Some Good News to Report — An All-Around October ’13 Update

I know it’s early Wednesday morning, and it’s been a week since my last blog.  But there’s been a good deal going on that’s taken my energy away from blogging — plus, there really haven’t been any stories that have demanded I write about them, either.

Let’s start out with the good news: The story I worked so hard on was bought.  I cannot tell you who bought it yet, as the contract hasn’t been signed and the editor hasn’t made a public announcement.  But I can tell you the story was accepted, and I’m looking forward to receiving the contract and signing it.

I also am nearly done with a book-length edit. I have three others in progress at this time, not counting my own final edit of the first half of ELFY, which is over 3/4 complete as of this writing.  As this is most of how I make my living, it’s obvious I’ll be spending a lot of time editing in the weeks to come (as I always do).

My plans for the week include a new book review for Ash Krafton’s BLOOD RUSH  over at Shiny Book Review (long-delayed due to my health), an interview with author Stephanie Osborn (it may be up next week, but I’m working on it right now), and continuing to write, edit, and comment as often as possible.

Now let’s talk about the World Series, which starts later today between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.  I’ve already said on my Facebook page that I am underwhelmed by this matchup for two reasons: One, Boston is an older, veteran team without superlative pitching and thus doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to stand up to St. Louis, a younger team with far better pitching.  And two, I’m really tired of seeing the same teams going year after year.

Look.  I basically lost interest in the National League playoffs once the Pittsburgh Pirates were out.  I really wanted the Pirates to go to the National League Championship Series because it’s been so long since they’ve been there (or to the World Series, either).  I knew that Pittsburgh had the best shot of knocking the Cardinals out — and if Pittsburgh couldn’t do it, it was likely the Cardinals would sweep everyone else out of the way and go to the World Series.

Which, of course, they did.

As for the American League playoffs, I lost interest there far earlier as what I’d wanted to see was a Cleveland-Boston matchup — the old Red Sox manager turned Indians manager Terry Francona against new Boston skipper John Ferrell.  But Cleveland lost the Wild Card game and was out right away.

After that, while I had a mild interest in Detroit as I wanted to see if Prince Fielder would be able to hit any better in the postseason this year (he didn’t), I wasn’t riveted.  I did think Detroit would go back to the World Series because the Tigers have two excellent pitchers in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and Boston’s pitchers, while still good in Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester and John Lackey (the latter victimized by poor run support), weren’t in the same class.

However, in a short series anything can happen.  Detroit was plagued by some poor defense, some baserunning miscues (poor Prince Fielder, getting caught off third base in a rundown), and just wasn’t able to handle the pressure of returning to the World Series.

My best guess as to what will happen — knowing full well guesses don’t mean much until at least one or two games have been played — is that St. Louis will win easily over Boston.  (I like Boston better.  But they don’t seem to stand much of a chance.)  St. Louis’s pitchers are far better, they have excellent hitters and their defense was among the best in the National League all year long.  I just don’t think Boston has enough to compete with the Cardinals.

The main questions remaining are: Does Boston have some fight left?  Or did they use it all up getting Detroit out of the way in the ALCS?

If they don’t, this particular World Series is likely to be a yawner for all but hard-core Cardinals fans.