And You Know for a Million Years He Has Been

When you first set out to meet Him, you imagine Him as a grand stag in the clearing at dawn, looking at you with great antlers that stretch like arms to the heavens. You imagine how you will approach him, quietly, like you are a secret to be shared only with Him. You read, you study, you initiate.

And still, when your moment comes, when you stand in that clearing, the early frogs already singing, no matter how long you wait, you’re alone.

“Was He there?” The High Priestess asks.

“No,” you say, confused. “No.”

“Then you are on the right track,” she smiles kindly at you.

When you get older, you see how it is, when you catch a glimpse out of the corner of your eye of that same old flannel shirted dirt-dragger who always shares your bed teasing your daughter with an antler he found out in the woods, and you turn, sure that, for a second, it was Him.

Things to Read

1. I made Pith. Which is weird and lovely. God, I like those folks.

2. Joy Crelin, who publishes Betwixt, has a good interview here. I’m really happy “Beyond, Behind, Below” found a home with her.

3. Have I told you all how much I love Sleepy Hollow? It’s ridiculous and silly and sweet in a way I just love. And since Elementary is struggling a big to find its feet here in the second season, I’m glad to have a show with a bit of sweetness at its core. The recaps at IO9 are hilarious, too. “‘I CAN’T SEE YOU, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT.’ – Either one of them to the other one if, heaven forbid, there’s ever fog in this town.” I love, too, that the cast has reached out to the one black woman on the real Tarrytown police force. I hope she gets a hot time traveler to work with, if she wants one.

4. This article on James Franco is brilliant and funny–“Franco has 13 projects listed on his IMDB page that are (or are rumored to be) somewhere between concept and execution — and those are just acting. There’s also directing, writing, cinematography, and an unbilled job as the provider of morning pastries for the cast of NCIS.”

Tonight’s the Night

Mad Donna’s, 7 p.m., some band called Mr. Hazelwood that I don’t know, but I’ve been assured is wonderfully creepy, and me. Outside if it’s dry, upstairs if it’s raining.

I’m reading three bits (or planning on it, I guess. I’m going to run through them this afternoon and might just do two, to keep at the fifteen minute limit). One is an excerpt from Project X, a kind of update on what the Devil who lives on Lewis Street has been up to since that story. It clarifies some things–like he’s a devil, not the Devil. It obscures some other things–why isn’t he telling the girl he used to be married to Elizabeth? If you know the first story (which I’m also planning on reading), I think the second piece is a treat, but ominous in ways that it won’t be for other readers.

Anyway, it should be cool.