accidental Empress, both of which were interesting and they also wound up disappointing me. For the former, I had hoped for a more nuanced exploration of LLM AI in android form and the for the latter, I wanted a more complex Sisi, who doesn’t match up entirely with the historic record. So, i have now turned my attention to Fearless and Free: A Memoir, a new edition of Josephine Baker’s 1949 book about her amazing life.
#Tags: Annie Bot, DC Comics, Fearless and Free, Gist Communications, Marvel Comics, Olney Theatre, Peacemaker, Red Pitch, The Accidental Empress
Happy Anniversary!