This is a recent update, more recent (being added in November 2010), that is, than what follows the pound signs below. A public service announcement, actually: I've only just noticed that due to something (a systems "upgrade," a fresh new incompatibility between my Macs and the website, the act of a less-than-beneficent deity, etc.), most of the formatting has vanished from my stories. The interstitial markings (or section dividers, or, more specifically, the rows of stars), my beloved em-dashes: gone. Right now, things look very and uncomfortably Faulknerian, especially in the first-person environment of Mad Jack, Madder Rose. I'll be doing my best to get things re-formatted (as I found with Dream Girl, the system seems okay with pound signs and with dashes copied and pasted from OS X's Special Characters Finder window). (Or not, as I just discovered. Look for bolded uppercase Xs for dividers for now.) Until then, apologies, thanks for your patience, and feel free to complain when things get too psychadelic in the style department.

More recent than the recent update above, it now being the end of February 2012: I think I owe some of you an apology. My account settings got kerfluffled in a site update... and, as a result, I haven't been receiving e-mail notifications for story reviews for about two months. If you've reviewed any of my stuff since the start of 2012 or thereabouts and I haven't responded (or not-responded even more than I usually do), my apologies... and my thanks. I do appreciate your comments!

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(Is this thing on...?) Shy about revealing personal details online. Here, instead, is a partial list of sources for the latest disaster-in-the-making, Red Eye: Underground:

Books:

David Brandon and Alan Brooke, Haunted London Underground

J.E. Connor, London's Disused Underground Stations

Andrew Emmerson and Tony Beard, London's Secret Tubes

Douglas Rose, A Diagrammatic History: The London Underground

Steven Smith, Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets

Richard Trench, London Under London: A Subterranean Guide

London A-Z

Websites:

Subterranea Britannica

Videos:

Creep (2005) (very frightening and atmospheric; excellent use of Aldwych Station and the closed platform at Charing Cross)

Ghosts on the Tube (Indigo Film & Television) (extremely subtle and creepy documentary)

The Tower (PBS Home Video, 2001)

Tunes:

Crooked Fingers (with Neko Case), "Your Control"

Rob Dickinson, "The End of the World" (because, under all the weirdness, there's a romance here)

Fever Ray, "Keep the Streets Empty for Me"

Gary Numan, "Hybrid" (opening or closing credits. The father of industrial synth. And his original band was Tubeway Army.)

Woven, "My Conditioning" (Rippner's theme. Includes the showstopper line "I'll always remember when you didn't see me watching." Quiet and insidious.)

Bonus: "Lightning Blue Eyes," by Secret Machines. Completely to blame for "Red Eyes."

And since it all seems to come down to music: "Great Divide," by VNV Nation, is the song behind "Lux."

More music! What else? "Mad Jack, Madder Rose": The Soundtrack would go kinda like this:

Goldrush, “Dead”

Ladytron, “Deep Blue”

A Place to Bury Strangers, "Everything Always Goes Wrong

The Raveonettes, “Breaking into Cars”

Scanners, “Raw”

The Handsome Furs, "I'm Confused"

Wolf & Cub, “Rozalia Bizarre”

Blue Sky, Black Death, "Stillness"

School of Seven Bells, “Chain”

Devics, “Birdback”

Of Montreal, "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal"

The Twilight Sad, "I Became a Prostitute"

Apse, "All Mine"

Better Than Ezra, "So Alive"

The Bravery, “Above and Below” and "Hatefk"

Crooked Fingers, “Sleep All Summer”

(I know it sounds silly, but this time the tunes and the tale just clicked. Been listening to this playlist practically nonstop while writing "Mad Jack.")

That's all for now. Thanks for tagging along...

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... and we're back, much later, with more for the List of Things to Which I Listened Incessantly While Writing [Insert Name of Story Here]. This time, they're tunes I associate with "Dream Girl," and they are...

Katy Carr, "Sparkle"

Crocodiles, "Hearts of Love"

Blonde Redhead, "Black Guitar"

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Oh, and this might be helpful: I'm a Cillian Murphy fan. Simply: that's it. What got me over here in the first place. Might clarify what would otherwise seem a weird grouping of story focal-points. My number-one "undocumented" guest-star (and there are plenty, especially from the Golden Age of Hollywood) is Emily Blunt. Spot her if you can...

One more thing: the story-order for "The Outside of Your Skin" (the big Sunshine arc): "Pod," "Flare," and "Split." "Heretic" is a followup to the arc. "Binary" is a slight shift over from "The Outside..." Yeah, yeah, I know...

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Update, later-later (it's now June 2011-- heavens to Murgatroid, how time flies when there's nothing done). A further confession: because these stories are based on movies, and because, consequently, they're further-movies, so to say, I cast all my original characters, and the Actors Equity of world cinema, from pretty much 1905 on, serves as the shortlist. That is, Lon Chaney, Sr., has "appeared" in a story; British character actor Mark Strong is one of my regulars. Two Russells (Brand and Crowe) have put in appearances; James Cagney, Marjory Main, and Norma Shearer occupy a story that also features John Malkovich, Nicolas Cage, and Viggo Mortensen. Emily Blunt turns up regularly, too... though I'm almost afraid to admit who she "is," since her character receives a certain amount of hate mail. Plenty of hate mail, actually. (Sometimes it gets kind of scary. Fun, but scary.)

Thus ends the confession for the-- what?-- quarter? The entire year--? In any case, thanks for checking in...

(Oh, and the tune stuck in my head for Reception is "You," by TV on the Radio. Go get it stuck in your head, too. It's very cool.)

XXXXX

Update for February 2012: There's a website! The Cillian Murphy Hello! Zone is up and running. Irreverence, weirdness, sparseness... and an exclusive fic (or a draft of one, at least) based on Enda Walsh's Misterman, the one-man play that could well become Cillian's signature piece. Stop by and and set a spell. You'd be most welcome...!

Misterman: Thomas can be found right here: http:///index.cgi?board=fiction&action=display&thread=14&page=1